Part 4 - Good Company, Good Vibes: Queensland Skateboarding Businesses
By Dr Indigo Willing, 2025 John Oxley Library Honorary Fellow | 2 October 2025
Sunshine State’s Subcultural Game-Changers and Olympic ‘Roll’ Models
Dr Indigo Willing, 2025 John Oxley Library Honorary Fellow.
Dr Indigo Willing, 2025 John Oxley Library Honorary Fellow
I wish to acknowledge the Turrbal, Jaegera, Yuwibara, Kabi Kabi, Jinibara, Yugumbeh and Kombumerri People who are the traditional owners of the land this skateboarding research is based on in Queensland.
Skateboarding is an urban subculture and scene that has appealed to and welcomed youth and people from the margins for decades in Queensland. Moreover, its appeal has now expanded even further, with skateboarding shifting from its subcultural origins to now also being an Olympic Sport. The ‘Queensland Skate of Mind: Subcultural Game Changers to Olympic ‘Roll’ Models project emerges from my John Oxley Library Honorary Fellowship in 2025 to document this under-recognised and significant part of Queensland’s social, sport and cultural history. This project aims to provide an introduction to key aspects of what makes skateboarding in Queensland special and why it warrants further research. The themes introduced in a series of blogs and videos will encompass a range of stories, memories, ephemera and other contributions from the skateboarding community throughout my 2025 Honorary John Oxley Fellowship.
Thank you to Slam Skateboarding Magazine editor Trent Fahey (all issues are part of the collection at State Library of Queensland) and journalists Nat Kassel and Josh Sabini. Additional thanks to photographers Mike O’Meally, Wade McLaughlin, Robbie Cameron, Jack Cassidy, and Peter Sondergaard, Rachel Torti, Andrew Viles, Toby Mellonie, Jay Musk, Sarge Jhogenson, Daniel Vincent, Mike Lawry, Kane Stewart, Izy Duncombe, Sarah Huston, Andy MacKenzie, Scott Shearer, Mark Brimson, Stu Fogarty, Curtis Hay, Mitchell Roberts and many others. And a special thanks to my fellow We Skate QLD team members, Evie Ryder, Miljana Miljevic, Brooke Manning, Connie Leung, Jingjing Yang, Lil Turek and numerous members of the Brisbane and QLD skateboarding community for sharing their knowledge.
This blog is one of a 7 part series. To view the other blogs, click here.
Part 4 - Good Company, Good Vibes: Queensland Skateboarding Businesses
Local skateboarding companies have always played a strong role in supporting local skateboarders, with one of the early high profile ones being Kwala Skateboards started by Andrew MacKenzie in the 1990s.
Kwala pin. Kwala Skateboards brand. 34043 Kwala Skateboards ephemera, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.
Skate demonstration poster (2006). Kwala Skateboards. 34043 Kwala Skateboards ephemera, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.
Promotional itinerary for tour. Kwala Skateboards. 34043 Kwala Skateboards ephemera, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.
Promotional itinerary for tour. Kwala Skateboards. 34043 Kwala Skateboards ephemera, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.
Stickers. Kwala Skateboards. John Oxley Library. 34043 Kwala Skateboards ephemera, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.
Stickers. Kwala Skateboards. 34043 Kwala Skateboards ephemera, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.
Jay Musk who ran the Small Room skate shop and is founder of 138 Skateboards and Bohemia Skateboards has also always combined art and skateboarding together through graphics on skateboards to art shows with collaborators such as Sarge Jhogenson from the former Love Love gallery. Musk recalls “when I was starting my brand, I was working out of my garage and living in an apartment, and I was painting in my apartment, in the sunroom, and then storing stuff in the garage. So I was I just needed some better space to paint in.” He continues “I had known Sarge from Paddington, because he's a skateboarder as well, and he was running Love Love. They had a studio come up and I ended up hiring a studio, and then painting from there. And then I ended up setting up the shop in there as well.”
Image Jay Musk. Article on Brisbane Skateboarders. Slam Skateboarding. Issue 213 (2016/17) pages 34 – 53. Article by John Green. Photos by Wade McLaughlin.
Image Jay Musk at State Library Queensland being interviewed for this project. 31st April 2025. Photograph by Dr Indigo Willing.
I'd always customize my boards, like grip tape and stuff and paint stuff. I just started painting them and making my own graphics.
There have been a number of companies in the 1990s to the mid-2000s and over to the current era. This includes from Herstwood Skateboards founded by Curtis Hay. Other brands such as DSCO Bearings have featured Queensland skateboarders in their advertisements.
Pat Gemzik. DSCO Bearing advertisement in Slam Skateboarding, Issue203 (2015) Page 112. From collection available at State Library Queensland.
Kudos Skateboards was started by Izy Duncombe (nee Mutu) and Shanae ‘Sheezy’ Collins with the support of Tom Flaherty, and was one of the first women and non-binary run skateboarding companies in the world (joining brands like Rookie, Hoopla, Pave the Way and Meow in the US and Sunny Skateboards in Japan). Kudos featured a ripping line up of women including a then young Haylie Powell who is now an Olympian from the Tokyo Games and Adelaide Norris who went on to be part of the Pass~Port team.
We were, like, basically just searching the Internet, looking at comps and who's authentic. And Adelaide came up and was just this super motivated kid, yeah, and really good skateboarding. So we hung out, skated, filmed, and then we're like, you want to be on the team? Was like, Yep, it was super cool.
Queenslanders also have been behind companies such as wheel brands including Cockroach Wheels, Picture Wheels and The Small Peanuts, to boards like New Edition, Herstwood, Woodfolk, Washed Mafia, Chameleon, Bohemia, Postal and Kippy Skateboards, Commodore and Sunday bearings, Fruity Grip, Paddo Wax, and hard goods and clothing companies including Deliverance Clothing in the early 2000s to contemporary brands such as 12am, Math, Baus Headwear and Stinkbug Industries.
I Love West End tshirt. Middle Store collaborative tee with Stink Bug Industries. 2025. Photograph by Dr Indigo Willing.
An example of how smaller brands also support their scene can be seen in the more recent Dogshop Skateboards company, created by Robbie Cameron in the 2020s.
Aaron Cooper, Brisbane high school stairs. Image by Robbie Cameron.
Aaron Cooper or ‘Ratty Dawg’ was our first team rider. Everyone loves RATTY! He should be a happiness therapist of some type, instead hes getting high on flooring glue....When he gets to a spot he either picks a fight with the biggest gap there, or goes straight for tailflip. He does not mess around.
Video still of Sage Macbeth, a First Nations skateboarder and Dog Shop team member, kickflip over Aboriginal flag painted at West End where Boundary St meets Vulture St. 2023. Provided by Robbie Cameron Dogshop Skateboards.
I’ve seen Sage Macbeth getting around. He has a natural flow about him with speed and style. He didn’t have much or any clips in videos. He was one of those under-captured skateboarders. These days he's the ‘shaman’ of our skate trips. We value the time we get to skate and journey with Sage.
Luka Kotze, frontside boardslide at Belco Jam, Canberra in 2025. Image supplied by Dogshop skateboards.
Luka reached out to us when he was 15, and we've skated and filmed together since. When you feel like quitting, go for a skate with Luka. It’s well known he rode his pushbike alone to Melbourne, but why!? to skate a rail and film a part.
Mike Lawry signing a blank deck with signatures by people who are a part of, or have supported Dogshop Skateboards journey at West End skatepark. August 2025. Photograph by Dr Indigo Willing.
Informal builders also have a long and important history of developing ‘spots’ as part of the iconic skateboarding culture, including from DIY efforts by the 138 crew in the Brain Drain (near Buranda hospital).
Pedro Day. Ad for Project Distribution. Part of Dr Indigo Willing’s QLD skate history collection.
Joel Wilshire. Grizzly Grip Capsule. Project Distribution. Part of Dr Indigo Willing’s QLD skate history collection.
Project Distribution’s support to the community includes for women, non-binary and queer run events by We Skate QLD and encouraging non-traditional skaters to get involved in more formal roles behind the scenes. This includes Ventress being a guest judge for the We Skate QLD annual jams, to inviting the team to be guest judges for the girls and women’s divisions at Lota skatepark.
Evie Ryder and Dr Indigo Willing from We Skate QLD community group plus Sid Tapia, Jim Dandy on judging panel and Ben Ventress as MC at Lota skate jam, 2023.
Merchandise or ‘product toss’ at Lota Skate Jam, 2023 by Project Distribution. Photograph Dr Indigo Willing.
Influential skate shops and companies that have often acted as a ‘home away from home’ for skaters in Brisbane have included Phrunt, Skate Biz, The Small Room, Board Store,, Extreme Skates, We are Drop Outs, Concrete Lines, Skate Connection, Fast Times (a growing presence nationally originally starting in Melbourne), Parliament (Brisbane and the Gold Coast), Pop Eye’s Skate Shop, Brisbane City Skates, Middle Store and many others. On the Gold Goast there has been Precinct, Darkside Skateboards and Sunshine Coast with Board Store. Further north there has been Skate Lab and Red Lotus Skate and Tattoo and Grind Shine Skateboards in Mackay, Cr8tiveSk8, Velocity 21, and Coffee Skateboards in Townsville and Hilltop Skate Shop in Toowooomba.
More so in the past, the Queensland skate community has also talked to me about other pivotal stores and businesses have included Skate Sauce, Skate Side, Skate Base, Vertical Assault, and Barties’ Deck Head Skate Shop. Shops at indoor skateparks such as Wayne and Karen Larkin’s Ramp Attak, Trevor Ward’s Level Up Academy, and Matt ‘Chiggy’ Chigwidden’s Chiggy’s Skateboards, Village Skatepark and others have also been the places where many beginners got their first set-up to learn to skate.
Ad for Extreme Skates shop in Bearing Magazine from John Oxley Library, State Library QLD
Brisbane City Skateshop owner Nat at the We Skate QLD 10th annual jam at West End skatepark, August 2025. Photograph by Dr Indigo Willing.
Recent shops backing skateboarding’s growth in Queensland, such as Middle Store in West End owned by Daniel Vincent, continue the skate shop tradition of building up their local scene with a team of local shredders, making videos, zines, hosting art and music shows and other creative initiatives. Following We Skate QLD in 2021 and 2022, Middle Store also participated in demonstrations for the Kurilpa Derby in 2023 and 2024. The shop is also a hub for skateboarders in the inner city to meet up before a skate session and share favourite spots, clips and events.
Images of the Middle Store demonstration at the Kurilpa Derby (2024) by Jacob Van Der Ley, image supplied by Daniel Vincent.
Friends and staff of Middle Store, including owner Daniel Vincent with Riley Short, Nick Dale, Daniel Gunther and Matt ‘Jobbo’ Jobbson. At West End. August 2025. Photograph by Dr Indigo Willing.
Nnamdi Ekeledo-Smith. Ad for Middle Store. Slam Skateboarding. Issue 239 (2025) page 23. Photographer: Jack Cassidy.
We Skate QLD at a video premier of Blossom by Rollende Minas and Respect is Rad for their 2023 Spring Jam event at Middle Store. Photograph supplied by Chris Willing.
This project encourages individuals who were are part of grassroots to larger Queensland skate businesses to share their mementos and memories. The next part of this project’s blog series turns its attention to both professional and ‘amateur’ skateboarders who have all played a role in putting Queensland on the map for its remarkable skateboarding and dedicated skate scenes.
Dr Indigo Willing
2025 John Oxley Library Honorary Fellow
Read other blogs by Dr Indigo Willing (to be released weekly):
- Part 1 - The Early Subculture of Skateboarding in Queensland
- Part 2 - Queensland Skateboarding Zine-making Tradition
- Part 3 - Picture Us Rolling: Visual Storytellers in Queensland Skateboarding
- Part 5 - Rolling Out the Red Carpet: Skateboarding Icons and Everyday Heroes
- Part 6 - We Skate Too: Women, Non-Binary, Queer and Non-Traditional Skateboarders
- Part 7: Queensland’s World-Class Competitive Skateboarders
To get involved in Skateboarding in Queensland, see We Skate QLD
Watch this video to explore Indigo's research project, and don’t miss the full video highlighting all the 2025 Queensland Memory Awards recipients and their inspiring projects.
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