Durban skate club takes athletes to new heights

THERE were a number of positives and much to celebrate for the newly formed Skate Vision Durban Skate Club (SVD Skate Club) which took part in the South African Skateboarding Championships last month.

The event, hosted by Roller Sport South Africa, at Flow Indoor Skate Park in Johannesburg, saw a team of seven skaters from the Durban club compete.

Two skaters, David Palmer and Aphiwe Asiphe, brought home a sliver and a bronze respectively, while the rest of the team performed admirably.

On the local front, Durban North skater Lizwi Mbanjwa placed sixth in the open division.

The team is also coached and managed by two Durban North residents, DeLeah (team manager and chairperson of the club) and Bradley Bourne (coach).

“I’ve been involved in skateboarding for 20 years, and the transition from competitor to coach has been a natural one. I feel it’s the next step in my career, and because I’m a very motivated and passionate person, I hope to bring that energy to the club. We train twice a week in one-hour-long sessions, and the focus is improving our consistency, getting mentally stronger and understanding our growth,” explained Bradley.

“With this being our first SA champs as a club, I was certainly going there with the mindset that we were going to do our best and use the competition as a learning experience. The team’s performances absolutely blew me away. To bring home two medals, and for some of the other skaters to finish in the top 10 of their divisions, was just incredible. This SA champs actually served as the 2023 version as the event had to be postponed last year. We now have the 2024 SA championships in December, and I feel the team will be more motivated to make this city proud.”

Team manager DeLeah also echoed his words.

“We only formalised the club in September last year as Roller Sports South Africa, the national sports governing body for all roller sports, spoke to us about creating a unified structure. With that in mind, I think the team were fantastic. Our aim is to continue to give back and empower them for competitions going forward. There were different skateboarding styles on offer at the champs, but our team focused on street. The other two styles are vert and park, and we hope to have the team competing in the park style at the champs in December,” she said.

As a street skater, Lizwi Mbanjwa hopes to continue learning and improving.

“I placed sixth at the champs, and it was difficult, but I still felt it was beneficial. I think SA champs or local competitions expose you to other skating styles, and you tend to push yourself to be at their level or better. I also feel our coach, Bradley, deserves the praise for how well the team performed because he lives and breathes skateboarding. He genuinely wants for us to improve and puts all of his energy into us being better skaters. He really is a driving force behind our success, and I hope the club continues to grow from strength to strength,” he said.

If you’re interested in joining Skate Vision, head over to the club’s Instagram page under the handle @svdurbanskateclub or contact them at skatevisionskateclub@gmail.com for more information.

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