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Bronx Skateboarding Team Stresses Academics Over Ollies

By Eddie Small | March 2, 2015 9:26am
 The HeavenBound7 skateboarding team operates out of a small shop on Fulton Avenue in The Bronx.
HeavenBound7 Skateboard Team
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MORRISANIA — The head of a skateboarding team in The Bronx wants people to realize that his boarders have more to offer than just kickflips and grinds.

Henry Peña, 56, created the skating team HeavenBound7 about five years ago as a way to try keeping local kids in school and out of trouble.

He enjoyed skateboarding when he was younger and decided to focus on helping young skaters because they often have a bad reputation as rebels who damage property.

"I fail to believe that," he said. "I fail to believe that once a bad kid, always a bad kid. There are a lot of skaters out there that are very intelligent."

To emphasize this among his team members, Peña works to recruit youths who take school seriously, rather than just people who know how to skate, and although he encourages his 14- to 22-year-old skaters to attempt going pro if they have the talent and the drive, he makes sure to always stress the importance of education over skateboarding.

Victor Batista
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Jose Castillo

“He always tells us to get good grades and stuff. He's always trying to have us be on point in school,” said Luis Suarez, a 20-year-old member of the team who studies liberal arts at the Borough of Manhattan Community College. "You don’t really see that too often. It’s pretty cool.”

Peña described the idea for the team as a vision that came to him while he was in church, and the name HeavenBound7 stemmed from his desire to talk to his team about Christianity.

"Originally, it was supposed to be Henry’s Boards," he said. "That’s a little bit too selfish."

The team operates out of Peña's HeavenBound7 Skate Shop on 1302 Fulton Ave., a building that used to be his father’s grocery store and the building still carries its faded sign.

Although the store is small and only open during the warmer months, Peña still plans to expand its offerings when it reopens in March. He intends to start serving coffee and hosting live jazz music on the last Friday of every month and he would like to start selling roller skates as well for the borough's older customers.

"We get a lot of people that are over 50 or so asking us if we have skate wheels, the quad skate wheels, roller skates," he said. "So I want to do it."

HeavenBound7 competes in local skating competitions, but the team has also taken trips to compete and skate in places ranging from Philadelphia to West Virginia. Next year, Peña hopes to take the team to Spain and he is planning a trip with them to San Diego for this summer that members said they were very excited about.

“It’s every skater's dream to go out from where they are and go to Cali,” said Richard Carrera, a 15-year-old student at the Bronx Engineering and Technology Academy. “That’s where everybody wants to go. Over there, it’s always hot.”

Although skating is a focal point of the trips, Peña tries to make sure his team members do some good on them as well.

"Wherever we go, we try to find a youth organization that has homeless youth, homeless young adults, primarily young people," he said. "We help them out by just giving them things that they need."

The company Plaza Construction helps the team with expenses like trips and equipment, according to Chanabelle Arriaga, executive assistant to the company’s CEO and a childhood friend of Peña’s wife. She described HeavenBound7 as a safe haven for its members and shares Peña's enthusiasm for making sure they stay focused on their education.

“I try to keep in touch with them. I call them, text them,” she said. "I want to make sure that they’re on the right track, they’re going to school, they’re respecting their families.”

Multiple team members described HeavenBound7 as more of a home than just a chance to skateboard, and Victor Batista, a 19-year-old senior at Millennium Art Academy, said that Peña was like a father to him.

“I love being on the team because it’s like a family,” he said. “A second family that we have together.”