Skaters in Ghana have urged the public to change their perception about skating being a profession for ‘bad boys’ because the sport has evolved in recent times. The recreational sport which has been touted as a hobby for ‘bad boys’ now offers enormous opportunities to skaters.
In this Ghanaweb report to explore how skating has evolved over the years in the country, the skaters expressed worry about how people described them as criminals.
Tupac, a freestyle skater at the Unity Skating club located at the La Trade Fair Center said, “Whenever they see us skating they feel like we are bad boys because way back more of the kids were using skating for snatching phones so they didn’t like the skating but now what they don’t know is that there are opportunities for us to gain employment from this. They should accept the skating because there’s so much happiness in skating.”
In the past, skating was mainly for fun but the current generation of skaters disclosed that the discipline has become very industrious with numerous opportunities.
“There are a whole lot of opportunities in skating. Some of the opportunities include advertising for companies and competitions, sponsorship and a whole lot. If you are fortunate enough you will get the opportunity to be sponsored by a company that loves what you do and you can earn some money from it. You can also teach skating to a larger group if you are a skating coach and you can also earn from that. Aside from that, companies hire people to distribute their stuff for them so that is another opportunity,” J Ganyobi told Ghanaweb in an interview.
Samuel Anim Cudjoe, a skating instructor also urged the government to come to the aid of the sport since they are financially burdened when it comes to raising money for competitions. To him, it was high time authorities turned their attention to skating because they often win laurels at international competitions.
“We’ve been to competitions and we perform so well, we’ve brought medals compared to other sports which are being sponsored. They will go and will not bring anything, but we will go and perform better. I will be so glad if the government will turn its eye and focus on the least sponsored sports.”
Tupac also shared that he was able to further his education through skating due to benevolent people who believed in his potential as a skater.
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