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A brisk Tuesday morning in February, a bunch of the Route One crew set off on an 8 day Tunisian adventure, driven by the opening of the new Make Life Skate Life skatepark in La Marsa.
We were there to bring the hype and break the skatepark in with the locals, as well as donating Route One skateboards and equipment to the MLSL program. We couldn’t be more excited! The crew consisted of our newest addition Rio O’Byrne, TM Amy Ram, team riders Rianne Evans and Ross Zajac, photographer Jacob Parsons, and filmer George Young.
On the first day, we touched base at the park just as the finishing touches were being put in place. After mucking in with a much needed sweep, luckily for us the mini ramp was dry - and so began a very heavy, traditionally British mini ramp session! Everyone got involved and it was a great introduction to the MLSL build team. Friends instantly made!
Throughout the week, we hit the cutty streets of La Marsa scouring for clips. Little known to Rio, we were filming his ‘Welcome to the team’ edit and he went and made good use of La Marsa's rough terrain, killing it as expected.
Later in the week, we took a little day trip to the city of Sousse where MLSL had completed construction on Tunisia's first skatepark only a month before. We skated the park in a demo format, then hit a few street spots nearby.
Closing out the trip, the official skatepark opening kicked off, and we had the best time skating with all the locals and MLSL crew. The new park proved a big hit as a sea of locals showed up - absolute carnage! That day we delivered our donated skate equipment, which was put to great use. It was sick to see new skateboarders learning to skate and the coaching program taking shape.
Arriving at the park on the first day. George and Rianne discuss the park's layout and ideas.
Tunisia's markets were a gold mine for clothes, trinkets, and toys. This chap was pretty chuffed after Amy bought some trousers - he even wanted to get a skate shot!
The skatepark is right on the beach - a great spot for a post-skate chill. After great debate, Rio never earned his sea legs.
Chichi - a vegan doughnut traditionally from Marseille. George's face says it all: this wasn't his only visit!
Tunisian traffic laws seemed pretty lax... Rio remembers "mirror, signal, manoeuvre" as he changes lanes on this 208 hop.
Chichi Round 2
Brush and clean complete, the park was ready to skate. Amy gets stuck in with a Fakie Bigspin over the hip.
