PRESS RELEASE: Is skateboarding becoming out of reach

6th January 2023
For Immediate Release:
The Forgotten sport and the dynamic change in skateboarding.

The Fashion and Culture king of sport still remains underground, this is despite Australia winning a Gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics, having some of the best talent in the world, and skateboarding being constantly used as a ‘trending’ culture across major brands in Australia to promote their products.

Skateboarding has over 1 million active participants in Australia, It is an Olympic Sport, has a national Pro and Amateur tour, and despite all this is massively underfunded.

Today officially launched a low income skateboarder donation fund, which can be seen here
https://asf.org.au/projects/australian-skateboarding-community-initiative/low-income-elite-skateboarder-support-program

The fund was set up due to the fact that skateboarders in the pacific trying to get on the tours and to Olympic Qualifying events have no way of doing so, some of them could lose jobs or centrelink payments if they are off to represent their country.

Its a sad state of affairs, with Prize money in Australia needing a desperate increase to cater for the expensive costs of travel, and rising costs of living for skateboarders.

The Netball sponsorship fiasco pointed out once again to the skateboarding community members how 1/20th of the funding they turned down would dramatically change the opportunities for skateboarders in Australia.

The Community has long pointed out its frustrations, with one example a few years back of KFC sponsoring the cricket, and using skateboarders in their ads. If skateboarders are good at selling products why do they fund the cricket.

It’s a common theme when brands want to appeal to a young demographic, we are what they think of to promote to the audience, but not on the list for support.

Skate Australia, The Australian Skateboarding Federation, The Rumble Pro Tour and other event promoters are working on improving the situation, but it seems the economy and press need to keep up with skateboarding.

Between 2020 and 2022, skateboarding participation through coaching programs and competing has doubled in numbers and reached an all time high. Essentially the reverse of a Thanos snap swarming the sport with new participants.

To a point where in some cases people looking to skateboard or compete are being turned away as competitions have reached capacity without additional funding.

The situation with pro tours and the Olympics can be daunting, Australia’s previous talent has come from places like Werribee, Gladstone, Rockhampton, Kiama, Ulladulla.

Skateboarders looking to progress their careers need to be able to travel to the events, and with the current situation having them rely on donations, our national skateboard team may not be the best ones who make it, but those who can afford to. In the spirit of sport in Australia, for decades we’ve watched state of origin and seen the beauty of people from the most regional towns prove that talent can come from anywhere, and we want to see that tradition continue in skateboarding.

Potential hooks
1. Indigenous skateboarders needing support
2. Does the olympics change the trajectory for people in sport
3. is sport becoming unavailable to those less fortunate
4. the forgotten sport, why skateboarders are short changed
5. What happens when a sport grows too quickly.
Please reach out below for further content, information or interviews with myself, other stakeholders or athletes.