Joana Simões

Dedicação e pranchas de skate feitas à mão: como um grupo de crianças de São Tomé impressionou Tony Hawk

Greg Ewing

O skater lendário diz que vai tentar enviar equipamentos modernos às crianças, depois de se ter comovido com as imagens

Joana Simões

Tony Hawk, o ícone do skate mundial, ficou “fascinado” com uma fotografia de um grupo de crianças são-tomenses em cima de pranchas de skate feitas à mão.

A fotografia em questão foi capturada pelo fotógrafo Greg Ewing e levou Tony Hawk a pesquisar mais sobre a história por detrás da imagem. “Parece que as pranchas foram feitas pela Santana Surf School para recriar as ondas do mar quando elas se encontram mais baixas”, escreveu o skater na sua página do Twitter.

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Last week i had an image of mine pulled off the web and posted on Instagram without a proper credit. Nothing new, something all photographers fight with. I didn’t upload this picture to the web myself and therefore putting into the public domain as some might argue, a magazine did. Copyright still very much exists on the internet, there is nothing grey about it. The image ended up getting some traction with over 10 000 likes and eventually it was shared by someone who searched my name and tagged me correctly. So much goes into creating an image like this one, months if not years of planning the trip, finding funding… and then actually capturing the moment. The image becomes very personal. In all this there was a bigger picture that was clouded for me in my own frustration around the value of an image, copyright and social media… I remember how we were all just blown away by the kids ingenuity and resourcefulness and the comments on the post were really heartwarming. People have started to rally around these kids and appealed to the industry to help them. This one photo may in some way or another change these kids lives for the better. And the more I read, the comments got deeper reaching out to role models like Tony Hawk to use their power to make a difference. I really hope something comes from this with such a positive response. So in all my personal frustration there is a much bigger picture and we sometimes have to remember to open our eyes and look past ourselves. These are the kids from São Tomé now featured on @transworldskate

A post shared by Greg Ewing (@gregewing) on Sep 6, 2020 at 1:52am PDT

Hawk diz que a melhor parte da sua descoberta foi ter encontrado o Facebook da escola de surf e ver os vídeos das crianças “a explorar estes veículos de retalhos”. O skater ficou tão comovido com o episódio deste grupo de crianças que disse que lhes vai tentar enviar equipamentos mais modernos, como escreve na sua página do Instagram, para que elas possam ter uma melhor experiência na prática do skate. “Mas há algo de sublime em ver a dedicação que é colocada nestes skates feitos à mão”, confessa.

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I was fascinated by a picture by @gregewing that was making the rounds recently of kids riding homemade skateboards on São Tomé island. I dug a little deeper into the story and it seems the boards were made by Santana Surf School for recreation when the waves are flat. The best part of my search was finding their Facebook page and watching the kids rip on these patchwork vehicles (swipe to see vids). I’m gonna try to send them some modern gear but there is something sublime about seeing their DIY dedication to skate against all odds.

A post shared by Tony Hawk (@tonyhawk) on Sep 7, 2020 at 4:55pm PDT