Thanks for the bearings!

Dustin & Adrian,

Gracias por los bearings! That's what family is for in this concrete jungle. Es tan hermoso ver cuando los boricuas se apoyamos por los nuyores, detalle que algunos no han aprendido... amigos son pocos en esta vida.

By the way, Mr. Destroyer is back in town.

HOPPS + JAHMAL WILLIAMS donation

This past Sunday, the morning after a happy Saturday nite, we met Jahmal at KCDC... Yo! Last night everybody was in party mode, Williamsburg was pack, the beer at KCDC's art show run out super fast, all the art fairs had after parties, the girls could finally wear mini-skits in high hills! We got to see a real ice from Alaska... what?!?... and all our good friends: Scotty, the KCDC crew, Amy, Rob Campbell, Alex Corporan, Rodney Torres, Luis Tolentino, Melisa, Keigo, and others.

Big props to our friend Jahmal, who donated: 2 snickers (Etnies + Nike sb), 4 hats, 6 Hopps t-shirts, 5 grip tapes (we needed this so badly!).

SK8 by ERNESTO PUJOL

Ernesto Pujol is a very precious friend of us, and New York-based conceptual artist with a multimedia and interdisciplinary art practice, has donated us a hand painted long board from his series of birds. We were not able to fit this huge board on the crate, so I will just carry it with me on the plain... I hope we make it to Cuba with this beautiful art piece!

etnies: INVISIBLE WARRIOR SNEAKER release party

I WOULD LIKE TO PERSONALLY INVITE YOU TO

LTD, ETNIES + INVISIBLE NYC presents

INVISIBLE WARRIOR SNEAKER AND LTD ISSUE 15 RELEASE PARTY

THURSDAY, MARCH 5TH, 8-11PM

ETNIES SHOWROOM - with DJ SOUL

RSVP: RSVP@LTDMAG.COM

Monday 2, last day working on the crate.

Our deadline was March 1, but the Chelsea Visits Havana crew had some delivery delays so...

After organizing and documenting all the donations, we put hem in boxes in a way they fit inside the crate (this was the hard part!). We taped and closed each box, to make sure that if the crate gets open they don't do party with our stuff. I named all the boxes with a marker all around... eventually this changed cause we had to make more space inside the crate, until we puzzled it out. So we fit all in 5 boxes, the use skateboards are in the middle, some shoes and wheels are at the bottom, and the rest is inside the boxes.

Crate #31 (part of the Chelsea Visits Havana event) departs to the 10th Havana Biennial, Cuba.

The inventory (part 1)

Here we will like to share some pictures of our shipment to Cuba. This past weekend I have been working unstoppable organizing our inventory of donations and loading the boxes on the crate. I has been kinda difficult to fit all inside the crate, but today I finally figure it all out. What a puzzle! Know I even have an extra little space, maybe for some extra paints. Oh! Yeah! did I told you that I am gonna paint Red Bull's skate park down in Cuba? ... That's part of the plan as well... lot of fun and work.

The crate has 29 used boards (thanks to KCDC, Nocturnal, friends, Bainbridge Skate Shop, Sofia, Luis, etc); 11 new boards (5 decks from 5BORO; 3 from Bodega; 3 One Skateboards Co.); 12 trucks (from Philadelphia, and Blades, NY); a bunch of wheels (thanks to One Skateboards Co., KCDC, Nocturnal, Bainbridge Skate Shop)...

The rest are shoes from ETNIES & VANS, plus a diversity of clothing by KCDC, VANS & ETNIES. I will post the exact amount on the week at "The Inventory (part 2)".

VANS -early in the morning donation-

Good morning America... here is Vans donation! It rocks!

What a crazy morning! We just survived a snow storm this morning. Even Dustin got stuck in the snow with RockStar's van at Bleeker and Crosby St. We were on our way to the gallery. I took the train until Broadway-Lafayette, and met Dustin, who have been struggling with the snow for about 30 min. There were like a line of people who come and go, they'll stop help lush a bit and keep walking. At least we had some friendly nuyorkers that help us out!

But we are super super happy with this great and colorful donation from Vans who, gave us a little bit of everything, from t-shirts, pants, hats, sneakers, girl stuff, and belts.


Thanks Dustin Charlton, our truck driver, and project assistant in New York!
Also, thanks to his super cool girlfriend who kindly help us moved the crate with all the boxes of donations to the city, last Friday afternoon.

STEREO SOUND AGENCY?

So, yes is true! Andrew Shusterman (Marketing & Team Manager) is in conversation with us for a possible donation from Stereo Sound. The only problem is the deadline. Let see what can we manage for our friend of the West Side. Also, Stereo Sound would be the only West-Coast label, which would be great if they can get involve in the project!

HOPPS Skateboards

Yo! Hopps in tha house! Jahmal Williams is very interested in our project, I know we got him on short notice... so let see what we can do. If not, then for next time. Is so refreshing to how must American skateboarders have been so friendly to our project.

Yep! Times are changing... OBAMA IS HERE TO STAY! bye bye Guatanamo... keep it moving!

ZOO YORK (mega donation)

This last Friday was full of good news and events... One of this was a call I got from Catherine Nieves (Intl Marketing Manager), telling me that ZOO YORK was willing to donate $1,000 in merchandise. We still organizing this shipment because it will probably have to be send directly to Cuba. Our crate us mad full, and more donations keep arriving.

Wao! I am surprise this project is just starting and the feedback have been amazing... I wish we can repeat this in the next few years with more budget so we can travel with some pros, do demos, plus donate equipment. That will be the perfect scenario, but for know we just do what I can.

Bodega Skateboards

Yeah! Bodega donate us 3 skateboards on Friday. They also gave me a ride after work, thanks for that! ...and to Oscar Wagenbuchler for helping us unload Rockstar Bearing's truck with all our donations at Magnan Projects gallery, NY.

That nite in the AUTUM BOWL, Greenpoint (Brooklyn) they had a fun skate/punk-rock jam going on. I got some nice footage from the event... Got Scotty and Harley ripping it out. Gimme' some time to edit it and I will post it!

BLAST Magazine

We got you some good news from Blast Magazine (Latino America). Las week Olman Torres,
wrote to use about a possible donation 100 issues of Blast Mag. for the Cuban kids. Red Bull (Cuba) might help us on this as well 'cuz we are running low in budget.

We will to up-load soon more pictures from this past weekend adventure: moving the crate from Brooklyn to the city. There are so many donations that our crate does not close, we got to puzzle it out because tomorrow is our last day. The crate gets ship-out March 3.