Boards for Bro's 2007 Article at Skatepark of Tampa

Boards for Bro's 2007

Posted on Wednesday, December 5, 2007 by Ryan

Words by Ryan Clements
Photos and Captions by Angel Carela

Pile of boards ready for assembly
Aaron and Barak putting together sets of wheels
Wes and Levi were on this section working with bearings, wheels, and trucks
My job was to put sets of trucks together. Some mixing and matching was necessary in some cases
Jon Mann and Bowers worked on putting the trucks on the boards. Looks like Mann would rather have an electric drill
Canine supervision
After the boards were done, Giles was responsible for branding them before they were piled away
Some of the finished skateboards
Ryan and Ed finishing off for the day
Boards and wheels for the next session at Clements' workshop
If you have no idea what Boards for Bro's is all about, let me give you a quick break-down...

In late November of 2006 Paul Schmitt came to Tampa to skate in Binky's Beer Belly Bowl Jam. We took some time away from Skatepark and headed over to the Bro Bowl. I'm sure you're aware of the usual antics that go down at that place. Keep in mind that this is while the projects were still there. There must have been 10 little kids that were asking to borrow our boards and basically annoying us while we were trying to have a session.

Those kids needed something. They needed their own skateboards. Paul came up with the idea of collecting used skate gear, putting it back together, and giving the boards to the kids at the Bro Bowl. We immediately started collecting used product at SPoT and a few weeks later we had about 30 completes. Signs were posted at the Bro Bowl that "Santa" was giving out skateboards the Saturday before Christmas. Here's how it turned out:

http://www.skateparkoftampa.com/spot/article.aspx?id=687

We continued the collecting throughout 2007 and now it's time to give some more completes away. The photos are of our "assembly party" that we had last week. I know, it's nothing spectacular, but we're doing what we can. The bottom line is this though...we have about 35 completes at the moment, but we have enough decks, wheels, and bearings to make about 100. We desperately need trucks and hardware though.

If you can donate an old pair of trucks, please drop them off at Skatepark when you get the chance. If you can't make it, please ship them. And if you're an industry person and have access to a few pair of extra trucks that are sitting on the shelves, please take a moment to send us a few pair to:

Skatepark of Tampa
Attn: Boards for Bro's
4215 East Columbus Drive
Tampa, Florida 33605

And here's the website:

www.boardsforbros.com

Thanks to everyone that has been helping out with this project.

Ryan

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