The Freedom Skatepark
The Freedom Skatepark was constructed in Bull Bay, Jamaica - 8Miles from Kingston in 2020. The skatepark is located within a surfing community and a stone’s throw from the island’s first purpose built skateboarding terrain; The Gully DIY. The project was instigated by UK-based charity Flipping Youth who situated the project around tackling violent crime amongst young people in Jamaica. Over four years the project developed between the Jamaican skateboarding and surfing community and Concrete Jungle Foundation. Construction began in March 2020 and took place as the Covid-19 Pandemic unfolded.
During the construction in Jamaica, CJF ran the Planting Seeds Apprenticeship Programme. The programme paired members of the skateboarding community to professional skatepark builders sharing construction skills that participants can develop further as skateboarding grows on the island. A youth centre was also built onsite and a number of youth development programming continues to take place under The Freedom Skatepark Foundation. This includes Edu-Skate classes that supports positive youth development through beginner skateboarding classes, extracurricular remedial education, and workshops in woodwork, music and computer programming.
Film by Julian Sonntag
Photos by Jago Stock and Ayden Stoefen
Skateboarding and Jamaica seem the perfect match; the ways in which The Freedom Skatepark will develop over the next years will reflect this. I am interested in the skateboarding on the island from early practitioners in the 1960s to recent developments in which The Freedom Skatepark has become entangled, and how the growth of skateboarding intersects with other cultural identities of Jamaica. The Freedom Skatepark was larger-scale compared to other projects CJF have taken on. There were multiple stakeholders working together from large corporate sponsors to a grassroots Jamaican skateboarding community. The ways in which this had to be (and continues to be) negotiated is very interesting, so too how this is reflected in the concrete forms of The Freedom Skatepark.