Matty Day – Founder of Skate and Create

Matty Day is a lifelong skateboarder, artist, and community advocate who has dedicated over 35 years to the culture and growth of skateboarding in Australia. As one of the country’s leading skateboarding coaches and a nationally recognised figure in the sport, Matty founded Skate and Create in 2020 to bring together his passion for skateboarding, visual art, and youth development.

With roots in Melbourne’s gritty skate scene of the late '80s, Matty’s journey has taken him from the suburbs of Noble Park to skateparks across the country—competing, mentoring, and promoting skateboarding at all levels. His experience includes managing a national skate team, judging competitions at the highest level, founding member of Skate Coffs Coast Association and serving as a strategic advisor to the national peak body for skateboarding Skate Australia, where he now chairs the National Skateboard Technical Committee.

In 2010, Matty became one of Australia’s first accredited skateboarding coaches and launched the Northern Territory’s first skateboard school in Alice Springs. In 2015, he relocated to Coffs Harbour, where he played a key role in establishing a new skateboard community, upgrading local skate infrastructure and built his own indoor facility—Skate and Create—a unique space that fuses skateboarding, coaching, art, and community connection.

Matty is also an accomplished visual and performing artist. His artwork spans public murals, skateboard graphics, and youth art workshops. Through this creative lens, he helps young people build confidence, find their voice, and express themselves on and off the board.

“The idea behind Skate and Create was simple—combine my knowledge of skateboarding with my love of visual art and offer them both to my community. I believe in chasing your dreams through action, and skateboarding and art are my way of teaching resilience, creativity, and life skills to the next generation.” – Matty Day

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Ready to roll? You can book into one of Matty’s skateboarding classes here:
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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 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.