Melusi Mashawana, co-owner of the skate brand Hidden Junk and a cashier at Durban Skate Park, performs a skate trick called grinding. Photo: FINNEGAN CROWLEY/THE HAWK
DURBAN, South Africa – Durban Skate Park used to be the stomping grounds of some of the most gifted skateboarders to hail from the Durban area.
Thalente Biyela, Khule Ngubane and Dlamini Dlamini, now professional skateboarders, once skated the stairs, rails and drops of the park, located along the Durban Beach Front Promenade, within view of the Indian Ocean. These were the hometown heroes of Durban, said Melusi Mashawana, a cashier at Durban Skate park. They’ve now all moved out of Durban.
But a new generation of Durban skateboarders is rising to fill the exodus.
“This is why it’s important for us to nurture them and give them the platform to shine and be themselves,” Mashawana said.
Twenty-five-year-old Mashawana, a veteran skater of 10 years began working at Durban Skate Park in July 2024. He said he believes in nurturing Durban’s budding talent. As a teen, he sought skateboarding as an escape from the violence, gangs and drugs that surrounded him in Durban Point, located at the southern end of the Durban beachfront.
“I had to spent most of my time, if not all of my time at the skate park to get away from that, to realize that I’m bigger than that,” Mashawana said. “I don’t have to become my environment. I can be something better and try to be something better. And then I pursued skateboarding, which saved me from all that.”
Now Mashawana is looking to support a new generation of skaters. In 2020, he and a college roommate, Pacific Kihangula Jr., founded Hidden Junk, a skate brand that hosts events for skaters in the Durban area.
“Initially, it was a thrifting company,” Mashawana said. “It ventured out from being a thrifting company to becoming a skateboarding brand which is focused more on community development.”
The Durban area is rich with talent, said Mashawana. Some of them also work at Durban Skate Shop, including Keegan Linda, who was taught by professionals such as Ngubane and Biyela in his younger days.
“All those guys are good skaters, all sponsored skaters,” Linda said. “They taught me a lot.”
Linda said he believes the key to boosting the Durban skateboarding scene is an influx of competition, which the city lacks.
“When there is competition and [skating organizations] come out, you actually see that we do have skaters in Durban,” Linda said. “But we don’t have a lot of competition compared to any other city.”
Hidden Junk is looking to fill that gap by hosting events for skateboarders to show off their talent. On June 21, the company hosted a skate day sponsored by DC Shoes and Element Skateboards, both American skateboarding companies. DC and Element offered products for skaters to use at the event, free of charge. Linda and Mashawana both said access to skateboarding equipment can be a deterrent for some who want to try the sport.
“Skateboarding is an expensive sport,” Linda acknowledged.
The starting cost for a new board can be 1,500 rands (about $84.82), Linda said, a prohibitive cost for many young South Africans.
But the skateboarding community often comes together to help one another. That’s how Linda got his first board.
“I had a friend, he was selling his one for 20 bucks, and then I got that,” Linda explained. “A friend had spare wheels. I got that from him. So, my friends helped me out with my first skateboard.”
Mashawana said this experience is common in the skater community.
“If I have a pair of shoes, and you don’t have a pair of shoes, I’m going to give you my pair of shoes,” Mashawana said. “I’m going to give you my board. That’s how it worked for the most part of my skating career.”
Mashawana said he is trying to capitalize on the rise of skateboarding culture, not just in Durban but in South Africa as a whole. In that rise, women skaters have joined the scene, entering what has long been a male-dominated sport.
“Skating in SA is the best thing ever,” Mashawana said. “Here, it is literally at its peak because a lot of people are tapping in. There’s a bunch of females skating. A lot of kids growing up, they’re skating. They’re getting exposed to skating.”
Menelisi Luthuli, who is new to skating, said he appreciates what Mashawana is trying to do.
“A lot of people are saying good things about the things that he’s doing,” Luthuli said. “They’re feeling the community, they’re feeling the love, they’re feeling the fostering growth that’s behind all of this.”
That is the direction for Hidden Junk, Mashawana said. As Mashawana grows the brand, he said he hopes Durban’s new talent will reignite the vitality their hometown heroes once brought to the area.
“That is my role in skating — to show South Africa that there is a skateboarding scene in Durban, and it’s alive,” Mashawana said. “It’s high time that it’s given the support and the attention that it deserves.”