The very first fully functional skate park in the heart of Accra

Surf Ghana,  a skateboarding and surf collective dedicated to galvanize the burgeoning skateboarding scene in Ghana, teamed up with Limbo Accra, Wonders around the World, and Space Accra to build Freedom skate park,  the country's very first fully functional skate park in the heart of  Accra

The collective has an intent to create social change in Ghana. For 4 consistent years, we have focused on building a creative and inclusive community.

Our message is simple: Anything is possible, and through skateboarding, the youth can learn that we are not defined by perceived obstacles, but that we can find meaning in our ability to adapt to them. That is what skateboarding is truly about and for us; it is more than just skateboarding but the synergy between the arts: music, graffiti, photography, writing, styling, and carpentry as a way to campaign for a healthy body and mind, sound education, and social awareness.

Why are we doing this?

Sports infrastructures are still a luxury in West Africa

Ghana has the most progressive skateboarding scene in West Africa. However, at the present moment, there are no sports infrastructures dedicated to the practice of skateboarding.

Access to sports clubs cost between 25 to 50% of the average Ghanaian's monthly salary compared to 3% in Europe. Quality sports infrastructures are limited and often belong to private schools or universities. The access is restricted.

Ghana's youth unemployment rate one of the highest worldwide

Nearly 60% of the unemployed in Ghana are at their young age. Youth unemployment in Ghana is mainly concentrated in urban cities. In Accra, the nation's capital, the unemployment rate is about 30.8%. It involves the risk of isolation and social exclusion, and deteriorating effects on personal life and well-being.

Art, Sports & Culture public institutions don't provide entrepreneurship programs

Most of the initiatives are private, limited & provided by NGOs that give emergency responses that cannot guarantee sustainable vision.

Our ambition

A sports and art hub to empower the creative youth of Accra

As more than just a simple skate ramp, Freedom Skate Park will include coaching programs, art workshops, a Wi-Fi cafe, and the country's very first skate shop, to connect young Ghanaians and develop creative possibilities in an environment that promotes inclusivity.

A new sports ecosystem that supports well-being, creativity, and entrepreneurship

Since 2016, Surf Ghana's core mission has been to offer easy access to board sports for youth across Ghana. Presently, the ever-growing community of active skateboarders has created an ecosystem that supports well-being, creativity, and entrepreneurship that is all 100% made in Ghana. We aim to use the inclusiveness of board sports as a bridge to urban sports life for Ghana's most marginalized local population.

We believe that the construction of Freedom Skate Park will solidify the growth of board sports in Ghana, and help the youth participate in creative activities that build confidence, self-esteem and provide a valuable platform for self-expression.

A skate park to improve African representation in board sports

Surf Ghana also wishes to encourage the space as a training ground for Ghana's possible inclusion in the skateboarding category of the 2024 Olympic Games and international competition.

More info freedomskatepark.org

About Surf Ghana Collective

Our active members

Surf Ghana collective is a social platform founded in 2016 by Sandy Alibo and registered as a non-profit and non-governmental organization. The collective aims to use the practice of board sports as a driver for education, social inclusion, and empowerment for the youth. The collective curates events, and offers sports experiences. With a total of 25 active members, the collective contributes to action sports as instructors, documentary filmmakers, photographers, carpenters, 3D designers, writers, and artists. The collective plans to train members to lead a consistent and safe skateboarding program in the future skate park.  

@surfghana 

To learn more about the collective visit freedomskatepark.org and surfghana.org

Our construction partners

Design studio Limbo Accra is on hand for creative direction as the architectural lead, with a mission to "deliver afro-utopian spatial justice for all," an urban ecosystem in harmony with its local population.

Limbo Accra's core goals of sustainable, redistributive, and community-led development are all met with Freedom Skate Park; challenging Ghana's urban development sector to embrace new models that create meaningful opportunities for the youth through novel architectural designs.

Limbo Accra's spatial design team, in collaboration with Surf Ghana and Wonders Around the World, brings forth the visionary design for Freedom Skate Park. The park is the first of its kind as it bridges the gap in the recreational landscape in Accra, by creating both a space for skateboarders and the community at large.

The community-led design process has informed the programming. The park has a moldable art space, a community planted green area, and a co-working hub. Built with contemporary and ancient techniques, the park is imagined to be a bustling space and a new urban site for the whole of Ghana: inspired globally - created locally.

For more information visit https://www.limboaccra.online/

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WAW - Wonders Around the World is a NGO charitable organization built to help make skateboarding accessible worldwide, mainly by developing skateparks in underrepresented areas of the world and supporting the communities pivoting around them. 

By developing these public sanctuaries in close cooperation with local partners, WAW provides the communities with the tools and continuous support to independently and successfully manage their facilities, offering the best outcome and defining the statement ‘It’s their park’.

Surf Ghana’s Freedom skatepark is designed and will be built in close cooperation with the native skateboarders, Surf Ghana, Space Accra and Limbo Accra. 

https://wondersaroundtheworld.org/

Timeline

Our Kickstarter runs for 40 days and finishes mid-april 2021.

How will your contribution be spent? 

What we've achieved so far

Our project in its entirety requires an investment of 250k euros.

REWARDS

Risks & Challenges

The Surf Ghana Collective needs construction experts to build the skate park infrastructure and most of them live in Europe. We will need to make sure they can still travel to Ghana in 2021 considering Covid 19 restrictions. Wonders Around the World's team intends to organize a workshop to teach skateboarders basic knowledge about skate parks and allowing them to be independent in the future.

Our rewards will be manufactured to order when the campaign finishes, with items mainly being designed in Ghana but produced in France, meaning that there could be a delay in us shipping them out to you, so please be patient with us, and we promise to keep you updated :-)

OUR PARTNERS

A FEW WORDS FROM JEFFERSON OSEI, OUR SPONSOR

- With this initiative, we hope to evolve the skate culture in Ghana to the next level and give locals a platform to grow their talents within a space that will hopefully become their biggest training ground to date. More than board sports, the park will be a creative hub for young Ghanaians to come together, exchange ideas, inspire each other and build their futures through recreational activities. They now have a place where they can be themselves, freely develop their skills together with like-minded people and reach their true potential. Hence the name Freedom Skatepark.’ - Jefferson Osei, Co-Founder of Daily Paper 

THANK YOU TO ALL OUR CONTRIBUTORS

Alaska Alaska 

A Black-owned and lead research-based design and creative service rooted in contemporary landscapes, essentially questioning design while designing “design”.

Alaska’s design approach, in the quest to produce output that is aware of its context from a holistic aerial perspective. Their research commences with a careful consideration and analysis of connected audiences, contexts, and collaborators; and proceeds to dive deeper into subject matter and production processes.

Maryam Muhammed

Maryam Muhammad is currently a 2021 FSF scholarship recipient and a Virgil Abloh Post-Modern Scholar. She is a dean's list student who is a Senior at SCAD majoring in fashion design with a minor in painting. Maryam's passion in life is to create womenswear that celebrates women's beauty through the eyes of modest fashion. While creating works of art through realistic paintings and graphic design.

Follow Maryam on Instagram 

David Alabo

David Alabo takes an Afro-surrealistic approach to his art, using visually articulate digital African landscapes that are speculative, familiar, and fantastical. Based in Accra, the artist has a unique Ghanaian-Moroccan identity and forged his creative personality in Italy, Ghana, and the United States. Alabo demonstrates a keen interest in Afro-surrealism; currently undertaking projects on surrealism as it pertains to African culture using 3-dimensional abstract works, photography and mixed media pieces as primary mediums. The young artist is committed to gaining an understanding of how best to showcase and critique African society through the lens of the strange & fantastical. Alabo has been an outspoken advocate for mental health and wellness in Africa, and he refuses to be put into a box, as his work is ever-changing and growing. Alabo’s imagery serves as a meditation rather than an escape, as he provides a visual language that is not only surreal but healing.

davidalabo.com

Awo Tsegah

Sedinam Awo Tsegah was born in May, 1992 in Accra, Ghana. She studied Visual Art at Wesley Girls’ High School in Cape Coast and continued to study BA Communication Design at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi.

"Growing up, I was always captured by art and admired how artists used various techniques and mediums to tell stories and express emotions. Learning about various artists and art movements, I came to the realization of the need to develop my own unique style as an artist.

I am interested in Ghanaian culture and how objects in our environment can be combined differently to bring ideas to life. My work exposes layers and contrasts within the context of contemporary, post-colonial history and politics. My creations are reflective of pop art explorations of freedom and question social reality through image rebuilding". 

Follow Awo on Instagram 

Ahmed Partey

"I am a Ghanaian artist who lives and works in Accra, Ghana. I am inspired by West African Ga Adangbe symbols like Ga Samai, African masks, African figurines, and pattern designs. My aim is to reimagine them in my own way to reflect contemporary times and also have people connect to them.

I have exhibited my art in the biggest street and alternative art festival in west Africa "Chale Wote festival". I exhibited in 2017 then did another group exhibition in early 2019 at British Council Accra. I have designed art for the biggest skate tour in Ghana organized by Surf Ghana".

Admedpartey.com

Suggamaya

Follow Suggamaya on Instagram