I have been skateboarding since I was 11 years old. I have had times when it’s all I did and times when it just sat in the back of my car. It has helped me learn and grow into the man I am becoming.
It taught me to have self determination and be not to wait for someone to do everything for me. It gave me a work ethic because if I didn’t practice I wouldn’t learn a new trick.
Through countless hours spent at skateparks, building ramps out of scrap wood, skating in city/urban areas, and watching videos of professionals do tricks it formed my childhood.
I had a small thought to bring a skateboard on The World Race but didn’t. I said it would be a burden and take up space. But after being given one by a teammate, Jessica Cohen, I realized how wrong I was.
Day one in Cambodia is when it came to reality for me. After a long 16 hour travel day from Vietnam, which was filled with border crossings, lots of sweating, and a long van ride with 13 people and out 40lb bags I get out of the van and I see a sea of kids around it waiting for us.
We unload our bags and the kids see my board. They are mesmerized by it and had never seen one before.
So I get out and start pushing around the jagged concrete. I do a trick or two and the kids instantly want to try.
I taught them how to push and I held their hands as they moved around on 4 little polyurethane wheels, two pieces of steel, and wood.
After a long day the last thing anybody wants to do is run around and try to explain things to kids who speaks little to no English.
But that is what God told me to do in that moment. Take this opportunity now and it will become something amazing. I did and the story gets better.
They would come over to our house from the orphanage every day to come and learn to skate. It would be the first thing they wanted to do at 7 am. And the last thing at 9 pm.
I soon found that the orphanage had better concrete and a lot of it to move around. So I would bring it there and teach more kids to skate and show them tricks.
I am not very good but I wanted to show them this piece of wood is not just a toy but a vessel to really cool things and lessons in life. My inner preteen/teenager came out and I showed them videos from the X Games.
They watched guys soar 20 feet in the air on the Big Air ramps, Tony Hawk doing a 900, and guys jumping down 25 stairs, a 10-15 foot drop.
They wanted to do cool tricks but didn’t have any of the expensive ramps to do them. So I did what I did back in the day and searched the orphanage for scrap wood.
First it was just them going down a little 6 inch high bank ramp, 5 degree angle. A lot of them could do it and I would hold their hands the first time and run down the ramp and along side them. Thier faces and expressions went from fear to having the biggest smile.
They would go again and again and later wouldn’t need me. They were on their own and were doing great.
Except my teammate Victoria. She pulled me down with her as we fell to the ground.
But Micah, my teammate, had an idea to make the ramp harder. To make it higher and increase the angle. This would be to give it challenge, to show them how to overcome obstacles in life.
(Safety was less than a concern and more of a lack there of.)
The first increase some kids could do it and others became uninterested. Then it got higher and higher. As it went up it got harder.
It made me uneasy because the ramp was being held up by an old table, some concrete tubes, a brick, and an old piece of wood.
Kids felt this also and the pack of kids I was teaching and guiding went down to 3-5 that were willing to fall on the hard concrete and get back up again.
They had gotten scraped up, bruised and hurt from falling. They started to get scared and feel that this wasn’t safe anymore.
But they had this desire to conquer this ramp. After one kid rode away fine they saw that it was possible. They all ended up doing it so it got higher and higher.
The final height was about 5 feet high and the angle was 40 degrees. I was terrified to do it because I didn’t know if the ramp could hold me or if my wheels would ride away from the harsh drop at the end of the decline. But I showed them it was possible and rode away unhurt.
Only one kid was able to do it at that height. This is what Micah and I wanted all along. It was a lesson in perseverance for him, cheering your friend on from the kids watching him, and for me seeing a small metaphor for watching a seed get watered, start sprouting, and then becoming a beautiful flower.
Sopawn after he was the only one to ride away from the highest ramp.
After it was done he was dirty, bruised, and bleeding a little. But he had this look of joy when he conquered it in his eyes. He was so happy that he was able to finish what he started and be the best at something while living among 30 other boys. Micah gave me a sk8ordie and a Overcome tattoo to reward him some more too
But knowing I was leaving broke my heart because the skateboard was leaving too. Vandy, the guy who runs the orphanage, started asking me where he could buy his kids a skateboard and when I told him the cost he seemed worried that they would never have as much fun again.
Micah proposed the idea of finding a skate shop in one of the big cities to give them a board or two. So I hunted down two skate shops and said what was going on and that these kids knew how to skate but I couldn’t leave the board with them.
One responded the next day and was apprehensive at first but said they would do it if they met Vandy. If they liked him they would bring the boards themselves to the orphanage and show them more. It would take 3-4 weeks for that happen, and it was possible it wouldn’t happen because the boards might not come in from the states. I was leaving in three days and it was out of my hands.
I left hoping and praying it would work out. So often people go to orphanages to do missions and make promises and build a relationship with kids and nothing lasting happens. I left telling them they would get a skateboard and didn’t want to be a part of story that left disappointment.
Yes they see Jesus in us and I had some awesome conversations with kids that could speak good English but I wanted this to work out so bad.
I wanted to them to have something tangible in their hands. They would pop a soccer ball within days or hours. I had taught them to care for things better and the skateboard was the vessel for that. So many lessons taught and I became worried it wouldn’t work out as I was going into the 4 week mark and had heard nothing back. I continued to pray for my friends in Cambodia.
Then it happened. They got not just one but two boards!!! I heard that they are in love again and were rolling around and doing tricks like the board had never left them!
Since being on this journey I have seen, met, and been around a lot of people. Some I will never know the full outcome of what their lives look like.
Prayers do get answered and mine of seeing the small seeds of all lessons I planted got watered more and more that day. And I know they will continue now. I have some solace that this isn’t just a trip where I go and leave, go and leave, and go and leave.
I was affirmed that God used me for something bigger than myself as person after I left.
God used me to show them the Gospel through a piece of wood, some metal, and 4 polyurethane wheels.
Take this as a lesson for yourself. Prayers do get answered, God will use you to show people love if you say yes no matter how tired you are, God will show you a future even when you doubt anything will come of it, if you say yes to some scrapes and bruises you will see victory, and whatever you want to take out of this super long story.
