Theo Kitching and the Ramp Revamp

Meet Theo, a Chesham Dweller since birth. A skateboarder and musician, Theo has been a regular on the ramps in Lowndes Park for the past five years. Alongside this he makes films and composes his own music, playing gigs and open mics at local venues The Bell at Chartridge and further afield, such as The Paradise. Theo records and produces his songs at home – you can hear some of his music via: Theodore Kitching. So, multi-talented, gifted and young, no doubt we’ll see and hear more from Theo in the future.

As a young adult, Theo is developing into an independent film maker, focusing on social documenting vimeo.com/theokitching. In his record of Lowndes Park 60th anniversary last August 2013, Theo captures the spirit of the event through his artistic and thoughtful style. He began filming aged 13 years old, with some of the material in his feature length skate film, ‘Seen and Not Heard‘, shot in his formative filming years. Theo’s movie offers an intuitive view into Chesham Skateboarding and provides a social commentary from an insider’s angle.

Art and skateboarding account for a large part of Chesham’s youth culture, and to which Theo has contributed with his own ramp art. Alongside other local artists, Theo creates his own designs, having decorated the old ramps with self made spray stencils, layering to achieve the final design.

The official opening of the new skate park was back in April, when Theo and other local skateboarders had been eagerly waiting for a chance to finally test them out. (In fact they were so eager, they didn’t wait for the official opening, and the big mesh fences just couldn’t keep them out.) Compared to the old space, the new skate park covers a larger area, and its installation was thanks to the generosity and recognition of its importance, by Chesham Town Council and Friends of Lowndes Park. Already a Mecca for local skaters, no doubt more will now make the pilgrimage to Lowndes Park, this summer and beyond.The park itself is beautiful and the ramps are set against a backdrop of the hills surrounding Chesham.

Theo interprets the skate park as “a hellhole of a place some days, and it is also very peaceful on others, attracting the best and absolute worst of people. Based on this fact, it is, in my opinion, the realest place in our community”. It’s certainly worth seeing what some of them are capable of on a board, a BMX, or a scooter.

Chesham Tales documented the great mounds of dug up earth which blighted the park, transform into a new space for the good of Chesham’s young skaters and scooters. It’s a shame though, that the old ramps had to go – and what has become of them, with the vibrant ramp art that adorned them? Perhaps those sides may appear installed in an alleyway when we’re not expecting it, or up on a wall in the Town Hall… Just a suggestion.

Theo recalls growing up on the ramps:

One summer’s day in 2009, I built up the confidence to try the ‘rock to fakie’. I rolled up the ramp with all the tenacity in my guts, my cubic Spitfire wheels roaring; the adrenaline kicked in and– BAM! I fell back, hitting the tarmac and bruising my hip. My board never came with me on the way down, and I burst into tears.
It was during my blubbering that one older skater approached me. He had insulted me previously quite a few times, but this time he felt it right to help me out in some way. He told me, “Take your board, and, with the trucks facing down, hit the ramp as hard as you can.”
And so I did.
“Do you feel better?” he asked.
“Yeah, much better!”
And he was right. I asked the man if he ever cried while skating. He told me, “One time, when I was younger, I cried my eyes out. But then I thought, ‘What’s the point?’ I haven’t cried from skating since.

Have a look at Theo’s films on You Tube via the links below, and see the gallery for a view into Theo’s world, on the ramps and on the stage…