Ein Reise-Report von Michael Kagola aus Namibia – so kann Skateboard Aid funktionieren

My name is Michael Kagola from Namibia. I live in Freiburg, when I first moved to Freiburg I wanted to check out the local skate shops. The first skate shop I run into was Boardshop, I was really impressed by the interior design of the shop they had chairs made out of skateboards something that I’ve never seen in real life. On the skateboard chairs they had thrasher magazines laying all over so I set down to test the comfortability and skim through the thrasher magazine.

As I skimmed through the thrasher magazine enjoying the comfy bench a random shop assistant walked up to me and asked if I wanted help his name was Florian. I didn’t really come to buy anything but to check out the prices of decks so I budget for the next one, I told him no but would love to check what more they had in store somehow the conversation became long and he showed me some cariuma new edition shoes I really love and after we were done talking he offered to give me the thrasher magazine for free I was really stoked because I never owned a thrasher magazine they stopped selling them back in Namibia when I could afford one.

Florian was really nice and at some point I went back to the shop to buy a hat. I had to go back to Namibia at some point also and decided to take some skateboards for a skate project we are working on in my hometown Ondangwa called United by skateboarding. I asked some local skaters to donate some old decks and to my surprise people really came through.

Local skaters in freiburg gave me decks to take along and some shoes and other skateboarding gear however we had a shortage of trucks and wheels so I thought of asking boardshop and I explained what we are trying to build back in Namibia by my surprise Florian donated some trucks, wheels and bearings and stickers.

I was really happy with the generosity of boardshop. Now we had enough decks and trucks plus wheels and bearings for complete sets, the only thing I was afraid of was reaching the weight limit of my bags in the plaine as I was only given 23 kg however everything worked out just fine.

The bags were heavy asf ???? but I couldn’t leave anything behind I knew the kids would really appreciate every donation so I carried them all the way from Freiburg into the train and all the way to Frankfurt airport all the way through security check until they reached the cargo.

I felt relieved ???? after boarding the plane knowing that the donations will make it to their final destination.

Finally the donations reached their destination and the kids were stoked, It was like Christmas to the kids. The joy on their faces was unexplainable.

we did the set up of the boards and skated our crappy ramp that needs funds for renovation and an extension of a flatground. after skating the ramp I took the kids to skate the street and some flat ground to practice the ollie’s and other tricks instead of just learning how to drop in which almost every kid could do. we had about 13 skateboards and 30 kids, the skateboards were enough for sharing so i would do 30 minutes skating then have them change to give others a chance to skate also

we try to encourage girls to skate and the numbers keep increasing.

Here I teach the kids how to jump over that DIY rail we instantly built with my brother who is the project manager.

Junior(my brother) has been the manager since we built the ramp he would collect the boards at the end of every skate session and also teach the kids how to drop in and take them to skate flat.

The skate scene in Freiburg is really good and advanced. We aim to build a work away house to host international volunteers when we build a skatepark. you can see the unpainted construction building in the background. good news is we have the rights to the land and back in Freiburg I am pushing to collaborate with skateboard NGOs and seek for donations to keep the project running.

We thank Boardshop (Florian) for the generous act for our project and the local skaters. We are looking forward to building a good relationship with boardshop and spread the name all over the globe ????.

Editor's note: We thank Michael so much for this poignant report and tribute to our store. Love and Support forever...