Students and instructors at the Dunedin Indoor Skatepark, with founder Danny Healy second from right. Photo: Facebook / Dunedin Indoor Skatepark
A Dunedin local who has been giving free skateboarding lessons to the city's new migrants is hoping to encourage even more people into the sport by opening up to the wider community.
Danny Healy and his nephew Lewis Cameron are giving the lessons in Dunedin warehouse building The Hub.
Healy told Checkpoint the initial goal was just to get an indoor skatepark up and running in the city
"There's been a number of skateparks set up and gone out of business in Dunedin before. They were all for profit models, and based on the work we had done, there is enough broad community interest in this, we could run this as a not for profit."
Healy said offering lessons showed how serious they were about the idea.
"We started teaching new migrants - a friend of ours who is part of our group now had a contact in the Red Cross and said it would be great to see if any of them were interested in learning how to skate. And sure enough, a couple came along for a lesson, and then next week more came along, and it started growing that way."
After securing a venue, indoor lessons were started, and then expanded to include anyone in the broader Dunedin community who was interested.
Healy got the initial idea for the skatepark and the lessons after his nephew - an avid skater - complained that it was always raining and he really wanted to set up an indoor skatepark
"He was just about to finish high school and I thought what a great little mission to go on before moving into the real world and I basically said I was happy to help out where I can."
Free skateboarding lessons have been offered to migrants in Dunedin since last year. Photo: Supplied / Danny Healy
He said they had given lessons to dozens of people, with the Saturday morning lessons selling out for every session so far.
Healy said anybody who was interested did not need any skills before they started.
"You can never have ridden a skateboard before, we go through the basics, how you get on aboard and wobble around."
Lessons could be booked on the Dunedin skatepark Facebook page, said Healy
"At the moment it's just Saturday, but we're basically using March as a trial month and the trial has been very successful so it looks like it will be ongoing, but we just need to get some particulars sorted out."
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