Arty skaters show their creative side

A group of creative youths have been combining their love of skateboarding with their artistic skills — with some impressive outcomes.

Twenty-seven young people aged 10-25 participated in the City of Bunbury’s three-day urban art workshop as part of the City’s Australia Day celebrations and created their own skate deck design.

City of Bunbury community development officer Isabell Evans, along with artist Charlotte Otranto, guided the participants through the steps to create their designs.

“The first day Charlotte explained a bit to them about painting on a skateboard and the importance of taking the time to come up with a really good design,” Ms Evans said.

“We gave them some templates and they sketched a few ideas, then they sketched them in pencil onto the board, outlined them, painted and sealed them.”

The completed decks will be on display at the Smarter Than Smoking Australia Day Youth Zone to be held at Queens Gardens and Bunbury Skate Park on Australia Day from 4pm to 8.30pm.

The Youth Zone will also include skate and BMX workshops, fashion parades, mechanical bull, climbing wall and a dunk tank.

Ms Evans said there had been a lot of positive feedback about the urban art workshop.

“When we started we were only going to have 20 places, and then we got inundated, so we bumped it up,” she said.

“It’s cool and it’s different and it’s engaging with the skate park community.