Project: Fresno Skateboard Salvage – Documentary
This is a passion project of mine that I have been working on for way too long. It’s easy to get caught up trying to make the most perfect end product that you never get around to actually finishing it. Fresno Skateboard Salvage has really evolved over the years of me working on this project and that’s a great thing, but makes it hard to really encapsulate everything Rodney and Fresno Skateboard Salvage has done into one video, but hopefully this film can inform you on it’s early days and show how far it has come. I grew up skating in Fresno, Ca as a teen and when I found out about Rodney’s project I knew it was something that had to be shared as much as possible.
After growing up in a broken household in poverty stricken south-east Fresno, Truck driver Rodney Rodriguez gives the youth of the central valley a creative outlet to stay out of trouble by giving out free skateboards.
A truck driver from Fresno, California has spent the last 4 years of his life giving away over $50,000 worth of used and new skateboard equipment to the youth of the central valley.
Rodney Rodriguez is a 47 year old skateboarder who grew up in poverty in south east Fresno. He was born into a family of abuse and drug use that led to his Aunt unofficially adopting him and his birth parents never to be heard of again. As a teenager he fell in love with skateboarding and It became an outlet for him to express himself.
Growing into adulthood Rodney was bitter in life feeling robbed of his childhood and the way he was raised so he took it out on others. It was when he miraculously recovered from a freak accident where he unexpectedly broke his neck and could have left him paralyzed from the chest down, did he begin to see he was given a second chance at life. He saw life in a different way, he didn’t believe he went through everything just to go back to work as if nothing had happened.
He began going out to skate more often and made more friends of the same age at local skateparks. One day a friend of his showed up with a new skateboard and Rodney noticed and complimented it. His friend gave it to him and said he could have it since he had two. He looked at this new board then back at his old one and realized he didn’t need a new one, his old one was fine, but this sparked an idea.
He remembered as a kid how hard it was to get a new skateboard and here, he was offered a brand new one while his old board was still perfectly fine. He began asking all his friends for their old used wheels, truck, boards, helmets, anything they were willing to part with and got a small collection together. He then would go to skateparks around the central valley and find the kids who would stand outside the gate and watch and would offer them a free board, pads, and helmet.
This led to the creation of Fresno Skateboard Salvage, an official 501(c)(3) that is committed to reaching out and providing kids in need of this equipment. Rodney began working with his fellow skaters to fulfill giveaways and plan events to give away bulk supplies of boards to small neighborhood communities.