Ten kids from the Bright Lights Home in Somerset West also received skateboards as part of the Skateboarding for Hope community outreach presented by Vans throughout the country to introduce skateboarding as a sport to local youth and to identify budding skating talent. Since the programme started in 2011, Skateboarding for Hope has donated more than 5000 skateboards, 1000 pairs of shoes and over 10 000 T-shirts to underprivileged youth.
In addition, the year-long build-up to the world championships features Grand Slam regional qualifiers in Cape Town, Kimberley, Johannesburg and Durban with the opportunity of gaining a wild card entry into the Kimberley Diamond Cup.
The level of skating in Somerset was on point and most of the top guns came out to shred, but it was Josh Chisholm who came through and put down on the course, landing him first place on the podium. Andrew Nero finished second and left with the wildcard entry to the KDC SA Champs with Quentin Mooiman in third just one point ahead of Khule Ngubane. Josh Spice topped the day off with a gap to lipslide on the rail, landing him an additional R500 for best trick of the day.
For the past three years, the Kimberley Diamond Cup skateboarding world championships presented by Kumba Iron Ore has firmly established South Africa as an active member of the world-wide skateboarding community and created a platform for local skaters to enter the global skateboarding arena. A record number of street and vert skaters from 37 countries competed in 2014 for the largest purse and the most coveted title in skateboarding.
The next opportunity to qualify to compete in KDC this October will be at the KDC Grand Slam at the Coca Cola Dome on Sunday, 14 June.
For more information and a detailed schedule of events, visit the Kimberly Diamond Cup website. Alternatively, connect with the event on Facebook and Twitter using the #kdcskate hashtag.