All inclusive progressive skateboarding taught by passionate skateboarders.
Surely Skate was founded in Gisborne, New Zealand in the year of 2019 by local skaters Tessa, Georgia, Sophee and Morgan. Surely Skate was created as a way to break down gender stereotypes around skateboarding and skateparks and to build confidence in female identifying and non binary skaters. It started off as weekly skating sessions but soon progressed to lessons and hosting competitions.
We’ve started up in Hawkes Bay and still run girls lessons but we also want to teach progressive and high performing skateboarding to those in smaller communities and to inspire other towns to do the same. Everyone deserves the opportunity to turn their passion into their career.
WHAT WE’VE DONE
The inspiration to form Surely Skate came from New Zealand’s own Amber Clyde who founded Girls Skate NZ up in Auckland. There was nothing like that in Gisborne and so we decided to start our own skate group. It can be super intimidating starting a new sport, especially one that has a gender stereotype around it. That is why we wanted to create a safe and friendly environment where skaters can feel supported and not fear that they will be judged when learning how to skate.
Since Surely Skate began, we have held lessons both in and out of local schools. We have also participated in Well Wahine Week organized by Sport Gisborne and been a part of the #itsmymove initiative by Sport New Zealand. Along with that, Surely Skate has been featured on live TV, at Te Papa Museum and in New Zealand’s biggest Skateboarding Magazine, Manual Magazine.
Surely Skate has also hosted four big scale competitions, the last one being in January of 2024. We started hosting competitions as a way to bring more of the skateboarding community together. The competitions were free and open to all ages, genders and abilities with no one walking away empty handed. The competitions brought excitement to the small town and was a way to let the people of Gisborne know that there was a group that their child could skate with, to learn from and to do it safely without judgement.
WHERE ARE WE NOW?
We are now prominently based in the Hawkes Bay region and running workshops every Wednesday at Havelock North Skatepark. We still have one coach based in Gisborne who does private lessons and our Hawkes Bay coaches occasionally travel back home for the one off lesson or in school workshop.
