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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-06-15 Daily Xml
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Davenport Electorate

Ms THOMPSON (Davenport) (15:44): Since skateboarding made its debut in the summer Olympics in Japan last year, there has been a ton of kids in my neighbourhood, particularly young girls, dreaming of taking out gold for skateboarding at the 2032 Olympic Games in Queensland, and the skate parks are busier than ever.

Skating is a serious sport and we should be embracing it in our communities. If you play tennis, netball or basketball then you will most likely be part of a club and you will most likely play on courts owned and maintained by council. Clubs are often required to keep their courts and playing surfaces to a particular standard to be able to be used for competition, so when cracks appear on the court or the courts need maintenance the clubs will work with council to see those surfaces resurfaced.

It is not as straightforward for skateboarding. In fact, there are very few people capable of repairing skate parks in this country, let alone in South Australia. This means that they are often given little maintenance and repair, and this is left up to the community to take care of. The skate community in the south is a very special community. Regularly at the skate park you will see locals bringing their own brooms to sweep up before skating. There have even been times when local skaters have been caught on CCTV cameras doing guerrilla repair work overnight with their own tools and paints.

Now that skating has been recognised as an official Olympic sport, and one that attracts local, state and national competitions, I think it is time we start supporting them as such. I would like to share a special letter that I received from a local skater, Sydney—a beautiful handwritten letter:

To erin Thompson,

Hello my name is Syd. Im 11 years old and a local to flagstaf hill skate park, were I spend most of my spear time. I know and appreciate that you you have tryed to fix the surface of the skate park. But the Paint of the skate park has caused some problems as Being a Bit slipery and when the suns shining the Paint reflects the light into Peoples eyes witch can be Pretty annoying. and its quiet Fustraiting For When people like my self are trying somthing hard and then you slip out so you cant land your tricks. So Please if you can, is to sand Down the Paint so that Many Many People will Be happy and the Loved skate Park Flaggy can Be Back to normal. and mabey even some competions will Be Happening. If you can sort this issue the communety Will Be stoked.

thanks for your time

Sydney…

He has even popped a little picture of a skateboard on his letter. I am really proud of Sydney for his advocating in our community. I have written to council and we will be working with them to see what we can do to deliver on Syd's request. I know that we have some future Olympic medallists in our local skate communities, so let's start giving them the support that they need to get to Queensland in 2032.

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