Skateboard Indawgyi

Skateboard Indawgyi

Here at Face of Indawgyi, we are always thinking of new ways to see and experience the lake and the surrounding environment. You can now see Indawgyi by fuel-efficient motorbike, bamboo bicycle, boat, and our new personal favorite, skateboard.

The Indawgyi Fleet. We offer a range of awesome cruiser boards from the Bureo “Ahi” and “Minnow” to smaller Penny boards.

It’s hard to come here and not enjoy skateboarding. It offers a completely different perspective as you wind up and down the roads and carve through villages. Not only that, as you pedal through each place, it’s not unusual to receive the rock star treatment as people whistle and applaud as you pass by.  

More than anything, we have been encouraging visitors to explore skateboarding as a sustainable way to get around Indawgyi Lake. We currently source most of our boards from Bureo. This company specializes in creating plastic skateboard decks made out of recycled fishing nets. It’s our eventual goal to later partner with them as a way to re-use the fishing nets from here. They also happen to be excellent skateboards that are perfect for navigating the sometimes bumpy roads.

The newly paved road along the eastern edge of Indawgyi has made once hard-to-reach villages much more easily accessible. (Photo: Kyaw Kyaw Win, Kachin State Hluttaw)

Indawgyi Lake has changed a lot over the last few years. The first paved road arrived in 2014. In 2018, they widened the road leading from through the mountains all the way to Shwe Myintzu Pagoda. And now, they have just finished paving the section of road that runs along the eastern shore of Indawgyi— a major accomplishment. During rainy season, villages along this edge of Indawgyi were nearly inaccessible by motorbike or car as the dirt road turned into miles of deep, sticky mud. Climbing the mountains could be one of the only options but that would be equally fun!

Now almost all of Indawgyi is connected to a paved road. This means so much for the local communities helping them access goods and the outside markets easier while facilitating deeper relationships between villages. And there’s no better way to check it all out than on one of our skateboards.