Page 126 - BackSIDE rollbrett-heft 25th Anniversary

‘I wanted to do whatever I could to help build a

skateboarding culture there as I know how much

Skateboarding has impacted my life in a positive

way. The sense of community it builds, Friendships,

culture, style, creativity and the powerful life

lesson of never giving up till you reach your goal.’

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How are you doing?

I am good thank you.

Tell us something about yourself?I
I am a father of 2 kids, My son is 3 and my daughter is 1. I am 37 years old and I have been
skateboarding for most of my life. I grew up Skateboarding in Sydney Australia with my older Brother.

How come a guy from Sydney Australia Comes up with the idea to send boards to Ghana?
My Partner is Ghanaian, she was born in Kumasi Ghana and her family moved to Australia when she was
10 years old. We travelled to Ghana about 5 years ago now and spent a couple of months there. I fell in
love with the place, the people the culture and the lifestyle and I did not want to leave. We have been

wan�ng to move there and set something up ever since. I no�ced that there is a large youth popula�on
in Ghana that don’t have a lot of ac�vi�es to keep them occupied. I wanted to do whatever I could to
help build a skateboarding culture there as I know how much Skateboarding has impacted my life in a
posi�ve way. The sense of community it buils, Friendships, culture, style, crea�vity and the powerful life
lesson of never giving up �ll you reach your goal. When I got back home to my life here in Australia I
started to reach out to some of the skateboarders in Accra that I found on social media to find out how I

could help. I came across a young man by the name of Cephas @cephyo who started an Instagram page
@leaguesb where he was showcasing skateboarders from all over the con�nent of Africa. Cephas
seemed to me to be one of the main guys who was trying to push the scene on the ground level
amongst the other young skaters in Accra. I started to chat to Cephas a lot to try and find out what was
going on over there and how they were ge�ng skateboards and shoes etc. I have formed a good
friendship with Cephas and he is now my main contact in Ghana that I ship the boards to.

Joshua Ganyobi Odamtten
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