The “Pura Vida Skateboarding Contest”

After almost five months of new experiences, friendships and unique impressions, Christmas and New Years Eve were even touchable. So it was time to get all the skaters, the youth of Pérez Zeledón and the friends of our project finally together for the last Contest of the year.

Although it wasn´t that easy to find a perfect date for the event, we decided to take the 19th December. We are very happy that friends and skaters of “Pura Vida” who are a part of it from the beginning on, are adults now and have the responsibility to work. So it doesn´t make it easier to find a day were everybody has the possibility and time to join us.

The weeks before the Contest, Rimma and I started to plan the Event. Also Jhon was helping me to finish the little roof in front of the park and to improve the barbecue table (Thanks to Jason as well).
From this point on we only had to organize the prices for the winners of the two categories, a speaker system and the food.

Two days before the Contest three friends from my hometown of Germany came to visit me and to help us. Luckily two of them are good cooks:) The night from friday to saturday we cooked a lot and were preparing banana leaves, which we wanted to use for serving plates. This felt like a ritual because we were doing the same things the night before the last event in September.

To ask the Skateshops of San Isidro for support, we wrote letters were we asked for donations. Fortunately the Latinos and the Arenas Shop helped us with some pairs of shoes, decks and hats (Thanks to Latinos and Arenas). The same thing we did for organizing some free food. We went with the letters to the agriculture market showcasing our project and demanding for fruits and vegetables. This idea was a successful one (Thanks a lot to the Campesinos of the region). A social project hasn´t a lot of money so we were searching for a cheap option to rent a good speakers system and a microphone what was almost impossible till we found Bruno who gave us 50% discount (Thanks to “Eventos Ramírez”).

Although there joined us less people than the last time, this day was a success. Good Vibes, good people, good skateboarding and good food. A big thanks goes out to McKenzie who was visiting us and surprised the kids with a lottery where they had the chance to win T-Shirts and decks. While her trip to her family and friends in California she was asking everybody to support the project with some stuff for donations.