1 minute read
A missão do skate brasileiro hoje...
from 4skateboards
MISSÃO
O skate surgiu na Califórnia, Estados Unidos, nos anos 60. Foi inventado por alguns surfistas, como uma brincadeira para um dia no qual não havia ondas no mar. Eles utilizaram rodinhas de patina Já em 1965 foram fabricados os primeiros skates e realizados os primeiros campeonatos..
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PALAVRAS SAM DAWSON
FOTOGRAFIA jORDAN BUTTERS
O skate é praticado pelas ruas do mundo todo, ou em ligares específicos, como
You might assume surfing is a fairly eco-conscious sport, what with its focus on connecting with nature. But on a trip to Indonesia in 2018, surfer and journalist Mathieu Maugret was confronted with a very different reality—one that required an inspired solution. The Frenchman was visiting the island of Sumbawa to work, write and ride the waves, when he noticed all the broken boards dumped near popular surf spots. He made friends with a local surfer who was in the water every day, and he saw that the man was riding a damaged board. “There was no local industry to buy secondhand boards,” recalls Maugret, 31. “Since I was traveling elsewhere for work, initially I thought I could bring him back a board. But that’s when I had the idea: Why get a new board when you can mend the ones that’ve been discarded?” This simple thought grew into a grander vision: the Paddle Paddle Surf Project, an initiative that rescues broken boards from landfills, repairs them, then gives them a second life with those in need. Many surfboards are made from recycling-resistant materials such as expanded polystyrene, which can take up to 500 years to decompose, and most of the 400,000-plus boards manufactured globally each year will eventually go into landfills or end up dumped in the sea. Maugret’s first board repair soon became several, and working with a local contact, he gave them away to children living in the region. Since then the project has transformed into a global endeavor. With the help of friends and volunteers at surf spots in various countries, Maugret collects whatever old boards people can spare and spends months taking out the dings, making them watertight and rebeautifying them. “I started collecting samples everywhere and it grew really quick,” he explains. “Last summer, a group of us rented a house on the French coast and took all the boards we’d collected. We had 128 in the garden to repair.” In association with partners across the world—from all-female surf school Sea Sisters Sri Lanka to Surf Ghana, a collective aiming to open a surf school in Busua, Ghana—the Paddle Paddle Surf Project provides free boards and equipment as well as environmental education, while promoting local art and culture on its channels. Maugret is keen to raise money through local events rather than ask for donations. “I’ve tried to approach this not as a classic NGO but more as a global project in ecology, [organized] around art and surfing,” he says. “We don’t have someone in charge; rather, we’re a collective building something that looks like our idea of the future of sustainable nonprofit organizations.” Putting fewer boards into landfills and allowing more people to benefit from the positive power of the ocean, the Paddle Paddle Surf Project is helping surfing win back its environmental credentials.
