Skate 'skool' gets students on a roll

By Samantha Gee for the Christchurch Mail

An avid skater, Scotty Buckner has been teaching kids to skate since he was a kid himself.

He was 12 when he started working part-time at Cheapskates, and was still working there when he was approached to run the Cheapskates Skate Skool, New Zealand’s first learn-to-skate school.

It had been his dream to set up a school and Buckner said he was “really lucky” to have worked now with 30,000 kids.

“It’s great to be able to give them skills.”

He said a bad first experience on a skateboard could put kids off, and the school gave them a chance to try something new in a safe environment.

Launched in 2010, the mobile school offers after-school taster sessions, private lessons and an in-school skill-based program, and has hosted nine public skate jams so far this year.

Buckner said it was an important fixture in the post-quake environment. 

By operating out of a van, the school could quickly transform any location into a temporary skate park, giving a greater range of kids “a taste of what skateboarding and inline skating is all about”.

The school was set up with help from Sport Canterbury, which with Sport New Zealand, the Christchurch City, Selwyn District and Ashburton District councils, and sponsor Cheapskates, funds the program.

Sport Canterbury young persons advisor Jon Derry said an audit of opportunities for youth in Christchurch had shown big gaps in youth recreation.

Schools provided well for team sport, but there were fewer opportunities for young people outside of that.

“Reality is, anyone can pick up a skateboard and go and skate.”