By providing skateboarding lessons and a homemade skatepark, Chad Kleinsmith and Recardo Ruiters of Ravensmead, Cape Town, are keeping kids out of trouble and on the rails.
When you hear the clattering of rubber wheels on rough tar, the sound of wood scraping against wood and cheers from young voices, you’ve found your way to Rose Street in Ravensmead.
Ruiters is 41 years old and has been skateboarding his “whole life”. He first stepped on a board while hanging out with friends in Cape Town’s city centre in the early 1990s, and now prefers to teach the kids in his community that there is more to life than some of the bad influences in their surroundings.
Graham Clarke, one of the first to join the skateboarder crew, performs a trick at the netball courts at Florida Park in Ravensmead, Cape Town. “One day I saw Chad do a really cool skate trick and I also wanted to do that so I asked if I could join them,” says Ross.Ruiters and Kleinsmith’s initiative started at the end of last year. They noticed how children in the neighbourhood looked up to them and decided to do something to help them.
“I guess that’s what sparked the interest in the kids, because they saw these things and eventually wanted to try it themselves. They realised if you learn and practice, you can actually make progress. Unlike in some neighbourhoods, where skateboarders are stereotypically seen as rebels, in Ravensmead they are seen as idols for younger children to look up to.
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