The demand for a skateboard park in Kochi grows louder

A community of skate boarders numbering 200 and growing, pitch for a public space

Every day at 7:30 in the morning, 49-year-old German Tibor Kiss makes his way to an abandoned hall in Mattancherry. He is joined there, by a group of young boys and together they skateboard. The cemented flooring, “formerly a badminton court,” in the outdoors of the house is suitable for the sport. For the next two hours, the group indulges in skateboard tricks like shove-it, ollie and kickflip to name a few.

Like them, there are groups of young boys and a few girls who have taken to this fairly new sport in the city. “We are now a 200 plus strong community,” says Tibor who is leading the pitch the city keepers to build a skateboard park.

An architect, Tibor has experience in designing trains, trams and Metro rail equipment. Skateboarding is his childhood passion. When he decided to relocate to Fort Kochi from Berlin, “after touring 70 plus countries in three decades of professional life,“ he resumed his hobby. “I was surprised to find a young boy skateboarding on the road in Fort Kochi,” says Tibor who connected with him to find that they are a group of six doing that. He soon realized that the city has a growing but fragmented skateboarding community and desperately needs a dedicated public space.

“I am a foreigner and new to the country but I will try and get the city a skateboard park,” says Tibor, reminding that the Kovalam Skate Club was founded 25 years ago by a Belgian Paul Van Gelder.

In 2020, skateboarding was one of four sports added to the Olympic program for its “jolt of youthful rebellion”.; it is also provisionally approved for the 2024 Summer Olympic games.

Tibor recalls that in the 80s, when he was a young boy into skateboarding, Germany had no infrastructure to support the sport. “I find it so here now and wish to create awareness about the need for a space for the sport,” he says.

Tibor also speaks about how the game is popular with teenagers and youngsters in an age group that often gets lured into anti-social habits and addictions. Skateboarding offers them meaningful recreation and an outlet for their youthful energy, he says.