![]() ![]() Not counting skateparks in the City of Brotherly Love, Freedom is now the closest indoor skatepark for South Jersey skaters. Now relegated to South Jersey folklore, the Moorestown Mall had an indoor skatepark called Black Diamond Skatepark similar to Freedom. Todt fell in love with skating at the Moorestown Mall. ![]() Skateboarding also brings together regions as well-folks from PA and South Jersey travel to skate at Freedom, like Ethan Todt of Moorestown. Skateboarding is a connector and no matter what you look like or where you’re from or no matter what you do for work, people will come together and connect over skateboarding. “There was a perception in the past-and there still kind of is-that skateboarding is just for white guys and that is no longer the case. “It’s a real key part of what we worked on as an organization,” says McNichol. One of the goals that McNichol had in mind when he started Freedom was to promote diversity within skating. Before the open skate sessions on Saturday mornings in winter, Freedom hosts an event for nonbinary skaters. Go to any skate park and you’ll see people from all classes, genders, races and ages. In a world where sports are becoming more expensive to participate in, skateboarding is still relatively cheap and is diverse. “Nothing is gonna come easy and I might skate everyday and have consistent tricks, but there will be days where you don’t land those consistent tricks.” Through the years, Torres has broken his fair share of boards here, but also has learned a ton of life lessons from skateboarding. “I’ve been here so many years and I don’t get sick of it.” “This place means a lot to me, and showed me who I really wanted to be in life, which is a skateboarder,” says Torres. ![]() The indoor skate park is located at the old Roebling Wire Works building and has been a boon for the local Trenton skateboarding community, including Angel Torres, a Trenton native and skateboarder. Freedom was an opportunity for the local skate community, and the skate community in general, to benefit.”įreedom was made possible with help from the city’s recreation department and donations. At the same time I was a skateboarder and realized that Trenton is a skateboarding destination and there are a lot of famous street spots, but people would leave and not stay. I realized there was a group of kids in Trenton who wanted to learn how to skate and had nowhere to go. “I started Freedom because I was living in Trenton and I have been volunteering here doing skateboard giveaways with Homefront and the Boys & Girls Club. McNichol realized there was a skate community in Trenton, but not a ton of places to skate and that would leave skaters going to Philly or New York. The love of skateboarding followed McNichol all throughout his life, including when he moved to Trenton. “I could think creatively and there wasn’t any court that I had to be on to skate and there wasn’t a specific time I had to show up to practice.” “I liked that skating wasn’t competitive and that I was able to use my body to do what I wanted to do,” McNichol says. With the skatepark quickly becoming the home of the next generation of Ghana’s skating community, Sandy is not relenting, she is taking a step further as Surf Ghana embarks on the second phase of the project: A Wi-Fi Cafe and a skate shop, which is expected to be in full operation by the first quarter of this year.Freedom Skate Park founder Jake McNichol fell in love with skateboarding at a young age and particularly enjoyed the freedom that pushing wood provided him. “Representing Ghana for skateboarding in the Olympic Games is a dream for everybody here, and I'm sure it will be possible in a few years,” says Sandy. For the first time ever last year, skateboarding was featured as a competitive sport at the Tokyo Olympic Games. Similarly, the skatepark is also a beacon of hope to the skaters as they earnestly train and look forward to Ghana’s possible inclusion in the skateboarding category of the 2024 Olympic Games. “He was always for his people - and will always be remembered for being for his people,” says Hendricks, stressing the impact of Virgil’s contribution to the realization of their dreams and that of many skaters yet to be born. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |