The Story of Ethiopia’s Skate Scene | SKATE TALES

For episode four of Skate Tales, Madars Apse hightails it to Ethiopia to meet the skate crew building a scene from scratch in one of the world’s oldest countries.

The story of Ethiopia Skate is as real as it gets: from a parking lot in Addis Ababa, Henok Yetbarek, Michael Baheru, Ruel Desta, Babure ‘Babu G’ Teferi, Yeabkal Abraham and Yared Gobezie started a skate movement which would snowball with the help of two American skaters, JT Rhoades and Sean Stromsoe. Within 3 years they would link up with Make Life Skate Life to build Ethiopia’s first free skatepark in the capital, and a year later they would double down on their success by building a second in Awassa. Nowadays Ethiopia Skate has 150 skaters enlisted from around the country, and has registered as a non- profit in the USA meaning they can accept tax-deductible donations to keep their skatehouse open, build more terrain and, as Sean tells Madars,”create more opportunity through skateboarding”. Madars came by to build and inspire, listen and learn in a beautiful one from the Skate Tales storybook.