Twenty Somethings
Kiama skate park (KSP) has recently turned twenty. And the ole girl Is still looking alright. Shes had some little face lifts, some of the wrinkles got a little bit of botox. The skin maybe a little bit rougher but it's held up well protected in the old quarry. The coping is still almost non existent but there's definitely still a heap of lines to be found.
While there is always hopeful murmuring of an upgrade the park can still hold a heavy session. Over the generations there has always been a steady dedicated crew consistently getting the place heated.
The current crew of twenty something's are possibly up there more often than any other generation before them. With the Makita ghetto blaster cranking a wide variety of tunes well beyond the crews age. The sessions get cranked and in true KSP tradition, the games of skate are all time.
Interviews by Kane Horspool
Haven Aldering
How old are you?
I’m turning 29 this year.
When did you first go to KSP?
I don’t remember exactly but it would have been just after it got built.
Who were you skating with in those early days?
Grew up skating with Jae Overton and his twin brother. I think they inspired a lot of kids in our year
to keep skating.
Ovo inspired generation. Were you intimidated at all when you first went?
I wouldn’t say intimidated but I remember seeing an older dude knock a kid off his board and broke
his arm and didn’t even really stop to check if he was alright. One of the mothers there flipped her
lid.
That’s gnarly. Were there any older dudes you looked up to?
The crew, such as Cam Mullan, Pete Dalmer, trying to think who else haha. Early days it was Fozza
(Forrest Eddington), Ollie (Mackay), Benny (Mackay), Nat Dog (Nat Creighton), Anthony Sweeney,
(David) Barrie. Too many to name haha.
Who in your mind were the best to skate the park?
I’d say (Ray) Macken, Ovo, Cam and Pete were probably most skilled.
Do you have any funny stories of random hi jinx at the park?
Nothing comes to mind apart from smoking billies in the bushes, haha.
Jack Brady
How old are you? And how old were you when you first went to KSP?
I’m 27,
Man, good question… I think I would have been about 12? 15 years ago, that’s crazy. Definitely
feeling old haha.
Haha Who were you skating with in those early days?
I first went to KSP with Mitch Lee and soon after I had started skating with Jae Overton, David Barrie,
Gene Gagnon, Ray Macken, Steve Sweeney and a bunch of other people. The skating scene was
pretty big in Kiama back in those days.
Who were some of the older crew you remember from back then?
The OG crew that I remember consisted of Pete Dalmer, Forrest Eddington, Cam Mullen, Jarren Kerr,
Widge (Jarrad O’hara) and of course yourself.
Do you think the layout of the park helped develop some of those guys into the rippers they are
now?
Definitely… the layout at Kiama is pretty good, like everything is spread out nicely, you’ve got
transition, banks, ledges and a good amount of flat ground to work on flip tricks and stuff like that.
Best part of the park would be the ledge though, its built really well and it’s a good size for learning
new tricks. Some of the best tech skaters around came up skating the ledge at Kiama.
Do you have any good stories of Hi Jinx up at the park?
Yeah, there’s one that comes to mind. So, years ago I was maybe 16 there used to be bins at the
park. Ray, Sweeney and I thought it would be fun to start a fire in the bin and throw deodorant cans
inside and watch it explode. A couple minutes go by and nothing is happening and we are all
wondering why it hasn’t blown up yet. We start debating who should go over and look in the bin to
see what the problem is but obviously no one is keen. This guy named Trent who used to be at the
park every day, didn’t skate but loved a billy behind the grand stand, comes over and says he will
have a look. He walks over and literally as soon as he peeks inside the bin explodes and singes of his
moustache, both eye brows, eye lashes and parts of his hair. It could have been heaps worse but I
guess he kind of got lucky.
Holy shit, that’s amazing. So, it was you rat bags that destroyed the bin. Council never replaced it. I’ve been blaming the bikers all these years.
