First skateboarding park for youth in Tonga [1]
Monday, September 5, 2016 - 22:13. Updated on Tuesday, January 30, 2018 - 15:35.
Photos by Linny Folau
Tonga’s first mini skateboarding park, purpose built for Tongan youth at Puke on Tongatapu, is proving very popular with the local neighbourhood kids who skateboard daily.
Built by a non-profit organization, One Love Inc., the founders Americans, Chris and Ashley Paquette say the skateboard park’s purpose is two fold. One is to deter kids from committing unlawful activities by offering a positive and healthy activity and the other is to develop skills, which could lead Tongans to compete in future skateboarding competitions overseas.
“Kids get bored easily in Tonga as there is not much to do. With the skate park they love skateboarding. Nothing seems to discourage them from giving it a go.” said Chris.
Chris added that he tells the locals they can skateboard only if they go to school and come home to help their parents with their chores - then they are allowed to skateboard in the afternoons, under supervision.
“I would love to run a local skateboard competition but progress is slow. We would need a bigger skating park for more kids to skate plus more boards. At the moment, we only have 12 skateboards so the skating ramp is not opened to the public apart from the local neighbourhood kids and the ACT community school at Atenisi. We organise transport for the ACT school kids to the ramp.”
“Once I build a bigger skate park, more kids will be able to use it. These Tongan kids have the ability to go far. We are continually fundraising and right now we need safety gear such as helmets and wristguards,” he said.
The mini skating park was funded by donations from local Tongan businesses as well as an online fundraiser and constructed by Chris who is a builder by trade with experience building skate parks in America.
“It cost $9,000 in material to build the park. For maintenance, I work odd jobs here and there and pay for the material required and I do the maintenance myself,” said Chris.
“I chose to build a skate park because I have been skating my whole life and I am very passionate about it,” he said.
Building a bigger skate park means a larger area of land is required, something Chris says he is working on and hopefully he will be able to lease land from the Tongan Government soon.
With the International Olympic Committee including skateboarding in the 2020 Summer Games in Japan, Tonga could have a skateboard competitor at the games.
However, Chris says it all depends on how much progress is made with building a bigger skating park.
“If the kids [skills] improve we will definitely look at maybe taking part but it depends on where we’re at with progress,” he said.
"We did have a training and recreation centre to lease organised but the government needed it for the upcoming Pacific Games in 2019 so we had to look elsewhere for land," he said.
“I’m also thinking of building a BMX track once we get bigger land as well as a Parkour [obstacle] course. I would also like to teach locals and deportees my trade – construction/building amongst other things.”
One Love Inc. has set up a fundraising page to help towards securing bigger land for the venture.