A pathway through skate
Reporting by Rita La Vau and Dominic Torres, IEI Media.
Gulliver park provides a path for passion and escape to excel. Those who choose to participate seek either of the two and leave with at least one.
Fernando de Pasquele recently moved to Valencia, Spain to escape the poverty and violence that plague the people of his native Venezuela. He claims to have found refuge and hope in Valencia as a chef and skater.
“I came from a country that is going through a difficult situation,” Pasquele said, “I just come to work and skate.”
Where Pasquele has found refuge, others say they have only found harassment.
“Skating in Valencia is the worst crap there can be, the police don’t want to leave you alone,” said Roland Wilson, a skate instructor.
Wilson says he has had a few encounters with police. He teaches kids how to skate in order to keep them out of trouble — something that Spanish authorities do not understand.
“There are people who think we are vandals, or sell drugs, or are gang members. We are not a gang, what we are, are skaters,” Wilson said. “Skating teaches us to respect.”
Adrian Puchadess has been skating at this park for over six years. For Puchadess would rather pay skate fines than risk police confiscating his skateboard.
“You’re skating on the stairs or the street and the police will come and yell at you, ‘hey do you know that the laws says you can’t do that here’,” Puchadess said.
Puchadess and Wilson have joined forces and sent many petitions to the mayor of Valencia to patch up the holes and ramps at the skatepark, because they say it is a risk to their safety, especially if the wheels gets caught.
“[The] only time they did come they painted everything blue, the pipes and ramps,” Puchadess said.
Gulliver Park is one of only a few skateparks in Valencia and in recent years BMX riders have also gravitated toward the park. Fabio, who only goes by his first name, is an 18-year-old who is training for a BMX competition, and his goal is to one day compete professionally.
“My goal to compete in the BMX competition well am not sure yet because for me I see BMX like my hobby, I want to compete, better my abilities on my bike, get to meet new people and take it from there,” Fabio said.
Yet, even under the clouds of neglect, Adventure seekers at Gulliver Park have manage to create a sense of community.
“It’s a special kind of relationship we’re like family here. They get together they do their favorite sports activity and they have fun,” Fabio said.
Neither the troubles back in their home countries nor the opposition of local authorities have stopped these adrenaline enthusiasts from pursuing their passion. They are doing their best to empower their community one trick at a time.
