South African Skater Builds Club Lifting Kids in Soweto

Sharné Jacobs was the only girl at her local skatepark as a teenager, and the isolation eventually drove her away from the sport she loved. Two decades later, she's making sure no kid in Johannesburg feels that same loneliness.

In 2015, Jacobs founded Girls Skate South Africa to create the inclusive skateboarding community she wished existed when she started. By 2022, she expanded her mission with the Johannesburg Skate Club, offering free coaching to kids from Soweto, Alexandra, and other underserved communities.

The club meets five times a week at Nike's Shapa Soweto sports center in Klipspruit. Jacobs handpicks young skaters not just to master kickflips and ollies, but to learn the resilience that skateboarding demands.

"Skateboarding teaches them life lessons," Jacobs told Daily Maverick. "I want to show them that Soweto is not where it ends, that there's so much more to life."

Her coaching partner, Natalia Josefa Álvarez from Chile, helps structure classes into beginner and advanced sessions. Students graduate between levels by passing skill tests, and advanced skaters mentor newcomers with patience and respect.

The program goes beyond the skatepark. The club runs a book club and brings in volunteers to teach mental health awareness, recognizing that many kids face tough home situations with absent or struggling parents.

The Ripple Effect

The approach is already creating opportunities that seemed impossible just years ago. Eleven-year-old Omphile Mashile from Soweto earned a spot in the World Skate Development Scholarship Programme in late 2025, flying to the United States to train at elite facilities with top coaches.

For Jacobs, now 37, the club fulfills the purpose she found in skateboarding during her own difficult moments. "Skateboarding was my escape when I wasn't feeling happy," she said. "I would go out to skate and I would feel much better."

The program teaches what Jacobs learned the hard way: that falling down is part of rising up. Some kids arrive seeking an escape from poverty or family struggles, and they find a community that believes in their potential.

Hundreds of young people now have a safe space to practice, fail, improve, and dream bigger than their circumstances suggested possible.