‘Rogue’ Skateboarders Heading to Cuba to Build Country’s First Concrete Ramp
How cool is skateboarding? As America continues to try to undo itself from the rest of the world (including Cuba), yet skateboarders aren’t having any part of it. Let the kids skate!
This isn’t the first time Americans have reached out to the Cuban skate scene. Not too long ago Andrew Reynolds, Ishod, and others paid a visit.
Sample:
A group of skateboarders, including a contingent from Tampa, is heading to Cuba today to build what they say will be the island nation’s first concrete skate ramp.
Organizers say the plan is to convert an unused drainage ditch on the outskirts of Havana into a skate park with a mini ramp.
The effort, they say, does not include seeking approval from authorities in the communist nation.
“We are renegades,” said Michelle Box, executive director of Skatepark of Tampa and its associated charity, Boards for Bros.
Box said the Tampa contingent is joining a campaign spearheaded by a Miami skateboarding charity that has been distributing skateboards in Cuba since 2009. Today’s trip is being timed to coincide with international Go Skateboarding Day on Wednesday.
“It’s being celebrated around the world,” said Box, who at 47 is an avid skateboarder. “It’s a day to throw down the laptops and skate all day. That’s the impetus and reason and timing for this.”
The mission will last 10 days. People are coming from all over the United States, Canada, Mexico and Venezuela to take part.
Box said eight people from Tampa are paying their own way to participate in the effort, which includes lugging parts for about 100 skateboards to Havana to distribute to children there.
Click to TAMPA BAY for more on the rogue skate mission to Cuba
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