About us
Skate Nottingham is a non-profit place-making, sports development and alternative education organisation rooted in Nottingham’s globally significant skateboarding community. Our Vision is to "Transform people and places through skateboarding.”
We use skateboarding as a tool to unlock learning and creativity, aiming to raise the profile of skateboarding as a positive, healthy and creative activity that contributes to Nottingham's social, cultural and economic development.
Since incorporating as a Community Interest Company (CIC) in July 2017, we have worked with more than 3,000 people of all ages, delivering high quality beginners' skateboarding sessions alongside workshops and short courses in skate filming and photography, exhibitions, co-design and construction projects and large scale public events. We have now provided specialist advice and support for seven outdoor skatepark projects, with Nottingham City Council, Rushcliffe Borough Council, Broxtowe Borough Council & Southwell Town Council. Alongside these dedicated skateparks, we worked with Nottingham City Council and skatepark specialists Betongpark Ltd. to develop one of the UK's first 'skate friendly' mixed-use public spaces, Tram Line Spot, near the Broadmarsh site. This track record makes us the most prolific user-led skate development organisation in the country.
Our work has been recognised by multiple awards, including the East Midlands Celebrating Construction 2017 'value' award for our work on King Edward Park, one of Nottingham's inaugural Heritage Champions awards in 2020, and a 'Goodpush Partnership' with Oscar-winning international charity Skateistan, also in 2020. We are an affiliated member of Skateboard GB, the National Governing Body for skateboarding, and all our coaches have SBGB's 'Get Rolling' skate coaching qualification alongside DBS and child safeguarding training. We have successfully delivered four National Lottery 'Awards for All' grants since 2018, and some of our coaches and volunteers were features in the Lottery's 25 Year celebration advert on national television. With National Lottery funding, we have twice delivered the UK's only city-based multi-venue festival of skateboarding culture, 'Skateboarding in the City', in 2019 and 2021, which included panel discussions, skate filming competitions, jams, exhibitions and design and screen-printing workshops. We also delivered one of the UK's first 'legal DIY skateparks' in 2021, at Beeston Fields recreation ground in partnership with Broxtowe Borough Council & Beeston Civic Society.
Our current weekly programme of free beginners' skateboarding sessions includes the innovative 'Edu-Skate' youth development programme, which engages young people aged 7 - 14 with eleven essential life-skills, such as self-confidence, perseverance and creativity. This programme was developed by Concrete Jungle Foundation in Jamaica, who we work closely with as the only UK-based member of seven organisations delivering Edu-Skate worldwide. More than 170 young people have attended these sessions since March 2022. In 2022-23, we also trialed a 10-week creative programme, ‘Creative Club’, which followed the Edu-Skate sessions. Young people learned about the other amazing aspects of skateboarding and how this can help their careers and wider creative development, from art and design, to digital skills, to construction, by working with our network of skate creatives from all over the world - including through our ongoing collaborations with skaters from the Finnish city of Tampere.
All of the Skate Nottingham team are active skateboarders and all of our programmes aim to transform Nottingham through skateboarding and skate culture.Skate Nottingham team
Chris Lawton
Co-founder & CIC Director
An original founder, Chris is a lifelong skateboarder and former academic economist who now works as Community Development Officer at Skateboard GB.
Chris is an experienced skateboard coach and session leader. He wrote widely on skateboarding and skate culture for Caught in the Crossfire magazine, with articles published by Sidewalk Mag and The Skateboarders' Companion. He spoke at the Pushing Boarders Conference in 2018 on the Skate Friendly Cities panel alongside Skate Malmö's Gustav Eden and professional skateboarder and designer Alexis Sablone.
Chris led the landmark Tram Line Spot project with Nottingham City Council and Betongpark Ltd.
Listen to his 2023 interview on episode 43 of the Beyond Boards podcast!
Tom Quigley
Creative Programmes Director
Tom is the creative arm of Skate Nottingham, managing the creative events, graphic design & brand identity, as well as bringing his photography, curation & publishing skills to everything we do.
Previously creator of Varial Magazine, and photo editor at Nottingham culture magazine LeftLion, Tom is a widely published skate photographer, who has a decade-long history of publishing magazines and putting on exhibitions for the Notts community.
Ted Hepburn
Events & programmes assistant
Ted leads the co-ordination and administration of Skate Nottingham's activities. This includes organising our beginners’ sessions, working on grant capture, and data collection & monitoring. A member of our regular coaching team, Ted has lived in Nottingham all his life and aside from skateboarding he spends time making music.
Simon Bernacki
Co-founder
Alongside Chris, Simon co-founded Skate Nottingham, with previous skatepark development experience on projects including Mansfield Plaza & Maples Street skatepark.
Si is an accomplished photographer, previously published in magazines such as Sidewalk & Dogpiss, who works on a wide range of commercial & freelance projects. His professional experience includes grant capture & financial management at large and small charities, and he leads some of our creative and construction workshops.
Jo Wardle
Lead coach
Alongside her work coaching skateboarding in schools with her organisation Great Skate, Jo regularly coaches Skate Nottingham events around the city.
In 2023-24, she is leading the Sport England-backed Skate Hive project, which aims to develop a collective for women, girls & marginalised genders to feel empowered in skate spaces around Nottingham.
Andrew Holt
Coach & builder
Holt is a lifelong skateboarder who has come back time and time again from injury. His style has a clear inspiration from Magenta, and he uses his experience to know when to guide and push new skaters to progress their abilities.
His work experience includes years on-site in the construction industry, and his involvement in Skate Nottingham projects has included on-site preparation of ledges at Tram Line Spot, and assisting Betongpark Ltd in the Beeston DIY build.
Eliot Jones-Garcia
Coach
Eliot is a full-time academic, part-time skateboard coach and all round mall grabbing extraordinaire. (Just kidding!) He values the sense of community identity & wellbeing that he has gained through skateboarding, and is passionate about creating similar opportunities for others.
Eliot is involved with various international skateboarding NGOs, working in Germany, France, Mexico & Kenya, as well as here in Nottingham. He believes skateboarding has a lot to teach the world about inclusivity, sustainability and participation. To misquote David Graeber: “The hidden truth about the world is that it is something we skate and could just as easily skate differently”.
Connor Law
Coach
Connor is a talented skateboarder with natural skills in engaging young people with skateboarding. He’ll bring the energy to create a lively session, whilst maintaining a safe environment and ensuring new skaters are getting the advice needed to progress.
Along with Holt & Elliot, Connor leads an intermediate cohort of skaters as part of our Sport England-backed In Bloom project, which builds a crew of up-and-coming skaters from beginner level to intermediate while taking them to different skate environments around Nottingham.