Skateboarding
Skateboarding
Hanging out with Sam and Balo as Jaakko Ojanen and crew session Nairobi
See how skateboarding is transforming the lives of Kenyan street youth in this amazing new episode of our series on Africa's skate explosion.
So, ladies and gentlemen, if you haven't already had the pleasure then allow us to introduce you to George Zuko – a candidate for raddest human in the world today. As with Sandy Alibo in Ghana, George has been a talismanic figure in the development of skateboard culture here in Kenya.
Jaakko Ojanen – Back Tail
© Sam McGuire
Nairobi skate crew
© Sam McGuire
George Zuko – Hippie Jump
© Sam McGuire
Chenai Gwandure – Crailslide
© Sam McGuire
How about this: George is a skater who helps run skate camps at an educational orphanage where the country’s first skatepark resides. Think about that for a moment. Children sleeping on the streets are by no means uncommon in Nairobi, and George introduced us to two young rippers who once slept right by the local skate spot – and started skating as a result. With George’s introduction of skating into their lives, The Keedz (‘the pair’) are off the streets, enrolled in school, and ripping.
Samuel Mwangi and Ezra Nyongesa – everyone calls him Balo, though – proved constant companions for Jaakko Ojanen, Chenai Gwandure, Yann Horowitz and Jackson Pilz as our joy bus spent a week rolling around with the skate scene of Nairobi. Sam even shot Balo’s front board photo from this feature on his first try with a camera. Fast learner!
Balo – Front Board Shove-It
© Samuel Mwangi
Jackson Pilz – Ollie
© Sam McGuire
On a mission
© Sam McGuire
Balo – Back Tail
© Sam McGuire
The Shangilia association which runs the educational orphanage space where the radiant skatepark resides work with hundreds of such children every day. Watch Patrik Wallner’s superb documentary on Jaakko and friends’ skate mission with the local rippers of Nairobi above.
Session with the skaters of Ghana as Jaakko Ojanen and friends hit up Accra, Ghana
16 min
Jaakko Ojanen meets the skatescene of Ghana
Jaakko Ojanen, Yann Horowitz and friends explore the burgeoning skateboarding scene in Ghana.
Skateboarding today has effectively conquered the globe: from Tibet to Patagonia, there's barely a human habitation around our blue planet that hasn't succumbed to the excitement that skating brings.
Yann Horowitz - Front Shove
© Sam McGuire
Yann Horowitz - Frontside Ollie
© Sam McGuire
Sandy Alibo
© Sam McGuire
Jaakko Ojanen - Front Crook
© Sam McGuire
Skate scenes in their infancy often have a guiding light, a champion and pioneer who evangelises and develops and agitates at the absolute grassroots level, to try and make things happen for the new people skating hooks every day, once they have access to it.
This is happening all over the world right now and it's the purest version of skateboarding’s promise. As a counterpoint to all the upriver skate activity going on in the world today, wonderful though that doubtless is, shining a light not just on these nascent scenes, but the builders of those scenes is a dollop of wholesome rad-ness nobody can have too much of.
Yann Horowitz - Back Tail
© Sam McGuire
Jackson Pilz - Frontside Flip
© Sam McGuire
Represent
© Sam McGuire
Yaw Adjel Amosah – Nosegrind
© Sam McGuire
So, when South African skate svengalis, Yann Horowitz, Chenai Gwandure and Luke Jackson suggested continuing our drop-ins with the diverse skate scenes throughout the continent by heading to Ghana to meet Sandy Alibo and the Accra skaters, Jaakko Ojanen and Jackson Pilz leapt at the once-in-a-lifetime chance to bring their magic feet to the party. What was created proved to be a pivotal skate happening for the Accra scene; one that'll never be forgotten by anyone involved. Absorb Patrik Wallner’s awesome film from the tour up top there and head back in a week’s time as the squad roll into Nairobi, Kenya.
