Following years of neglect and abandonment, the collective rehabilitated the skate park for public use.

On November 27, WallRide, a non-profit sports association focused on disseminating the skateboarding practice, culture and community, brought together its community of skaters and urban artists to visually rehabilitate Faro’s skatepark.

Following years of neglect and abandonment, the skate park’s visual aspect “caused discomfort to its regular users and compromised the functional integrity of some ramps and obstacles”, explains the association.

Despite the progress WallRide had already made, with some interventions during the first year of work, it recognised “the legitimacy of the local graffiti community, the park’s secondary users”.

Therefore, the November edition of the WallRide Sundays, an event organised by the association, served to “expand the existing bridges between both communities, to guarantee functionality from a sporting perspective, as well as Faro’s skatepark’s aesthetic integrity”.

According to WallRide, the relationship between the graffiti and skateboarding cultures “has always been evident in the spaces they share”. But new trends “dictate that this relationship should be rethought in the confines of skateparks”.

Last Sunday, WallRide skaters and local urban artists joined efforts at Faro’s skatepark for the first rehabilitation phase.

Urban artists such as SEN, RES, Pierre Levert, SAUK, IODA, SAMIRO and PORS helped to carry out this first phase of the large-scale project, which aims to “reconcile the users’ well-being with local artists’ artistic legitimacy”, says WallRide.

The organisation’s objective is to “continue rehabilitating public infrastructures in Faro. And, where necessary, focus on training future generations through the Skate School, protect and support minorities, and project the Algarve skate community through its channels: the WallRide Community, South Girl Skate, and LODO Zine magazine”.

For the first phase of the rehabilitation, the non-profit association relied on a donation from paint brand CIN. It responded to their appeal and helped them with their mission “to give back the skatepark to the general public while promoting good practices through citizen, social, educational and sporting actions”.