The First 6 Months!

Submitted by steve on Mon, 05/07/2012 - 13:11

It's actually been a little over 6 months since Skateistan moved into Cambodia and introduced skateboarding to the country for the first time. So much has happened in that time it's hard to sum it all up, but we recently put together a short clip edit of some of the more memorable activities we've been involved in over the first 6 months or so.

The PSE Charity Event Benefits Vocational Training for Cambodian Youth

Submitted by steve on Wed, 04/11/2012 - 06:19

Our partnering NGO, PSE (Pour un Sourire d'Enfant), held it’s annual charity event on their campus to benefit their vocational training programs on April 6th and 7th and the Skateistan crew was excited to take part in the festivities.

The grounds were filled with families, friends, students, and visitors from all walks of Phnom Penh life, sharing in the charitable celebration and ushering in the Khmer New Year together. The event was packed with delicious food booths, vendors, crafts, comedy, games, live dance, music, mural making and skateboarding!. 

Cambodia's First Ever Skateboard Comp!

Submitted by steve on Mon, 03/12/2012 - 09:20

Some serious fun and shredding went down on Saturday at our first ever skateboard competition!  

Our students competed and showed off their skills in a variety of events. In teams and as individuals, skaters of all abilities raced and maneuvered their way through the skatepark with authority.

The girls portion had a heated limbo competition while our intermediate shredders made their way through a difficult obstacle course and our advanced team showed off their skills hitting the launch ramp and threw down some impressive moves on the mini-ramp jam session and best trick contest.  

Carnival Khmer Style!

Submitted by steve on Tue, 02/28/2012 - 16:37

Skateistan was thrilled to hit the road this past weekend to take part in Khmarnival 2012 in Sihanoukville!  

Eleven of our students from PSE (Pour un Souire d’Enfant) and 5 staff members crammed their bags, skateboards, safety gear, costumes, props, and smiles into the van for what promised to be a most memorable weekend.  

The whole crew dressed up and participated in the march, skating in the streets promoting “Safety First” – the theme of the Carnival.  

PSE Skateboard Park Reopens at Long Last!

Submitted by steve on Tue, 02/21/2012 - 09:36

After two long awaited months the skateboard park at PSE reopened on February 17th sporting a new roof and smooth concrete floor!  

The Skateistan crew, PSE students and fellow friends came out to help move the ramps back in place!  A lot of smiles and shredding went down.  BBC was also on hand to film a segment featuring two of our PSE rippers, brothers Sophanit and Sophany.  

Check back soon to see a link to the footage and interviews!

Skate and Create!

Submitted by steve on Wed, 02/01/2012 - 08:46

In addition to offering skateboard instruction, Skateistan Cambodia aims to establish weekly art instruction as a creative supplement and tool for self-expression, empowerment and community involvement. 

Skateistan’s art classes provide students with an atmosphere of creative exploration, artistic education, and most importantly – fun!  Recently we held a morning art class for our neighborhood skateboarding students.  This time around the art curriculum focused on learning about the different components of a skateboard, from the different mechanical parts to the idea of a skateboard graphic.  The children then designed and drew their very own graphic complete with their name.  The students chose their own color schemes for their boards and wheels, cut and pasted their boards together, all while learning both the Khmer and English vocabulary words along the way.  Their recent skateboard creations, along with future art projects, will visually liven up our Skateistan Cambodia headquarters and will truly make Skateistan Cambodia a community space in which to Skate and Create!

NEW ARRIVALS FOR A NEW YEAR

Submitted by steve on Mon, 01/23/2012 - 08:39

2011 was a huge year for Skateistan Cambodia and 2012 shows no signs of slowing down. 

Over Christmas we lost our short term volunteer James, who spent an intense two months with us in Phnom Penh and now continues his journey in Afghanistan where he joins the Skateistan team in Kabul to complete his assignment. We wish him the best of luck and will miss him lots.

With James' departure, we also welcomed three newcomers to the lineup at Skate HQ Phnom Penh. Chantou Kong, a Cambodian national who recently graduated in Social Work at Royal University of Phnom Penh. Rory Burke, a Californian resident with experience in development projects in diverse sporting fields and Rachel Murawski, also from California, an artist and skateboarder who has taught art in various schools as well as non-profit settings.

All three volunteers bring a different set of tools to the Skateistan kit, and we look forward to seeing how each one of them influences our fast growing organisation in different ways.

Skateistan Cambodia wanted to learn a little more about them, so once they'd settled in a little, we asked a couple of in-depth questions to get right to the point of why they are here and what they expect to gain from the experience...

Skateistan Cambodia t-shirts!

Submitted by james on Fri, 12/30/2011 - 12:36

Skateistan in Khmer LanguageSkateistan Cambodia recently had our own t-shirts printed!

If you saw our team at our stall at the MTV EXIT Live in Phnom Penh event, you would no doubt have noticed all of us wearing them with pride.

The tees feature the name "Skateistan" translated into Khmer-language as well as the Skateistan Cambodia logo and are available in white on black, or black on white.

Skateistan at MTV EXIT Live in Phnom Penh

Submitted by james on Tue, 12/27/2011 - 13:27

Skate jam is on!

Skateistan Cambodia were fortunate enough to recently be a part of MTV EXIT Live in Phnom Penh - a live music event which drew 40,000 young people to Olympic Stadium on 17 December 2011. MTV EXIT put on a massive free live music event for the young people of Phnom Penh, as part of its aim to increase awareness and prevention of human trafficking.

Crowds of Cambodian young people filled the grounds of Olympic Stadium several hours before the official event begun on 17 December 2011, being entertained by various stalls and activities set up at the entry of the event. Amongst these stalls was a stall being run by the enthusiastic Skateistan Cambodia team, who happily chatted to people about the sport of skateboarding, as well as our activities of teaching skateboarding here in Cambodia.
 
Skateistan Cambodia were fortunate enough to not only run a stall at the event, but were also given space to set up a small skatepark alongside the stall, which proved to be a magnet for the eyes and feet of people entering the concert venue.

New shipment of skate gear!

Submitted by james on Sun, 11/20/2011 - 12:19

New TSG safety gear being put on for the first time!Skateistan Cambodia had news this week that our shipment of skateboarding equipment was arriving, which caused lots of excitement in the Skateistan Cambodia office!

After a few phone calls with the logistics company, a van containing lots of skateboarding equipment eventually arrived at the Skateistan guesthouse.

The contents of the shipment: Skateistan-branded TSG helmets, new sets of TSG safety gear (wrist guards, elbow pads, knee pads), and plenty of trucks, wheels, and bearings for the growing number of Cambodian skate students.

Until recently, local skate students have been using old second-hand safety gear in their skate classes, so it's super-exciting to be able to replace this old - and increasingly stinky - gear, with fresh new gear from TSG!