SKATEBOARDER

Matty Day (aka DAY-Z or Daisy Legs) started skateboarding in 1987 and hasn’t stopped since. Skateboarding has taken Matty on a journey from the streets of rough an tumble suburbs around Noble Park in Melbourne across the country.

Matty regularly traveled to country towns and major cities around Australia demonstrating skateboarding and competing in competitions as sponsored rider. He was also a national skate team manager for a leading skateboard company in the late 90’s and early 2000’s.

Matty was featured in numerous national/international skateboard magazines and videos in the early 2000’s including Sidewalk Magazine (UK/EUR), Sports Illustrated (Aus/NZ), Slam Magazine (AUS/NZ), Australian Skateboarding Magazine (AUS/NZ), Streets of Melbourne (US/INT), Liquid Pixel, FSBS video magazine, The Burbs and Burbs 2 movies.

In the late 2000’s Matty moved his energy from working with the skate industry more towards a new community development focus. In this move he started to focus on the development of the sport of skateboarding in regional and remote areas of Australia.

In 2010 he became a Skate Australia accredited coach and established the first skateboard school in the Northern Territory, providing the local kids of Alice Springs with free learn to skate lessons.

Matty holds the highest level of national coaching qualifications available which are sanctioned by the Australian Institute of Sport, the Australian Olympic Committee and Sport Australia. Matty is also a recognised World Skate Judge and an inaugural member of The SkatePark School for skate park designers.

In 2015, Matty moved from Alice Springs to Coffs Harbour with the vision of growing the sport of skateboarding across the region. Since then Matty has worked closely with Coffs Harbour City Council to upgrade all their existing skateparks including the installation of lights at the Coffs Harbour Skatepark. Matty has also assisted the design of new Bray St and Sandy Beach skateparks.

In 2020 designed and built his own indoor skate park facility in the Woolgoolga industrial estate, 20 minutes north of Coffs Harbour combining a skate school, art studio and retail shop called Skate and Create.

Matty is currently a strategic advisor to skateboarding’s national peak body, Skate Australia and holds a position on the National Skateboard Technical Committee.

Matty’s focus remains on the development of grass roots skateboarding programs at a national and local level.

ARTIST

As a teenager Matty was always carried a skateboard, a sketchbook and a camera. He started to record what he observed around him while he travelled around the culturally emerging city of Melbourne.

Days and weekends spent visiting skate shops, record stores and op shops in Melbourne. Matty was inspired by the latest skateboard designs, new music and fashion. Popping into art galleries around the city, viewing the new exhibitions was a regular part of each of these cultural explorations.

In the late 2000’s Matty began installing large scale street art murals and exhibiting his work in numerous group and solo exhibitions. His work has sold nationally and internationally.

Listen to Matty talk about his popular Galaga mural in this ABC Alice Springs interview in 2022.

Matty currently focuses his art practice around designing skateboards for the Free Range skateboard team. He also produces hand painting custom designs for Sketchy skateboards. He also runs skateboard painting workshops for kids at Lionheart Studio / Skate and Create.

This practice has become the perfect way for Matty to continue to develop and share his passion for art and skateboarding with others.

The Skate and Create space is littered with small and large scale artworks and gives young people and families a way to connect with visual art.

The combination of the space and Matty’s passion for art and skateboarding, gives the local community an opportunity to connect with visual art, skateboarding culture and find inspiration or confidence in their own art making process.