Photos of Nepal’s Emerging Skateboarding Scene

Nepal is known for its beautiful mountains and for being the birthplace of Buddha. It’s not necessarily associated with skating – something that may be set to change with the country’s emerging skaterboarding scene, specifically with the introduction of a brand new skatepark in Pokhara. Ekaterina Anchevskaya and Aryan Ashoori are behind this project and documented it in a new short film and accompanying photo story, premiered here. Alongside images of this skatepark and its first visitors, Anchevskaya tells us more about this project and what led her to initiate it.

“A year ago I met Aryan, a record label director who was raising money for a skatepark in Nepal together with Make Life Skate Life. We talked a lot about sustainable art and how skateboarding could change lives. I thought I wanted to witness it. In April we could finally fly to the landlocked Himalayan nation of Nepal. Skaters from more than 20 countries came to Pokhara to build the park. They worked under the scorching sun shelving 110-plus cubic meters of concrete, teaching local kids the construction process and skating at nights. Some people asked me, ‘Why Nepal? Why a skatepark?’ We saw the kids and local skaters coming there everyday to build, to learn from the volunteers and to make friends. Since the construction was finished they keep posting pictures from the park, organising events and championships. Skateboarding connected Nepali skaters to the international sport scene, it created a community which is now growing bigger even when all the volunteers left.”