Wheels are turning: skateboarding in India

Skateboarding in India is still in its nascent stage, but more and more people are getting hooked to the sport by the day.

Kamali Moorthy became known to the world when a photograph of her barefoot, clad in a white frock her hair going awry skating with the expression of a seasoned skateboarder, everything about which spelled rebellion. The photo was shot by skater and surfboarder Jamie Thomas and later shared by skating icon and superstar Tony Hawk who captioned the picture “new favorite skate shot” on Instagram and soon the little skateboarder from Mahabalipuram went viral. In almost no time the six-year-old emerged out as a symbol of empowerment for Indian women. Since she was 5 years old she started both surfing and skateboarding. Kamali’s Uncle Santhosh is a surfer and surfboard shaper, so it was inevitable that Kamali would find her way into the waves. Born into a traditional fishing community in a village called Mahabalipuram in Southern India,which is also a Unesco Heritage site, and over the last 10 years has grown into a surf and skate destination. As surfers and skateboarding are sports that overlap, through a series of serendipitous events, she met Jamie Thomas and through Girl Skate India is now part of the VANS campaign to promote girls skateboarding for 2018. There will be a film documentary out later this year, with a fundraiser to support Kamali to achieve the best she can through education and sport. The skate and surf community in India are her family of friends, even though many are much older than her. Self-driven, she is eager to learn and is super lucky to have a wave and a ramp outside her house. Yet she follows the traditional life of her family also, they’ve been a fantastic support to her, in keeping an open-minded approach allowing her to participate in skateboard workshops in Bangalore over the last six months.

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She loves the ocean and is happiest when playing in the sea or skateboarding. Another surfer and close friend Velu gave her first skateboard, they learnt the basics outside their home on a slope.

Next came the skatepark, which was built by Holystoked. This was life changing, as now Kamali could explore the concrete waves outside her home, mostly self-taught or learning from watching the older kids to pick up new tricks. With skateboarding she is independent, so she can skate everyday and during school holidays there is no stopping her. In the last 6 months she has been lucky enough to go to Bangalore for skate workshops for girls, this helps broaden her perspective on different parks and just to be around other skateboarders with more experience to learn from.

A similar prodigy but two decades older to Kamali is 31-year-old Atita Varghese, India’s first female pro skateboarder.

Based out of Bangalore Atita, and her team of 12 female skateboarders took the city’s skating scene by storm when she founded Girls Skate India Tour, the first of its kind, which is an all-female, self-funded crew of skateboarders, film-makers, camerapersons and a skate-yoga guide. The all-girls crew has conducted workshops and free demos for girls, as well as built a skating ramp from scratch at the Cave Skate Park, Bengaluru.

“When I just started skating there were two other girls but they stopped shortly after. I decided on starting GSI and it was a lot to do with the fact that there weren’t many other girls actively in the scene and I wanted a crew to skate and hang with. Don’t get me wrong, I had one and they were awesome skate buddies but it’s a whole different thing when you have a bunch of girls to go skate with. I also felt what an exciting time it was for skateboarding in India and I wanted more women to be a part of this history in the making.”

One person who is responsible for the rise of the skateboard culture in India is UK’s pro skater Nick Smith “My journey with India started back in 1996, I came and my love affair with this amazing country began there and then. I came a few times then decided to take the plunge and invested my savings into building Sk8goa”.

Sk8goa was the first skatepark in India that came up in 2003. The park very quickly became legendary and was visited by skate pilgrims from all over the world.

“During that time I started to develop a vision, the first part of which was to create a winter retreat/community for European skaters to come to hang and create together. It’s really cool to see that this is now very much a reality with so many skaters heading over for skate trips tours or longer stays to get involved and be part of the developing scene here in India. The second aspect of what I wanted to see manifest was to have skateboarding be a platform for an autonomous skate community in India. I know a lot of young Indian creatives in Bombay / Delhi / Bangalore, and aside from their obvious talent what also enables them to follow their dreams is to come from ‘good families’ so they don’t have to work for survival reasons. It was my vision to provide the same opportunity, through skateboarding for young Indians of all economic backgrounds to be able to work in a field they have love and passion for.

Often associated with rebellion skateboarding has developed as a youth subculture that encourages individualism.

Sagar Waghela another self-taught skater maverick from Mumbai is someone not to shy away from risks and injuries and although all of 24 he has been skating since his early teens.

Having tried his hands at cricket and on a BMX bike this Dharavi resident found his calling in skating.” I got my hands on a cheap skateboard from a friend, and started practicing on the street. My first skateboard was a Rs. 700 Kamachi. I was directed to the DC/ Quiksilver Store in Kurla by my friend Annul Pale, where we heard there was a miniramp. This was probably the first miniramp in Mumbai. I met Nikhil Bhosle there, who was working at the store at the time. He liked what he saw and offered me a good quality used board (Element x Chad Muska). 6 months later I was on my first skate trip out of town (to Bangalore to meet the guys at Holystoked) and I never looked back.” Sagar is a part of the Meteoric crew from Mumbai and has been a well-known name in the skateboard circuit in India.

Having won

Bangalore may be referred to as the skating Mecca in India. The city has been creating some serious buzz around skateboarding. The first skating completion to ever

India is home to cricket-crazy masses. But beyond the world of the willow, beyond the glamour of the Indian Premier League and the world cups, there is a rising underground culture that’s expanding daily; it does not confine itself to boys.

India is home to 1.34 billion people where the absolute majority hoots for Cricket. Yet, under all the noise there are some who prefer the sound of grinding on a skateboard. Till a few years back, Skateboarding in India was non-existent among the Cricket crazy masses but that scenario is now changing. Often associated with rebellion Skateboarding has developed as a youth subculture that encourages individualism. It’s an alternative to mainstream sports that doesn’t require formal training and much of the excitement depends on the rider’s creativity.

With the 2020 Olympics just two years away...

From the October 2018 issue of FHM India.