Aup! We're Donny Skate Co-op, a collective of skateboarders, who took over Twisted Skatepark in March 2023
OUR STORY
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The skatepark itself was built in 2020 by a businessman who thought he'd have a crack at an industry he had no knowledge of or connection to, which skaters never take well. Some of us were users of the park since the first day it opened, and we ​​had always talked about how we would run it differently if it was us behind the wheels. No one that worked there skated or knew anything about the culture, there was never a skate shop or a properly functioning café, or even a place to buy a bottle of water.
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It took a couple of years before the park was put up for sale. At the time we didn't give it much thought, other than being bummed out that we'd have to travel to Sheffield if we wanted to skate indoors when the weather was crap. Then, one night, jokes were made about how we should buy it. But there was no way, right? We could barely afford our rent, let alone a whole skatepark.
We were reminded that we were adults now, who could get business loans and stuff. We started doing our research, and reassurance and belief started coming in from people we believed to know what they're on about. We got some friends together, and started to look into how our newly formed company, Doncaster Skate Co-Operative, could begin raising the funds we needed, which seemed an impossible task. We went through endless companies, each getting dodgier and dodgier, to see if we could get a loan to complete the buy out. It started seeming less and less likely.
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We ended up approaching A Commune in the North and seeing if they would be able to lend us the money, and with their huge network of people who could also see the vision, we were able to raise the funds and complete the takeover and secure the future of Doncaster's only indoor skate park. We met in the Yorkshire Grey pub, signed the paper, were handed the keys and suddenly our little company now owned a whole skatepark.
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It was the dream we never even knew we had the chance of having, and it wouldn't have happened without the help of wide network and community of people offering us advice, guidance and support ( big shout out here to Bentley Urban Farm and all its people!).
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Then we had to actually run the company, and deal with the skeletons in the closet attached to the old business left behind by the previous owner. None of us had done anything like this before - Lewis was a painter and decorator, Emma was a self employed artist, Ryan was figuring life out and David worked at Starbucks. Cath was the most qualified of us all, having spent many of her working years setting up co operatives around the country and helping them deal with their own skeletons. There were some scary times in the beginning, and some scary letters . It was intimidating for all of us to take on a building of this size, with a never ending list of work to be done while trying to run the skatepark, build a skate shop, café, clear and renovate multiple rooms and bring some love to the dusty old building.
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When we first took over, there was nothing but a reception desk, some ramps in a big old warehouse and the few bits of equipment left over from the café attempt, including old oil in the fryer and half a fish in a bag. Everything was yellow, grey and cold. We spent every evening painting, filling, boxing in and fixing bodge jobs. We slapped some old decks on the wall and started working our asses off to fill up our little skate shop cabinets. We signed ourselves up some distributors and starting learning the ins and outs of the industry.
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Over time, we started getting used to running everything. We opened the café up properly, got some good scran added to the menu and started moving our reception area to the other side of the building so we were no longer split up, and could start turning our skate racks into a proper skate shop to bring something to Donny we'd not had in decades: a good, well stocked skate shop, ran and owned by skaters.
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Our team in the beginning
From left to right:
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Ryan
David
Cath
Lewis
Emma
skate cabinets
the future skate shop
mmm grim walls
getting closer to the skate shop
building the racking
banner time
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By this time we were no longer the original 5 we started with. Sometimes you have to do something to know its not for you, and after a few months Ryan and David figured out they wanted to pursue different paths. Now its Lewis, Emma, Cath as the remaining members of the co-op, with Ryan creating a lot of the incredible artwork you'll see growing steadily around the park.
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The loss of some of the members of our team was hard, but the work continued and we got on with it.
We had a vision for our outdoor area to work towards, and started pushing on with building, growing and creating the space we envisioned.
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One thing we'd always dreamed of having access to as skaters in Donny was a proper mini ramp. We'd travel far and wide to other parks to get a decent mini ramp sesh in, and wanted to build our own. A wooden mini outside was our only option, so we went for it with the thought that we'd eventually chuck a roof over it, or find a way to protect the wood before winter, or something. We didn't bet on flood season coming in earlier and much harder than usual, and by the end of the year we had to take it apart to salvage as much of the wood as we could. Flood water is stinky stuff, and we're lucky we got away with just losing the top layers of the mini. We stored the wood, and got the go ahead to build a flood proof concrete park outside. We started fundraising, and with our communities help and support we got to work on getting some concreting done
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We had a little bit of experience from building a small concrete DIY elsewhere, and with our building engineer Bear by our side we felt confident taking it on ourselves. We owe a big thank you to Bear, Sam, Jaymo, Harvey, Tom and Alfie for coming and helping out with the big bits of concreting and labour, and Dave for lending us his concrete mixer when we broke Bears and our own.
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This years plans were to build four concrete obstacles and add to it over time. We got the biggest bank in first, and by the end of the month had the rest of it done. Waiting for it to dry so we could skate it was the hardest part.
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When it was first built
The mini ramp being an ark for the garden during the first years floods
All broken up to salvage dry wood after the floods
Lewis breaking ground on the new concrete park
Sam and Lewis mixing concrete
The big banks back wall going in
Getting the hump / spine built
Endless smoothing
Our set up for smoothing the top of the bank
Smoothy smooth
Getting some colour down
All painted and looking rather beaut in the sunset
We put the salvaged wood from the mini ramp to good use in the old boxing gym upstairs, which lasted all of 4 months before we closed it off, to eventually cut the ramp in half (again...) and built our micro mini downstairs. Our wooden mini ramp started off at 16ft across by 4ft high outside and ended its life as a 8ft by 1.5ft mini. Outside was painted and pretty much finished for this year, until we add more in summer 2025. There's always something new and we love a bit of change at DSC, so who knows what the future holds.
A little snapshot of our park
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Filmed by Pati
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@patisphotos on Instagram
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We have a passion for seeing the community (and garden) grow and thrive. We love skateboarding so much, and we really, really love how it can bring so many different people together and how great it can be for mental and physical health, except from the falling part of it. We've seen and experienced some of the best and worst things about the community, and know how intimidating it can be for any beginner, especially afab and queer folks, or basically anyone that's not a guy. That's not saying its not hard for you guys - skatepark culture can be weird sometimes for everyone and most people have once felt unwelcome at their local skate parks. That's why we always want to make sure anyone skating in our park feels safe, comfortable and like its inclusive for everyone, regardless of ability.
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Come down, get to know us and have a skate with our team!
MEET THE TEAM
LEWIS
he / him
Big passion for skateboarding and will happily talk about it all day. Always cooking up a new idea for something to build and skate in the park. Can I go skate now please?
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Current set up: Twin tail 8.5 chocolate deck, Venture hollows, Spitfire formula fours and Thunder hardware & bushings.
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CATH
she / her
Co-operative genius, community builder, communard at a Commune In The North and all round radical person. Numbers are her friend, missing receipts are not. Has stood on a skateboard once before. Likes to pretend she's working when in reality she's probably playing candy crush.
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EMMA
she / her
Gardener, grower and maker of things. Likes getting the jigsaw out to cut wood at inappropriate times. Can be found either skating the ledge or avoiding working on flatground tricks
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Current set up: 8.5 There Marbie Deck, venture trucks, 60mm OJ wheels and random hardware from jars
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GRANT
he / him
Can usually be found sketching something on a post it note or eating all the bagels. Good luck even finding them in their camo jacket - you'll need to, as he'll be doing all the waiver form checking and booking in if you show up for a weekend session.
CALCIFER
me / meow
A lucky sighting, but doing a real good job of mouse patrol. Likes sleeping all day and most of the night too.