Less than one year ago, Cuba bade one final farewell to Fidel Castro. His 32-year reign is a loaded topic (read the rest of the stories in this Cuba issue), and the country’s crumbling infrastructure doesn’t go a long way toward making an argument for the way the regime treated its people. But this isn’t a story anchored in political ideology. No, this is a story about the simple, human desire to cruise city streets aboard a vessel made of wood, metal and polyurethane.
This is a story about a Tampa Bay contingent of tatted and tattered but tenacious do-gooders who decided that Cuba needed to be part of International Go Skateboarding Day (June 21), and set off for Havana last month with more than 100 donated, rehabilitated skateboards for the city’s youth .
Brian Schaefer — the owner of the Skatepark of Tampa — heard about the city’s need for skateboards from his friend and Atomic Tattoo co-owner Clay Montgomery, and decided to bring the park’s Boards for Bros nonprofit to the island nation. The 501(c)3 has been collecting and refurbishing skateboards and distributing them directly to Bay area youth, guerilla-style, since 2006. Having expanded to North Carolina, New Jersey and southern California in the last year, it made sense to broaden the operation’s scope. So Schaefer, 46, teamed up with a dozen or so friends, professional skateboarders and tattoo artists, along with an organization which has been surreptitiously delivering boards to Cuba for seven years, Amigo Skate Cuba.
“We want to show the world that a ragtag band of misfits can stand together in unity and triumph over the evil in this world,” Amigo Skate founder Rene Lecour told CL. He says his skaters have been robbed, beaten and jailed without provocation, and believes that the Cuban government doesn’t want free-thinking youth. But he also believes in the freedom one can chase on a skateboard. The Amigo crew see themselves in the faces of the kids every time they leave, according to Lecour, and it makes the threats, investigations and accusations worth it.
“We smuggle skateboards as if we were smuggling drugs and guns,” he added. “At the end of it all we can only be accused of making kids happy and not taking shit from no man.”
And the pictures don’t lie. White teeth, flexed cheeks and high-fives are all over the shots CL contributors Nicole Abbett and Jordan Hicks filed for us. They are pictures of youth in its purest form, and they are a simple illustration of the joy that giving to something bigger than yourself can bring. Fidel Castro’s revolution didn’t exactly die when he did, but another one is alive, kicking and pushing on the very same streets he used to reign over for so many years.
See more photos from the trip below. And stay tuned for details on a Cuba-centric art show at The Bricks Ybor. Learn more about the outreach via boards4bros.com and amigoskate.com.
