Skate park tour set to kick flip its way around Northland

Sam Johns will open the skate park tour at Riverside Skate Park and cover Riverside Park, Ngunguru, Waipu, Onerahi, Mangawhai, Dargaville, etc in the coming weeks. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Keen skateboarders will have the chance to hone their craft, win prizes, and even potentially star in a documentary as a skate park tour kick flips its way around Northland.

The Cheapskates-sponsored tour will wind its way around the region from February 19, beginning at Riverside Skate Park in Whangārei.

At the helm is lifelong skateboarder Sam Johns, who will train other people keen on the sport at each stop which includes Ngunguru, Waipū, Onerahi, Mangawhai, and Dargaville.

More locations are on the cards and will be made public ahead of time via the Cheapskates social media pages.

Johns, who successfully ran the Ruakākā Skate competition last year, said his plans to ramp up the number of skateboarding events had been hampered by Covid-19.

Among the scrapped plans were ideas for an event linked to the opening of the new Riverside and Waipū park.

Sam Johns will lead the Cheapskates skatepark tour in Northland. Photo / Michael Cunningham

"We cannot have too many people gathered for an event, so we decided to do a tour instead and give away prizes to anyone that's there on the day."

Organisers also planned to document the entire skate park tour giving participants a chance to be on screen.

Johns said he had been a skateboarder all his life and was now wanting to run more events to promote the sport.

"Back in the day, there were many mean competitions and you could even win a car or $1k. But there aren't many competitions now, even though there is such high demand.

"We are pretty much waiting to go back to orange to do all sorts of competitions, but until then we will only be doing skate park tours," he said.

He believed skateboarding provided young people with a list of positive factors.

"It keeps them out of trouble and it's a good sport, for both body and mind ... except when you fall off."

Johns' commitment to sharing everything the sport has to offer sees him training skateboard enthusiasts of all ages in Whangārei.

"When I was a kid, there wasn't a big scene for skateboarding. Now, ever since the Olympics, everyone wants to skate but they don't really have a coach or mentor," he said.

" ... [I] would like to meet some kids, focus on one-on-one learning with them and so one day they can represent New Zealand in the world Olympics or something."