It’s a skate road to heaven.
Skateboarders in Mexico honored their late friend’s wishes by making his tombstone a quarter-pipe ramp so mourners could skate with him instead of praying.
A viral YouTube video posted by Storyful shows a visitor doing a tail grind at the ramp-inspired cemetery, which is located in La Paz, Baja California Sur.
They had erected the headstone in honor of Rafael “Rafa” Castillo, a skater and surfer who died of pancreatic cancer in 2016 at the age of 43.
Castillo had been a fixture on the local skating scene, competing in prominent tournaments throughout the 1990s and beyond, designing skate ramps and devoting his life to promoting the sport throughout the region, local media reported.
Before he died, the skater – who had worked as a bricklayer – revealed the designs for the quarter-pipe headstone.
“The ramp was in memory of someone who was in the park for many years,” said Jesús Manuel Herrera Rodríguez, 53, who had known the deceased since high school. “So instead of going to beg him, he wanted you to skate with him.”
After obtaining the necessary approvals from local officials, Castillo’s friends set to work crafting the tombstone to his specifications.
Rodríguez said they used sand from the various places where Castillo lived and decorated the platform with a skateboard attached to a cross – a tribute to the fact that he always put a cross on his board.
They also carved the stone with the phrase “you are fine,” something Castillo would say to reassure his friends during difficult times.
The crew finally completed the project in 2023, allowing people to honor Castillo’s legacy by skating over his grave.
Rodríguez found it a fitting tribute to Castillo, who said he has connections with skaters from all over Mexico.
Rodríguez reflected on how he first introduced his friend to skating in 1986.
“Imagine it’s like in the karate movie… I got to the co-op, some cholitos (punks) were beating him and I arrived,” the friend described. “I would protect him.
“And from there, he didn’t let go.”
The entrance was instrumental.
“One time, at a high school afternoon party, we were all skating except for him. So we didn’t want to wait for him,” explained Rodríguez. “Well, here you will learn to skate”, we told him. And since then, he never got off his skateboard.”
Rodríguez remembered his friend as a “friendly” and “social” person who was “very focused” if something was on his mind.
One of his dreams was to make skateboarding accessible to kids throughout Baja California Sur, according to Dulce Falcón, a childhood friend and president of the Baja California Sur Extreme Skaters Association, which was created to honor the wishes of the late skater.
“[Castillo]was a tireless promoter of this sport so that all children could have a skateboard within their reach,” said Falcón.
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Image Source : nypost.com