Spreading the gospel of skateboarding to far-flung, less fortunate places is, without a doubt, a noble endeavor. Skateboarding provides kids with a chance to channel their youthful energy into a creative activity. But just how hard is it to rock up to a foreign country with a skateboard and a hammer and make things happen? Ollie and Hannes are two guys who gave it a go, in Peru.

Hannes is a skater from Germany. Ollie, on the other hand, had never skated in his life. The two met in while volunteering in Huanchaco, a small surf town on the Peruvian North Coast. When Hannes discovered Ollie was an engineer, he asked him to help construct a skate ramp.

They built a mini ramp on the outskirts of Huanchaco, in a poor neighborhood called Cerrito de la Virgen. The families there get by on very little, and the concept of having a recreational facility like a skatepark just wasn’t part of their world.

Hannes and Ollie’s motivation for building the ramp was simple: They wanted to give some kids who genuinely had nothing, something. The project took just under a month to complete. Sometimes, things fell into place. Other times, it took a lot of perseverance, and a sense of humor, to get the job done.

After the last screw was in and kids had descended on the ramp, I sat the Hannes and Ollie down to find out about their Peruvian ramp-building experience.

How did the idea to build a ramp come about?
Hannes: I had the idea while skating with Juan Carlos*, in Trujillo. I wasn’t sure how to build it, but then I met Ollie. After that, Juan Carlos suggested we build it in Cerrito de la Virgen  because the families there are really poor.

(*Author’s note: Juan Carlos runs a local surf shop in Huanchaco and gives free surf lessons to the poorer kids. Trujillo is a major Peruvian city about 45 minutes by bus from Huanchaco.)

What’s the skatepark in Trujillo like?
Hannes: Impressive. It’s a big new skatepark, all cement and proper steel coping. I saw maybe four guys who were sponsored. You could see they were already on the same level as Europe or America. You have to pay to enter – one Sol (30 US cents). And there is always a guy watching the park. If you fall, he comes and checks you are OK. It’s really funny.

Are there any other tourists skating?
Hannes: No, all Peruvian skaters. It’s really well used.

Neither of you had any intention of building a ramp before you left home. So after the plan was hatched, what was the next step?
Ollie: We went and looked for a site. Then we looked at a couple of websites and used Hannes’s memory (of skate ramps at home) to draw up a design.

You had to redesign the ramp at one point. What happened there?
Ollie: (Laughs.) Yeah, if we hadn’t checked it (the design), it would have been a death trap for those kids. The original design used a radius of one meter, with a quarter circle at each end and vertical where you drop in. Someone Hannes knew of in Germany is a professional ramp builder. He told us that the perfect radius would be more like two meters, and he tweaked our design a bit.
Hannes: I had skated on his mini ramp once (in Germany) but I didn’t really know him; it was just through friends. A friend took our design to him and then sent me the changes. He was cool; he really liked the project and was eager to help.

You are both stingy travelers, so how did you pay for it?
Ollie: I thought we might have to pay for it ourselves. It was a bit of a gamble because we had committed to the project before we knew how to pay for it. Hannes set up a blog for the project, and I wrote about it on my blog. We just asked people to donate. Within a week we had more than enough money.
Hannes: We also sent e-mails to all our friends so it was more personal. One of my friends was selling cakes at university to raise money, and at the restaurant where I used to work they put a donation tin on the counter.

All told, the ramp cost just over 3000 soles (approx. $1000 US). The boys actually had some money left over. Some of this was used to throw the kids a barbeque, and the remainder will be used to buy skate gear for the kids and maintain the ramp.

Building the ramp was an education in “Third World” logistics. Tell us about that.
Ollie: We were borrowing tools, power and water from the community. Sometimes we went up there and if someone wasn’t home we couldn’t work. There is no running water, but one guy has dug a well. One day the guy went out, so Hannes had to go around trying to find water. He got given some water, but not until he necked a beer in front of the people.

You had to pay to use people’s water or electricity, didn’t you?
Ollie: Yeah, Juan Carlos explained to us that they lend you the stuff and then come and ask you to pay for it later…they haven’t got much.

How much work did you put in?
Ollie: We were putting in five hours Monday to Friday and longer on weekends – maybe 10 hours. It was every day for close to four weeks. We had some help, though; once the ball got rolling more people turned up. We had 15, maybe 20 locals and travelers helping us.
Hannes: I have learned a lot from Ollie, but he really needs to slow down. He had me working New Year’s Day.
Ollie: He didn’t do any work. He came in and he was feeling ill. He went to bed and came back when I had finished.

Did you ever want to turn back and just go to the beach?
Ollie: Yeah, when I was sick with food poisoning and I was working on the ramp every day.
Hannes: I reached a point where I just wanted to go to bed and not work anymore. That was when I had the “Huanchaco flu.”

You were both sick?
Ollie: I was laughing at Hannes because one day he really had to “go,” and he ended up having to use a cement bag for paper. That stuff can really make you itch. And I thought he might make some cement danglers. (Laughs.) I shouldn’t have laughed because a few days later I had the same bug strike me down and had to use a cement bag.

Hannes, weren’t you also working with an injury?
Hannes: Yeah, my wrist. I injured it skateboarding, right before we started building the ramp.

Didn’t you injure the same wrist the day the ramp was finished?
Hannes: Yeah, after the second time I just held out the board to Joel and I said, “Take it away from me.”

Hannes donated his board to the local children. Joel was one kid who came every day to help build the ramp. Taking part in construction had a profound effect on him. He developed a strong sense of ownership, and now is the most dedicated skater and makes sure the other kids respect the ramp.

One of the donations was made on the proviso that Ollie skate the ramp when it was completed. He had a few cautious rolls up and back and then a glorious dismount.

What was it like to finally skate the ramp?
Ollie: Nerve racking – I don’t think it’s for me.
Hannes: It was awesome! I couldn’t believe it. We built this ramp and it worked... But the best part has been the kids. They all share the boards and help each other. I really didn’t expect that. It is amazing; in Germany you would never see these young kids all sharing.

What about the kids? How did they go skating?
Hannes: In the beginning the kids were relying on me to push them: “Hannes, push, push.” That’s the only English they knew. Now they are really good. There are five kids who can drop in.

Was it difficult to build a skate ramp in Peru?
Ollie: No, only the time we did it in was difficult.
Hannes: No, it took a lot of work but it wasn’t hard.

Would you do it again?
Ollie: No… Maybe, but no time soon.
Hannes: Yep, for sure.

What advice would you give to someone who wanted to build a ramp like you did?
Ollie: If you were planning for it, three months in advance, it would be much easier. You could find a design, raise the money and probably contact someone to find out where you could prepare and build it. If you do all that first, building a ramp is not a hard thing to do.
Hannes: Don’t think too much about it. Just do it. It’s like skating: If people think too much about it they think “Oh, no, I can’t do it” – but you can. Just go.

Hannes and Ollie were volunteering through an organization called Otra Cosa Network. The ramp was an extra project. It was entirely their initiative and done on top of other volunteer commitments. What’s needed now are more skaters to come down to teach and inspire the kids by skating the ramp. Any donations of equipment, new or used, would also be helpful.

The Otra Cosa Network can be contacted to help organize the logistics of sending donations and about teaching skateboarding via www.otracosa.nl.

The blog for the project is introductiontotheproject.blogspot.com.