JAMIE de Villiers is constantly on the grind (both figuratively and literally) when it comes to skateboarding. The 18-year-old recently won the open division at the Skate Vision’s King of the Park Contest at the Durban Skate Park.

It was a massive moment for the talented skater as this was his first competition since the hard lockdown last year prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

De Villiers who won the U17 national champ at the Kimberley Diamond Cup last year said it was great competing again.

“I’m really grateful to Bradley Bourne who hosted the event and it was great to be able to get out there and skate again. It was my first competition since the hard lockdown and I also haven’t skated much because of the restrictions so it’s great to be able to walk away with the King of the Park title. My goal was to at least place so to win was an added bonus,” he said.

Speaking on skateboarding in Durban, de Villiers said he would like to see more skate parks in and around the city to grow the sport.

“When you compare the solitary skate park on the beachfront to Johannesburg and Cape Town, you can’t help but be a little disappointed. Those two cities have at least four or five parks that skaters can enjoy. I feel it is hard to progress as a skater if all you have is the one skate park. If the municipality invested in building additional skate parks around Durban you would open up the sport to all types of communities, both boys and girls. It certainly boosts my confidence learning new tricks on challenging courses. Now that skating is an Olympic sport I think it would benefit the city and its skaters so that there would be a bigger talent pool,” he said.

He added he would like to see more schools embrace skating as a school sport.

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