One of my close mates Beau sent me these flicks from last year of the crew building our first features in the Ichpig DIY Skatepark at our factory in Brunswick. It's eye opening to see how far the park has come. Looking at the pics, I remember how when I first designed the quarters with Allan, the shapes were so steep. It was like getting barrelled going up them, along with laying the ply incorrectly, which made them super bumpy. Eventually after all the holes we put in the tranny, our pride and joy was pulled apart and we started again, MUCH TO MY DISSMAY!
Learning from my mistakes, the rebuild was commenced with a bigger and better crew. Slowly I figured out the shapes and features that needed to go where, to create my ideal of being able to generate speed but also use it. It took a huge amount of hours with me becoming the project manager/lead apprentice/head designer and rounding up the Ichpig community/friends to help build. We would work from 6pm till 10pm most nights after all of us had finished working for the day, which was a massive effort. I spent a lot of lonely nights screwing down 1000s of screws solo, just bopping along to beats, making sure the progression never halted.
Rain, hail or shine, it's epic that we now have a space that allows us to give back to the community that follow Ichpig. We have some really exciting opportunities and initiatives that will be revealed in the coming weeks surrounding the space! It's humbling to be able in such a fortunate position and able to give back to all.
Massive thanks to those that made this possible thus far and donated their time and expertise. I would like to personally thank Skittles, Aj, Robbie, Brett, Beau, Allan, Carson, Colin, Maundz, Kyle, Scott, Trav, Brock and Elliott for putting in huge hours. Most of all thanks to my amazingly beautiful and supportive partner Aroha. She puts up with all my bullshit, It's harder being in a relationship with me!
Much love
Jez xoxo
