SoCalSkate scene RE-visits Egypt 2007
Monday, August 20th, 2007First of all I’d like to thank all of the great people and companies that helped this whole adventure by sponsoring us with all the gear. Some of which are represented here by our product model Mariya,
We arrived in Cairo after traveling for about 27 hours, including a 6 hour lay over in France where we cruised around Paris, which was pretty cool. Once in Cairo we checked into the Shephard Hotel on the banks of the Nile. The Hotel was first built in the 1400’s and was at one time the location of Napolean’s headquarters (among other things) but has been rebuilt many times and we had these crazy sick 3 story penthouse rooms that over looked the Nile.
But this view was missing something,
I headed out on my own for some street skating and every where I went people were just tripping out on the skateboard I was riding. We totally take it for granted but in Cairo, a city of roughly 80 million people in an area the size of L.A., most people have never seen a skateboard.
Since some of our group had never been to Egypt before, we headed out to do some sight seeing. We went to the Cairo museum, we visited the largest Mosk in the middle east, we hit the market place and of course we visited the great pyramids. The whole time I carried a skateboard and would ride it when ever and where ever I could.
A little downhilling beside our mini bus, cruising by some local landmarks.
Dropping in on said monument.
And a sketchy ride down an ancient stone ramp.
Some things are the same all over the world. Even in the Sahara.
Kids dig stickers.
We went to lunch at a crazy Egyptian restaurant and visited a gnarly slum city called “Garbage City” where 70,000 people survive off of garbage!
Some locals take a smoke break from “work”
The Egyptians are really into their Hooka’s. This was in the kitchen of one of the restaurants we ate at. The guy is cleaning the pipes getting ready for the day.
When we got out to the camp I found out that they had not made skateboarding available as a “major sport” (a major is a sport that the kids sign up for at the camp and they attend for one and a half hours each day among other things that they compete in every day) when the kids parents signed them up months ago even though they had contacted me about doing skateboarding as a major. So, at their “opening ceremonies” I made an announcement about how skateboarding would be an option for those who wanted to change their major and I showed them a segment from the classic Bones Brigade video. The room full of 170 kids went silent and when I stopped the video and asked “well what do ya think”? They burst into cheers! They had to make up a lottery system to decide who could have the chance to sign up for skating. They asked me how many I could handle and since I brought 25 skateboards with me I threw out a number. I can probably deal with 30 I said. They had to turn away a bunch but the first day I was met bright and early by 30 eager kids. I quickly realized that 30 was a lot and maybe I should cut it back to 25 since that’s how many boards I had. They cleared out the main hall each day and rolled up the carpet and swept the concrete floor so that I had a place to “teach”.
I spent that first day figureing out that I could divide the kids into three skill levels. Group 1. never touched a skateboard before and couldn’t stand on one without holding onto someones hand or a wall. Group 2. never touched a skateboard before but had some natural skills and picked up the basics pretty quick. Group 3. (the smallest group of about 5 kids) had at least stood on or rolled around on a skateboard before. I soon realized that there was no way I was going to be able to deal with three groups of 10 to 13 year old kids on my own. My wonderful wife Pat who had flown halfway around the world by her self to join us at the camp and teach baseball, agreed to help me with skateboarding. With her excellent organizing skills, we fell into a routine that worked and the kids were having a ton of fun and learning a lot. We had to kick them out each day to go on to their next thing in their packed daily schedule.
The kids were stoked beyond belief! the first day they pretty much sorted out which boards they each wanted to ride and they all had their own reasons why. I sat them all down and explained that the boards had come from some great skateboarders over in America who donated them just so that they could skate and during the next week every now and then they would come up to me and ask “who’s board was this”? I’d give them the names like Dan C, Mike Hirsch, Corey, Splatlander, Evan, The Mogulman etc and their eyes would light up like they had heard of these guys before or something. One kid named Mazen who ended up getting the “most improved” award, asked me who’s board was this again? Dan Colburn’s I told him, he’s a great skater and was in a punk band called The Adolescents. Oh yeah, he said I’ve heard of him! Sure Mazen, sure you have.
All of the kids were great. Not really like kids here. Not worried about if they looked cool or what the other kids thought and they were really good at listening and taking instruction. They would improve by the hour and they would always offer to help me drag out all the boards and haul them back at the end of the day. The “best skater” award winner was a girl. Amina, she had skills right off the bat and wanted more right away. The little quarter pipe that I had built last year was still in one piece and so we drug it out into this courtyard area and that was where the number 3 group hung out and it was the goal of the other two groups to make it out there.
Ali makes it out to group 3. and throws down a stylish fakie on the quarter.
Mazen, totally stoked to be rockin Dan C’s board.
Once they were able to kick-turn pretty good on flat, they would move out to the ramp and if they could kick turn over the SCSP sticker, and if they wanted to, I would teach them how to tail drop the thing.
Amina was the first and then cam Mazen, who had started in group 2. and could hardly do a turn on flat ground but by the fifth day was stylin the tail drops (but not without some good slams). This kid has some built in style.
This next photo is the whole stoked gang. The first “skateboard major” group at the Wadi sports camp in Egypt. The first of many.
This is Amina getting her award for “best skater” at the night of the closing ceremonies from the dorky American “coach”. does she looked stoked or what?
In the end, I’d have to say that it was a huge success. Not only was this the first group of kids to go to this camp and learn to skateboard but this was also the first time that they or any other camp in Egypt had a mix of Christian and Muslim kids together at the same time which may not seem like a big deal to us but over there, it’s a real big deal. On the last night, some of the parents came and spent the night at the camp and got a chance to check it out. I got a chance to meet some of them when the kids would drag them over to meet “the American skateboarding coach” and it was super cool to see these parents stoked on their kids stoke and reaching out a hand to meet me and Pat. And Pat and I sat in on a question and comment session for the parents with an interperter and ALL of the comments were positive ones. And, I’m sure if you were to ask the kids, none of that other stuff would matter. They would all just probably call them selfs Skaters.
Skateboarding made an impact in these peoples lives!
And all of you guys who donated gear to this cause, YOU helped make it happen!
THANK YOU.