Cam Skate is the voice of skaters in Cambridge. We believe that skating is a positive force and should be accessible to as many people as possible.
To this end, we campaign for better skating facilities in the city, involve skaters in the planning process and local elections, and organise events and provide coaching to get more people into the sport.
Local skateboarders create a DIY skatepark and community garden on a piece of neglected land in Cambridge.
The skatepark is a valuable outdoor community space during the COVID pandemic.
Facing eviction, an open letter and online petition gather more than a thousand signatures in support of saving the skatepark.
Cam Skate forms as an organisation out of the ultimately unsuccessful fight to save the park.
Cam Skate notify Cambridge City Council about long standing cracks and issues with the surface at Jesus Green Skatepark, that make the park dangerous to skate.
In November of the same year, the council authorise repairs to some of the worst issues, returning the park to a more safe and enjoyable state.
Cam Skate meet with skatepark builders Canvas to give feedback on Trumpington skatepark, a new park being built in Cambridge, and to keep local skaters updated on the progress of the build.
The council plan to develop a new skate park on the site of the existing Chesterton Rec ramp.
Cam Skate engage local skate, scooter and BMX communities with consultations.
Cam Skate engage with local skaters to shape the design of a proposed skatepark in Arbury, collecting feedback, summarising and presenting it to the council.
The park eventually opens in August 2024.
Cam Skate engage skaters in Cambridge with local elections - asking a set of questions to all candidates and collating the responses for people to review, and make their own decisions on who to vote for.
Cam Skate present a vision for a redesign for Donkey Common Skate park - into a public space that accommodates skateboarding, with increased biodiversity.
Cam Skate host the first of many 'Light Sessions' at Jesus Green and Trumpington skateparks, using portable lights to keep evening skating going even in the dark winter months.
Cambridge City Council's Active Lifestyles team contribute a set of powerful battery-powered lights to be used at these sessions.
Joe Lewis, Cam Skate director, and Sim Higginson launch their book, documenting Cambridge's skating history back to its origins in the 1970s.
Cam Skate attend the first consultation about the proposed redevelopment of the Beehive and advocate for skateable features being built into the public space.
The Police and Crime Commissioner for Cambridge awards Cam Skate £3500 from the Youth Safety Fund towards the cost of redeveloping Donkey Common skatepark.
Cam Skate organise our first indoor skate session, hosted at the Cambridge Junction!
Moveable ramps and obstacles create a pop-up indoor skatepark for a single evening at the Cambridge music venue.
The event shows the appetite for a more permanent indoor space in the city.
Cam Skate release a handmade skate wax and a zine of local skate photography by Charlie Foulkes, who has gone on to have his work featured in skate publications such as The Skateboarder's Companion.
Cam Skate's stall at Mill Road Winter Fair generates hundreds of signatures in support for Donkey Common renovations from a broad range of the community.
Cam Skate's proposal for Parkside Skate Plaza raises the most votes by far as part of Cambridge City Council's EIP funding public vote.
Cam Skate organise our second indoor skate jam, this time at the Cambridge Corn Exchange! This time we have a dedicated session for women and girls, and a coached beginner session with coaches from Shredder Skate School and Two Toed Skate School.
Railpen and Cam Skate organise a consultation session with local skaters about the possibility of including skateable features in the Beehive redevelopment.
It is at this meeting that the idea of Meanwhile Use of a unit at the Beehive is raised with Railpen for the first time - this ultimately leads to the creation of The Warehouse indoor skatepark!
Charlie Foulkes' video 'Out of Touch', the first full-length skate video shot entirely on the streets of Cambridge - which, if you know the streets of Cambridge, is no small task - premieres at The Blue Moon pub.
You can watch the whole video here on Youtube!
We step foot in the unit that will become The Warehouse for the first time. It's perfect! We start planning for how we'll create an indoor skatepark in this space.
Our second indoor skate jam at the Corn Exchange! This time around, Get Moving Cambridge help fund the event and provide some free places for 12-16 year olds.
Shredder Skate School return to coach the beginner session and The Dry Skate Project provided some ramps.
In the meanwhile, in the background, Cam Skate and Railpen are agreeing on the use of 3 Coldham's Lane for an indoor skatepark project.
After almost a year of planning and figuring out leases, insurance, business models, etc. we held our first in-person meeting at The Warehouse. We set out the goals for the project - an indoor skatepark, run for and by the community of Cambridge.
Cambridge City Council's Active Lifestyles Team secure a grant for £45,000 which goes towards the cost of building ramps! This massively increases what we can offer, and work begins on planning the layout.
Peter Higginson of Carpintree joins the project as Construction Lead.
Work begins on the mini ramp section, and we start a public call for design input on the larger street section.
A massive volunteer effort starts preparing the space, including: patching holes in the floor, cleaning and painting what will become the reception area, screwing together ramps.
The mini ramp skeletons are fully built and work begins on surfacing!
An ambitious opening date of September 29th is decided on.
A finalised street section design is reached based on our call for feedback.
The Warehouse opens to the public for the first time!
Cam Skate work with City Council again on repairs to several cracks at Jesus Green skatepark.
We host our first Half Term Skate Camp at The Warehouse! 3 days of skateboard coaching from Pete, Ali and Bella.
James and Ted from Cam Skate attend Connect Skate Urbanism Festival in Bordeaux, France.
Connect is a new international festival dedicated to skateboarding culture and its relationship to urban planning, highlighting its cultural and artistic aspects.
We met a lot of like-minded people and spread the word about Cam Skate and The Warehouse!
The Centre School, a secondary SEMH school in Cottenham, start a weekly visit during term time, accompanied by their teacher and skate coach Bradley Griffiths.
Our first Community Evening at The Warehouse! This event was for people who have volunteered or supervised or in other ways contributed to the running of the park, so it was a great opportunity to celebrate and say thanks to all the people who have helped make it happen.
We did a deep clean of the park, an update on how the first month and a half has gone, and our plans for the next phase.
We planned how to train up more supervisors in order to open up the park, discussed the design of the new street area extension, and started the process of co-designing more new features for the park.
We presented our plans for a major extension to the street section, paid for from membership fees, and designed with Trev from The Skate Parchitect.
After a solid week of construction our new street section extension is skated by the public for the first time! This addition massively improves the flow of the park and also provides a lot more beginner-friendly obstacles, making the park more accessible.
The Warehouse crosses a mega milestone - 1000 individual people have visited the park since it first opened!
After School Club launches! Our weekly term-time skate club for kids, taught by Pete and Ali, two Skateboard GB accredited coaches. Funded by our membership fees and a grant from Cambridge City Council, we offer a number of free places on the club for kids who would not normally be able to afford to attend. To date we've delivered more than 700 hours of free skateboarding coaching through this programme!
After Work Club launches! Taught by Pete, it's a weekly skateboarding class for adults. The focus is on skaters setting their own goals and identifying the route to achieving them with their coach, with simple and clear exercises to expand their skateboarding capacity.
Cam Skate and Heal Saunas host the first 'Skate & Sauna' event at The Warehouse - bringing some heat and wellness to a winter skate session.
Heathen Skateboards open up The Warehouse for a free skate jam and demo!
We partner with Gareth from Aesc Systema to run a class focused on how to fall safely without injuring yourself. It's well attended and appreciated by skaters and non-skaters alike.
We host our first Roller Disco at the park, in collaboration with Roll On Live and Wild Wood Festival. It's our first music event and opens up the park to a whole new community of people!
Heal Saunas run a pop-up sauna space at The Warehouse, bringing sauna and cold plunge to the city centre.
Thanks to Railpen, we're able to extend our lease by another year to July 2026!
We ran our first Skateboarding Taster Day at The Warehouse! These sessions were a 2 hour introduction to skateboarding, offered completely free of charge. We were able to offer this to around 50 kids on the day.
New stuff at the park! These additions are based on the co-design sessions from a few months back - thanks to everyone who came down and gave their input, and Will, Pete and Sam who lead construction.
These additions appeal to a variety of skill levels, with a good amount of stuff for beginners, a group that we're happy to say make up a large proportion of park users.
Joe Hinson's Techne pro part premieres at The Warehouse.
Featuring a kids and adults jam with prizes and giveaways, and some exciting new additions to the park. Huge thanks to @techneskateboards @stanceeurope @jessupgriptape @rekdprotection @yewdrink @stormlondonofficial @house.of.havana @sketti_butta @bawbagsunderwear @deeznutz_hardware @haveagdtrip for helping support this event!
Cam Skate partner with Cambridgeshire County Council to provide free places on the Summer Skate Camps, as part of the HAF programme.
The programme offers fully funded places on the camp and a healthy lunch provided by Garden Kitchen in Cambridge.
The places on these camps amount to more than 200 hours of free skateboard coaching for children in Cambridge!
The Warehouse celebrates its first birthday with a whole day of celebration featuring food, drinks and skating!
Featuring an under 16s skate comp, a tie-dye t-shirt workshop, tunes all day and a photography exhibition from Chris Frazer Smith it's a fantastic celebration of the first year, and how much has been achieved in such a short period of time.
Cam Skate win the 'Active Award' as part of the BBC Radio Cambridgeshire 'Make a Difference' awards.
The award acknowledged that we, as a group of more than 30 volunteers, had created a safe space where young people could hang out all year round.
By this point, more than 2000 unique people had visited The Warehouse!
The BBC also focused on our dedicated over-30s and under-10s sessions and our sessions especially designed for people with special educational needs and disabilities.
Red Balloon Learner Centres, a charity in the UK providing education and support for children struggling with school due to illness, mental health, or trauma, begin a weekly visit to The Warehouse, accompanied by their teacher Thomas.
Scenic Skateshop take over the park for their third anniversary jam, with 3 skate jams and a longest ollie contest!
Our annual Christmas Party at The Warehouse returns for its second incarnation!
With food, drinks, music, and a kids skate comp, it's going to be a great way to close out the skating year.
Featuring Guerilla Kitchen and Scottie's Scotch Eggs on the food, Riaz Moola bringing the speciality coffee, and The Warehouse's new bar for drinks!
Skateboard GB's signature skateboarding competition returns, hosted for the first time at The Warehouse!
Save the date! Details to be announced soon.
