Mobile skate tour for downtown Kingston this weekend

The Jamaica Skate Culture Foundation (JSC) officially launches the Jamaican Skate Tour with a three-day kickoff event in downtown Kingston, from today until Sunday. The event begins at 10 a.m. on Water Lane.

The event introduces a mobile skate park to the heart of the city, offering free, safe and structured skateboarding activities for young people, with a strong focus on inner-city youth and community access.

Today and tomorrow are dedicated primarily to inner-city children and youth, with skateboard initiation sessions (beginner level, flat ground), supervised group activities with full safety equipment, small skate demonstrations and street art workshops.

On Sunday, the project becomes part of Kingston Creative’s Grand Market, one of downtown Kingston’s flagship cultural events. The mobile skate park will be installed in Kingston Creative’s parking lot on Water Lane, at the intersection of Church Street and Water Lane, integrating skateboarding into a broader creative and cultural environment.

On Sunday, from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., the event will host a high-level institutional moment with representatives present on site including Kevin Brown, president of the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech). UTech is home to the only club in the Corporate Area. The other partners who will be there include H.E. Marianne Ziss, the French ambassador, and H.E. Jan Hendrik van Thiel, the German ambassador to Jamaica

The Kingston kickoff marks the start of a national skate tour continuing throughout 2026, with planned stops in Portmore, Ocho Rios, Port Antonio, Montego Bay, Negril, Mandeville, and Treasure Beach.

The Jamaica Skate Culture Foundation was founded in 2020. It is a registered charity. It seeks to use skateboarding and urban culture as tools for youth development, education, inclusion, and violence prevention.

France supported the initial development of the skate park and instructor training, while Germany supports the mobility of the skate park which will enable a national rollout.

Beyond direct youth engagement, the tour serves as an advocacy platform to encourage municipalities and institutions to invest in permanent public skate parks as sustainable youth infrastructures.

According to Remy Walter, founder of the Jamaica Skate Culture Foundation, the intention is “working at the intersection of sport, education, culture, and social impact, with international partners in Europe and the Caribbean for a better Jamaica”.