In January 2024, we had this ambition of making a hub for Australian freestyle skateboarding. It would be online, to overcome our country’s geographical expanse, and it would be a website, to avoid people needing to subscribe to specific social media platforms. The name would be Flatlandia and the goal would be to ‘connect, inspire and equip’ Australian skateboarders.
So, after twelve months, how is it all going?
Connect
In one of our earliest interviews, Maple Roads rider Rohan Cowley once said, ‘If I had more friends or connections to freestylers in Australia I would have just stayed doing freestyle.’ We didn’t want to see Cowley or another skater moving away from the discipline due to a lack of social support, so we started creating networking opportunities for the locals via Instagram (@flatlandiafreestyle) and the Flatlandia blog.
Instagram was instrumental in organising and promoting local meets. Thanks to the platform and much persistence from the OllieFans crew, Melbourne’s freestyle meets have evolved from being the occasional catch-up to a weekly routine at Marvel Stadiums, Docklands. Sydney’s cohort of freestylers are starting to come together as well, though less frequently and with no fixed address.
The blog features interviews with locals and commissions content from locals. So far, ten Aussies have been interviewed by Flatlandia. Guest writers Rohan Cowley, Josh Dunstone, and Stuart Maca’Ghobhainn have made their thoughts known about competition runs, which skateboards to ride, and how to start out as a freestyle beginner. We hope that these semimonthly posts have raised the profile of all involved and enable them to find like-minded skaters in their home towns.
Equip
Unless you live in Perth, Western Australia, it’s near impossible to get dedicated gear from the neighbourhood skate shop. Most freestyle hardware needs to be ordered directly from overseas manufacturers, attracting shipping fees that cost more than the goods themselves.
To make freestyle more accessible to Australians, an online store was opened in April 2024 with the aim of stocking freestyle goods that didn’t cost a week’s rent in Sydney at much more affordable domestic shipping rates. The shop now carries 29 products, including skid plates, offset wheels, hard-as-rock bushings, and freestyle decks, most of which have never graced the shelves of a Fast Times store.
The store would not be possible without the support of manufacturers like Decomposed (USA), Moonshine Skateboards (USA), East Frisian Skateboards (Germany), and Protostyle (Malaysia). Many thanks to Witter Cheng, Tony Gale, Matthias Mühring, and Hibbs Arshad for listening to us and coming up with a solution. You guys rock.
Inspire
We all love an insightful trick tip, so we’ve put together a few of these on the blog and YouTube channel (@flatlandiafreestyle). There’s also been posts relating to contest advice from judges, board setups, and networking.
We’ve shared parts from freestylers who have inspired us all. There’s the usual suspects like Mullen, Kevin Harris, Per Welinder, but we’ve also featured Isamu Yamamoto, Denny Riordon, Marcio Torres, John Sawyer, and more.
And with the help of the international community, we’ve published fresh thoughts from the likes of Hibbs Arshad, Witter Cheng, Paolo Virgilio Demurtas, Tony Gale, Denham Hill, Sarah Park-Matott, Sean Robinson, Azzam Syafiq, and Kevin Wessels.
What’s next?
The work that we’re doing has attracted some positive feedback from locals and internationals, but we’ve still got a long way to go before Australian freestyle is at the level of its overseas counterparts.
In 2025, we’d like to unearth more Australian freestylers, make trick tips for intermediate/advanced skaters, create freestyle-focused lesson plans that can be used by skate instructors, interview more freestyle manufacturers, and find ways to financially support skaters participating in competition.
We can’t do it alone though. If you’re an Australian freestyle skateboarder and you’d like to get involved with the above and more, please let us know. Also, don’t forget to like, comment and share our content on the blog, Instagram, and YouTube channel.
