Harare's First Skatepark Is Taking Shape on Maasdorp Avenue

If you skate in Harare, you know the routine. You find a smooth patch of car park, you get maybe twenty minutes, and then somebody chases you off. That might be about to change, because a skatepark is going up at 12 Maasdorp Avenue in Belgravia, and the people building it want the whole city to know.

"Are You Ready For Harare's First Skate Park?" asked a reel posted on 23 October by the Instagram page whatshouldido, which pinned the location to Maasdorp Avenue and asked people to share it so skaters know it is coming, and so that a bigger one can follow.^[1]

Who is building it

The project is being driven by Push Project, which describes itself on TikTok as a non-profit giving access to skateboarding in underserved communities in Zimbabwe.^[2] It is a local charity run by Robby Kimmel.^[3]

Kimmel's story starts at the other end of the country. Originally from the United States, he moved to Victoria Falls and noticed how few recreational spaces there were for local young people. While a lot of money went into tourism, he felt local children were being left behind. Inspired by the Uganda Skateboard Society, he started bringing skateboards into the area and launched the Victoria Falls Skate Club, which he still runs every day.^[3]

For two years that club skated on a small patch of concrete with homemade wooden ramps. Then Kimmel asked Wonders Around the World, an international skatepark charity, to help build something permanent, and in October 2025 the two finished a skatepark inside Samkele Park, a free public park in Victoria Falls that also has trees, brick pathways, a calisthenics gym and a children's play area. The park sits on the boundary between the town's low and high density neighbourhoods, designed so people from different backgrounds share the same space.^[3]

Harare is the next stop. On 14 October Push Project posted that Harare was the obvious place to follow Victoria Falls, and that a skatepark was on its way at the Maasdorp Market in Belgravia.^[4] Two days later Kimmel shared a build video on Facebook and TikTok, joking that "even the murungu" was doing the manual labour, promising the park would be completely free to use and asking for volunteers.^[5][2] On 18 October Push Project thanked the skaters who had been giving their time to get it built. One of Kimmel's clips calls it Zimbabwe's second ever skatepark, counting Samkele, and another describes the bigger goal as Harare's first proper concrete skatepark.

The plan was to open during the Fabrik Party Convention, which took over the same address on 24 and 25 October. Push Project billed a free Harare Skate Jam there for Saturday 24 October at 1PM.^[6] As of the 23 October posts, though, the park was still described as coming soon, so check Push Project's pages before you turn up with your board.^[1]

Already thinking bigger

The organisers are not stopping at the first version. On 19 October Push Project put out a donation appeal to expand what it called Harare's first skatepark into "something bigger and better" for the community, saying the space would be home for the city's skaters for the foreseeable future. It asked for anything from $10 to $100, and said local and international payments are accepted, with the link in its Instagram bio and a QR code in the video.^[7]

@push.project Please help us build Harare's first skatepark which will be free to use by all.

Until the park is ready, the group also runs free weekly Sunday Sessions at The Hub in Groombridge, with a push to get more girls on boards, according to its Facebook videos.

Why it matters

Harare's skaters have been asking for this for years. A Change.org petition started in June by Tanaka Chembezi, a skate instructor from Mbare, says the city has more than two million people and no dedicated public skatepark. It describes 50 plus skaters from Mbare, Highfield and Chitungwiza meeting every week, being chased out of parking lots and pushed onto busy roads, and asks the City of Harare, the Ministry of Sport and the Sports and Recreation Commission to help find land for a public wheelsports park. By late October it had just over 300 verified signatures.^[8]

It is not a new problem. Back in 2018, the lack of proper infrastructure, especially skate parks, was already holding the sport back in Zimbabwe, alongside rough, congested roads and the fact that very few young people own boards.^[9]

About that word "first"

"First" is a busy word in Zimbabwean skating right now. Wonders Around the World calls Samkele the country's first skatepark,^[3] and when a video of it went round earlier this month, viewers said the same, although one commenter pointed to Centenary Park in Bulawayo instead.^[10] Separately, Zimskate announced plans in 2025 for a Greengrove Skatepark inside Harare's new Greengrove Nature Reserve, after the City of Harare backed a recreational park there.^[11]

So the Maasdorp Avenue park is best described as Harare's first free, public spot to skate, from the same team that built the one in Victoria Falls. Either way, for the kids dodging traffic to land an ollie, a safe place to practise is the part that counts.

What happens next

The first version depends on volunteers, and the bigger, concrete version depends on donations. If it works, Push Project will have built skateparks at both ends of the country in about a year, and Harare's petitioners get a working example to show the council. If you skate, ride BMX or roller skate, or just want to help, follow Push Project, volunteer, or share the post. That is exactly what the organisers are asking for.