SkatePal: Who they are, and why they’re so important!

Skatepal are a not for profit organisation that have been supporting people in Palestine through skateboarding since 2013. Over the years, they’ve supplied Skateboarding equipment, such as decks and completes. They’ve also built skateparks and provided a central hub and spaces for the community to host events such as workshops and film screenings. 

Over the last year in particular, we’ve seen absolutely devastating events occurring daily in Palestine, which has been truly horrific to watch unfold. It is now harder than ever for Palestinian people to live normal lives and enjoy things such as skateboarding, meaning the work that organisations such as SkatePal do is more important than ever. Skateboarding is such an amazing outlet for people of all ages, but especially young people, it’s a distraction from the outside world, something to truly keep you in the moment, and SkatePal still managing to provide that for Palestinian people is a truly incredible thing. 

Since 2013, SkatePal have released a number of different products, from clothing such as t-shirts, hoodies and caps, to hard goods like decks and books, and also accessories like socks and scarves. Here at Native we’ve just had a restock of two t-shirts, and the amazing football top. 

In 2017, two North East heads, Ben C and Sam ‘Blinky’ Hutchinson went over to Palestine with SkatePal. We thought it’d be cool to hear a bit from Ben about the trip, 

“We went over for 2 months in Sept / Oct 2017. We were located in the village Asira ash-shamaliya where the first Skatepal skatepark was built. We would do do skate lessons everyday at parking from like 5-7pm, then we were free to travel around Palestine the rest of the time, it was super sick”

“We also got regular Arabic lessons a couple of times a week from a local guy, and in exchange we helped him harvest his olive tree farm”

“It was actually a really rad trip, it’s hard to witness some of the awful shit happening over there now”

Thanks to Ben C for the insight on what must have been an incredible trip. 

The work of organisations like SkatePal is now more important than ever. In the midst of abhorrent events occurring daily, we hope there’s some Palestinians finding relief through skateboarding, an activity we all love so much. 

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.