Skatemandu
On a sunny day in Nepal i randomly met a bunch of nepalese skaters riding and doing tricks in a dilapidated street down the crowded Kathmandu. People around were staring at them, both curious and amused by those western-looking teenagers on their 4 wheels boards doing the show, wearing fake Vans shoes, slim fit jeans, caps and mohawk hairstyle. I tried to catch some memories of that am
azing event with my poor sony camera but in my mind, growth the idea that someday, i’d set up a serious photoshoot of this unattended display of Nepal. After searching the web, i found the story of a young nepalese who decided to become a skater after seeing a tourist skating in the middle of Thamel, the main tourist zone in Kathmandu. He, and others guys are now involved in building the nepalese skateboarding scene, showing out the desire of a youth generation to share a common identity through this street art. But skateboarders in Nepal are facing numerous difficulties and pitfalls, from the poor state of the streets to the harrassing cops who don’t hesitate when the time comes to confiscate skateboards or grab youngsters to the police station for hours. The dream of those guys is now to have a decent skatepark in Kathmandu, lots of efforts are currently done in this will, that’s a tough way as everything seems complicated in Nepal and that only few guys are carrying the project. But i’m pretty certain that we can help to make a dream come true.
