Vans Checkerboard Day, City Bowl Park, Cape Town, November 2021

Nov 21, 2021

Marci Rodrigues, 12, ollies the gap between the quarters with his dad, legend Jozi skater Lingo, filming. Photo by Jacque Smit.

Marci Rodrigues, 12, ollies the gap between the quarters with his dad, legend Jozi skater Lingo, filming. Photo by Jacque Smit.

Mielies and Marigolds: Sowing the Seeds of the Future at City Bowl Parks Vans Checkerboard Day

Words by bluntEd.

Rewind a couple of years back, SA’s legendary Olympic skateboarder Dallas Oberholzer somehow managed to convince Cape Town High School to hand him the keys to their empty Olympic-sized school swimming pool in the Gardens, just near the grand old Mount Nelson Hotel at the top of Cape Town City Bowl.

Thanks to shifting ground beneath it due to an underground spring, the leaky school pool and surrounds had fallen into neglect and without no funds to restore it for speedos and swimming galas, Dallas sweet-talked the board into letting him turn it into a skateboarding facility, the aptly-named City Bowl Skatepark.

Fast forward a few years and Dallas and his faithful followers started fixing up and reshaping the giant pool – which is 4.8 metres in the deep end – into the beginnings of a killer concrete skatepark.

By late 2019, the pool now featured a roll in, and several purpose-built concrete transitions, including a hip with a fat-metal coping – and a hell line straight into the gnarly chunked out deep end.

Progress was well underway to realise Dallas’ vision to add more and more obstacles and to turn the whole damn thing into a skate facility to rival the best in the world.

 “We are just trying to create some soft zones and beautify the hard spaces, trying to soften up the space and make it more accommodating to everyone and plant some plants just to add some colour. It’s been a radical mess here for 20 years, so we are just trying to make it into a good space.” – Dallas Oberholzer.

Several shred sessions, jams and events involving both boards and bikes were held here that summer.

But Dallas’ ambition for City Bowl Park was not just for skaters and BMXers, good old Dal wanted to create a special space in the heart of the Mother City, where all were welcome. A free and easy chill out spot for the cool and creative to forget their hang ups to let it all hang out.

Devandre Galant, switch backside 360. Photo by Jacques Smit.

Devandre Galant, switch frontside 360. Photo by Jacques Smit.

Until the pandemic hit in April 2020 and the dreaded lockdowns laid waste to his plans, like it did for so many.

A few months later Dallas had qualified for the South African team for the Olympics skateboarding park event and was forced to retreat to his other self-manifested skateboarding enclave, the Indigo Skate Camp deep in the rolling hills of Kwa-Zulu-Natal, to hide from Covid and prepare his mind and body for his Olympic debut.

Once again, in the absence of its guiding force, and war-like restrictions on all of our freedom of movement and all public areas closed, the City Bowl Park fell into crumbling neglect.

 A standout moment was Devandre Galant’s switch frontside 360 from the platform into the pool – over my newly planted marigolds – onto a dodgy piece of wooden board after a dozen tries. Devandre skates with determined fire and beautiful, reckless speed and he was a pleasure to watch. 

Spin the wheels of time once more, and Dallas – a rolling stone not one known to stay in one place for long – finally made his way back from the Olympics via Jozi and Durban to Cape Town to resume work on his passion project.

With Covid restrictions down to level one, Dallas’s long-time sponsor, the iconic shoe brand Vans, offered to help him get the pool fixed up sharp shoot as part of its global Checkerboard Day.

Charles Leedo, City Bowl Park. Photo by bluntEd.

Charles Leedo, City Bowl Park. Photo by bluntEd.

The City Bowl Park was tailor-made for Vans’ annual initiative. Each year the company supports charities around the world who share a mission of revitalising public spaces through arts, sports, culture and social impact programming, by donating a collective 1 million USD globally.

Vans’ mission is to continue their work around the world to build vibrant, inclusive, and welcoming spaces to support their local communities.

Exactly what Dallas is trying to do at City Bowl Park.

Parking off

On Thursday November 18, 2021 blunt got sucked into attending the Vans Checkerboard Day at City Bowl Park. The blunt crew hit up Cape Town High School not knowing what to expect.

Thumping tunes by wild eyed DJ and artist Jared Aufrichtig assaulted your ears as you walked up the stairs and entered the pool enclave. This is a massive area around the pool itself, replete with trees and lawn one one side and concrete bleachers on the other.

The whole area is bound in by a colourful heavily graffitied wall and Table Mountain looming above.

To be gonzo god honest though, the place looked like a wreck, half construction site, half rubbish dump. All sorts of crap was piled everywhere, rubble, soil, building materials, nursery plants, planks of wood and plenty of other crap lying around.

It was still early, long before 4.20, but a skate session was already on.

Among others Ben Bing, replete in those blue workman’s pants with the two yellow stripes, was sliding and slashing, scraping his wheels through several surf-style bert to reverts across the deep end (which looked like a giant acid head ate and threw up a rainbow) and attacking the coping on the steep-ass vert wall transition in the shallow end.

 

 

A few BMXers also flew around the park, but they soon bailed, leaving only riders of the four wheeled kind behind.

“We are just trying to create some soft zones and beautify the hard spaces, trying to soften up the space and make it more accommodating to everyone.” Dallas told blunt, “and plant some plants just to add some colour. It’s been a radical mess here for 20 years, so we are just trying to make it into a good space.”

The general idea was to show up, skate and help out cleaning up and rebuilding shit. While most focused on the first, small crews of people laboured on clearing out the brush, building said roll in – so the skaters could drop into their lines through the pool at speed – and a myriad of other missions.

I was keen to lend a hand, so Dallas asked me to plant marigolds in some random piles of soil and rubble. It felt kind of weird and incongruous putting the little yellow flowers in amongst the debris, but I was happy to contribute somehow and get my mitts dirty as the skate session began to get intense.

I missed a lot as I planted the flowers, but a standout moment was Devandre Galant’s switch frontside 360 from the platform into the pool – over my newly planted marigolds – onto a dodgy piece of wooden board.

Devandre must have tried this dozens of times before sticking to it. He also flew around the pool like a man possessed, landing a backside air across the gap and a bunch of other tricks. Devandre skates with determined fire and beautiful, reckless speed and he was a pleasure to watch.

Other notables included Kyle Kheswa’s pole jam into the shallow end and his massive backside air attempts over the hip and Ethan Cairns’ cleanly stuck frontside air over the same hip. Street skaters going all tranny dawg for a day.

I’m sure other shit – big spins, flips, airs, slides and grinds – went down, but I missed it as Dallas then asked me to plant several mielie saplings on the outskirts of the park.

Besides the skating and paparazzi, SA skate rock star Yann Horowitz was conducting a tie-dye t-shirt workshop and when I returned with my hands covered in soil, the smell of boerewors mixed in with the odd spliff permeated the air. Four two oh bru.

SA skate rock star Yann Horowitz was conducting a tie-dye t-shirt workshop and when I returned with my hands covered in soil, the smell of boerewors mixed in with the odd spliff permeated the air. Four two oh bru.

Pausing for a moment, and looking around, I noticed a radical transformation had started taking place. Though there was still a lot of work to do, you could see Dallas’ vision taking shape before your eyes, as the whole area began to take on the air of a conquered empire.

The space had become more settled, organised and less chaotic, finally giving in to the positive human energy and chilled vibes that were filling it to the brim for the first time in a couple years, definitely a long time since Johnny won the U-12 CTHS Gala crawl in nineteen voetsek.

Another peak of the day for most came when Yann – who had not skated all day due to his colourful tie-dieing – rolled into the park with a flourish, eventually making a backside rock in the deep end after several valiant tries.

 Yann Horowitz, backside rock, City Bowl Park. Photo by Jacque Smit.

Yann Horowitz, backside rock, City Bowl Park. Photo by Jacque Smit.

And with that, the Vans Checkerboard Day slid into the madness and wind of the Cape Town night, and most of us departed – though I am sure that Dallas and many others worked long into the dark to transform City Bowl Park.

Today, several months later, the park is still being developed by Dallas and co.

Epilogue

“To see things in the seed, that is genius.” So said Lao Tzu. Like the mielies, marigolds and other plants now growing in the soil at City Bowl Park, the hope is that Dallas’ efforts will reap a bountiful future harvest.

Ben Bing, bert to revert. Photo by bluntEd.

Ben Bing, bert to revert. Photo by bluntEd.

Given the right circumstances, it is both random and inevitable. This was brought home to me when, after the event, I found out that Ben Bing is the son of the man who taught me to surf and introduced me to skateboarding, his father, Myles Bing.

In turn, Ben recalled when his family lived across the road from me in Hout Bay and, around the age of 9, I gave him a blunt trick tips booklet, which in turn help to inspire him on his unique skateboarding journey.

Like the one small seed sown back then in Ben’s young mind, the hope is that City Park will do the same for Cape Town and – when those mielies we planted are standing tall – will bear fruit and endure and inspire another generation to follow their skateboarding dreams.

Peace.

– bluntEd.

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