Every Saturday, the group of novice skaters — known informally as "The Scorpions" — can practise the sport during a total of six half-hour beginner and intermediate lessons, between 11am and 12.30pm.
Local businessman Danny Healy compared his role to "a parent helping out an under-7s rugby team".
"I’m not the greatest skater".
He and his nephew Lewis Cameron, along with former colleague Kevin Coniam, began offering the lessons to members of the city’s migrant communities in April last year after approaching the Red Cross.
They were originally held at the skatepark in Thomas Burns St, behind the Dunedin Railway Station, but the group had for the past three weeks trialled hosting them at The Hub — a converted warehouse in Harrow St owned by Elim Church Dunedin — and since opened them up to the broader public, Mr Healy said.
The lessons provided a structure for children to improve and offered an environment where they could be around others interested in skateboarding, he said.
"A common sort of comment from parents is, ‘we bought them a skateboard — it’s just been in the closet since Christmas’.
"When you create an environment where kids can see that other kids enjoy skating, I think it makes them a little bit more likely to pick up the board and have a play around on it."
Mr Healy said he covered the absolute basics, while his nephew taught more advanced tricks such as ollies and kick-flips in the intermediate class.
"I’m glad I’m not taking that. I’d probably bust my ankle if I was looking after that."
The lessons could attract between two and eight young skateboarding novices, ranging in age from 4 to 17, each week, and the encouragement and support they had received so far had been "extremely fulfilling", Mr Healy said.
Clothing store Pavement, which also sells skateboards, had even chipped in by providing them with some free skateboards.
Having originally branched out from a project to establish an indoor skatepark in Dunedin, they had realised running the lessons was just as fulfilling, Mr Healy said.
Dunedin brothers Phineas, 7, and Matthias, 9, Kilpatrick-Pearce took part in their first session on Saturday.
Matthias rated the lessons "10 millions thumbs up" and said he liked learning with other beginners.
Phineas said he was already looking forward to coming back next weekend.
— additional reporting Ruby Shaw
