Alix's blog

In early December, Javier Mendizabal and the Quiksilver by Vuerich B Project team travelled to Phnom Penh to meet the Skateistan team and their students. This marked the beginning of an exciting new collaboration to release a range of sunglasses made out of recycled skateboard decks to help support Skateistan. Each handcrafted pair of sunglasses is outfitted with top of the line Carl Zeiss lenses, and some of the skate decks were previously used at Skateistan Cambodia.

Srey Pich doesn't mess around.

Last weekend Skateistan Cambodia packed up 11 girls and 7 boys, all our staff, plus a whole car full of speakers, luggage, DJ equipment, and enough boards and gear for everyone and made the trek down to the coastal town of Kep to skate a now-infamous bowl in the middle of the Cambodian Jungle.

This was the second of what we hope to be annual Skateistan competitions at Jasmine Valley Eco Resort, and we were blown away by the amount that everyone has progressed since this time last year.

Tin shows some new students how to push for the first time.

In our most recent newsletter, we featured an interview with Skateistan Cambodia staff member Kov Chansangva (Tin). Tin has been working with Skateistan Cambodia for ten months, and has quickly become an invaluable member of the Skateistan team. Her passion for skateboarding, dance, music, and teaching combined with her can-do attitude and energy make her a fantastic female role model for all the students at Skateistan Cambodia. To our knowledge, Tin was the first Cambodian woman ever to land a kickflip.

While there are numerous barriers to female participation in sport around the world, Tin represents a growing population of female athletes in Cambodia.

Students have been working hard on a new project at Skateistan Cambodia: Ideal Phnom Penh.

Thanks to an exceptional donor, Skateistan Cambodia received a whole bunch of new media equipment, including a number of digital point and shoot cameras for student use, a new digital SLR camera and a media computer. We immediately put the equipment to good use.

Professional photographers Samual James and Rick Valenzuela volunteered to spend the afternoon doing a photography workshop with all staff, teaching them the basics of light and composition. Everyone had a blast exploring the neighbourhood and learning how to maximize the quality of their photos.

"The people that think of skateboarding as a sport only for boys are wrong. I think the word sport means that girls and boys can play together." -Tin, 20, Skateistan Cambodia Teacher and Youth Leader

Skateistan Cambodia celebrated International Women’s Day this March with 70 youth. Around 55 girls and 15 boys attended the event, which focused on female participation in sports, and provided an opportunity for the small but growing number of girls who skate in Phnom Penh to meet one another to make art, relax, play games and show off their talent at skateboarding.