by By TOPHER FORHECZ, WGCU
Native American skateboarders are the subject of a traveling Smithsonian exhibit at the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum on the Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation in Hendry County.
The exhibit features Native American skateboarders from around the country and on the reservation.
Quenton Cypress is going through a rundown of tricks at the skate park on the Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation.
“An ollie is doing it with your nose,” he said after kicking the board out from underneath him.
Ramps and rails pepper the park where Cypress and his cousin Tyrus Billie come to skate almost every day.
Cypress’ board shows some heavy use. He’s only had the deck since May and the image on the bottom – of a skater wearing a Sasquatch-like outfit being arrested by a cop – is already obstructed by thick scratches and knicks.
Reservations in Florida feature skate parks – in Brighton, Immokalee and Hollywood. But, the size and use vary.
“Hollywood reservation has one ramp. It’s just one ramp… And Brighton reservation has a skate park that is never used because we went out there one day and we tried to skate it and the concrete padding they have on the ground, there’s grass and weeds growing up in between the cracks,” he said.
Cypress said he and his cousin are among the few who use the park in Big Cypress.
Read the rest of the story at: http://news.wgcu.org/post/exhibit-features-skate-culture-big-cypress-reservation-and-across-us
