Tokinomena, original malagasy skater

When #Madagascar is not busy fending off #anime prejudices, it produces #surfers and #skaters that rip it up & down the island.

Tokinomena aka @vanbeloha or 'DoWz' ('because i talk slowly friends said I looked drunk and needed my 'dose') has been skating in the capital #Antananarivo since he was 14. Inspired by #TonyHawk's Pro Skater, Tokinomena has since become an active figure of @smeg_asso, an association promoting #malagasy skateboarding. Though there is now a #skatepark in Antanimena ('more of a rollerpark'), Tana skateboarding was born in the streets and is firmly rooted there. Improvising what to grind goes hand in hand with learning to look after your own equipment. Tokinomena recently lamented breaking a third board in 10 years, a figure that his US counterparts would laugh off. 'We have no #skateshops and equipment is so expensive! So the guys do a lot of DYI to keep rolling. But that doesn't stop us from trying difficult tricks or spots. We ride each board to death and try and find one again after... sometimes not finding boards forces us to stop skating altogether...'.

But as his makeshift fix #skate4life board shows, #Mada #skateboarding cannot be stopped: @petit_lanja, @rado_kely, Lofo Nirina and Tinady' Prez' Andriamas (a national pioneer). are some of the best #skateboarders working together with #Smegasso to try and get a team into the #Tokyo2020 #Olympics. Now isn't that something to show the kids rather than f***ing Madagascar 4? Go #teamgasy! #reallifestoke #freesurfspirit
✒: @_laurence_b 🎵: @Basy_gasy 📷: @vanbeloha, Dina Ary Malala, Tinady Andriamas, Rony, Eric.