GET TO KNOW: “DINERO DIY” SKATE PARK

Words by Carlita @carlita_the_gypsy

Meet the women behind a cool new Skateable Art Installation in Southern Spain “DINERO DIY” …..

So what are your names and where are you based at the moment?
We are Eve and Levanna. We are from the UK, but spend alot of time in Spain and the DIY skate culture is great in Southern Spain.

What did motivate you to get into skateboarding?
It was my younger brother who started skateboarding first, and we both started to enjoy skating too, travelling to different parks as a family. Myself and Eve are not the best skaters, but we love Skateboarding and the Skatelife. My brother often tests the obstacles we build to make sure they are skateable!

Is there any difficulty or impediment you?ve found about skating? Also?living in another country?
Skating is really fun in Spain, there are big parks, lots of smooth floors everywhere, and a freespirited attitude. Developing a DIY spot is actually so much here , as there are lots of abandoned places here. At times, the language can be challenging, especially when translating materials but I love learning and speaking Spanish

Have you ever felt intimidated at the park?
At the DIY spot we have only had lots of really great visitors who have liked what we have done so they say nice things . Sometimes locals give us a hand, but mostly they are really supportive and come and look at the progress every so often. Even the local Police look out for us, and told us to call them if theres a problem!!

I think the “Dinero DIY” skatepark it?s one of the greatest I?ve ever skated. So tell me, what did inspire you to build it?
We had helped on some other DIY spots in the past, but we had a bunch of ideas which needed more space to create. We looked all over the Malaga area, and found alot of great spots. This one though was the biggest and it was just so obvious to build here. There?s a builders merchant across the road, a good water supply and lots of perfect floors everywhere. We were just going to build the money as an art/skate piece. Thats how the park got its name. But then we grew fond of the place, so we decided to build more obstacles. It kinda became addictive, and we had loads of ideas we wanted to get down.

I find awesome the fact that it?s not about skateboarding it?s about also DIY and creativity together and, the fact that a woman can do it, it might be a bit weird for society. How do you feel debunking the theory of women can?t do DIY?
This is a great question! Overall, we have probably surprised ourselves a bit, not realising how much we enjoyed it. We have loved the challenge of Developing a whole new spot. Its been a learning process the whole way about everything. For example even our cement mixing was hit and miss in the early days. But we feel much more confident now, and we are always thinking of the skateability and the artistic factors when we design obstacles. It seems its new territory for women to build DIY skatespots but we are hearing more and more that it goes on. It?s great….. we believe women can bring something different to DIY, just like how girls skateboarding is growing, it surely will with DIY.
It always motivates us when you receive support from women like yourself. It inspires us to carry on in times when we come across certain views out there that women can’t be great builders, we have had some old school older men from the local village, always explaining to us how to do it, but we just take the benefits from their advice (even when they are wrong! Haha)?We are also very fired up about girls skating and love girls like you Carlita who are very supportive about us and and inspiring in so many ways.

I love the relationship you have with your family. Any funny story you?want to tell us?
Me and Eve are like the modern day Thelma and Louise, we always travel alot together and go to skateplaces, events, etc, so we always end up in crazy situations.
One time when we were looking for abandoned places to build, we saw a half built Castle shaped house on top of a hill. We immediately wanted to explore it. As we walked up the hill a huge dog came hurdling towards us and just when we thought we were dog food, its long chain yanked him back. We then saw this strange looking man emerge from behind the house waving at us to come closer. Most people would have done a runner but we were curious. As we drew closer to him, it became clear that he was squatting in the house by himself and his dogs and was totally harmless, just wanted some company. He took us on a tour of the house and told us stories about his life. Turns out he thought we were looking for a place to squat too and so he offered up half the house to us! A kind man but a very odd situation!

If you would have to ollie over someone, who would it be?
We would probably end up killing them and we don?t have a least favourite skater so thats a hard one.

Is it much difference between the Spanish skate scene and the British?scene?
Both have lively scenes, we can be really good fun, but the Spanish do generally seem to have alot more fun, and there?s alot more great places to skate in Spain than in the UK, and obviously the weather makes things alot easier.

Any kind of music that you like to listen when you are skating?
As DJ?s music is a big part of our life. We are both into Soul Music mainly, and funk and hip hop and other genres too. We end up drawing a lot of inspiration from music, for example the car we built is a Lowrider, because we love Lowrider Soul Music.

Big Love HG xx

Check out their insta page ….

Insta – @dinerodiy