Eyethu Skate Park

The Eyethu Hout Bay Skate Park is a 925sqm community-driven and community-designed skate park, situated in Hout Bay, Cape Town. The park is located at the meeting point between three divided neighbourhoods, whose youth all enjoy skateboarding and come together for the enjoyment of a safe recreational space.

The park offers a unique opportunity for social integration amongst its diverse user groups, offering after-school training programmes and an emphasis on socialising and spectatorship. The location of the skate park became important for the space to function well and safely. This became a negotiation with City officials, to provide land located near an already functioning ‘community hub’. The design was done through a process of community participation workshops with leading skaters from the various neighbourhoods. This ensured the design has no lines of collision amongst users, areas for varying levels of skating progression, accommodating different styles of skateboarding. The design emphasized interactive spectatorship whereby the architect proposed wide, raised and flat platforms adjacent to the ramps, providing the young kids from the different communities to watch and learn from the more experienced skaters, and create relationships and opportunity for mentoring. Additionally, space is provided for family and friends to gather, learn, observe and enjoy the activity.

The Project has been incredibly well received by the users, the City officials, and the skateboarding fraternity. The Park has provided a place of belonging and mentorship to a large group of at-risk youth that use the park daily. What makes us proud is the fact that ordinary Capetonians can get behind an idea, raise the funds and deliver a 1.5 million Rand public skate park for a good cause. So many beautiful ideas and projects fall through the cracks, but this group of individuals persevered for four years, without any financial renumeration, to achieve something that would make a difference and contribute to a better future for Cape Town’s youth.

For more info:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aH6VyAq41Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi7T-DVlDiw

https://www.facebook.com/eyethuskatepark/

https://eyethuskatepark.org.za/

Thank you to Lawden Holmes for submitting this Good Hood Story.