What inspired Poseiden to go to Oahu and what was the purpose behind the tour?
The quest behind the Poseiden Foundation, Oahu Tour was to Empower, Inspire and Motivate the youth to follow their dreams and passions. The reason we chose Hawaii was because each athlete on the tour has connections to the island Oahu. As for myself, I lived on Oahu as a child attending the Aikahi Elementary School in Kailua from second to fifth grade. It was a place that has always inspired me since I was small. Though each of us on the tour wanted to be part of motivating the local youth to understand that through perseverance they can accomplish anything, the personal reason was to open their perspective to the many positive avenues one can take in this lifetime and to see that there are options in life. Drug use has been on the rise not only amongst adults but in increasing numbers amongst the youth as well. There have even been cases of kids as young as14 beginning to use what in Hawaii is called „ICE.“ It’s a true problem, but instead of explaining to them that drugs are bad, we opened the forum instead to what pathways one can take to live a successful fulfilling life. We spread the message that it’s not over night your dreams come to fruition but it takes time, trial and error, and sometimes years to accomplish your goals. It’s all about not giving up.
How does Poseiden inspire the youth?
Poseiden Foundation inspires the youth through hands-on interaction by motivating them to choose positive paths and accomplish their dreams. How Poseiden Foundation is able to accomplish our mission is by teaming-up with professional athletes and professionals in general who donate their time and work as a team. We give back to the community by going to schools and having an open forum with students, which allows them to ask us questions on our life experiences, how we started out, and how they too can reach their goals.
Each tour is unique and Poseiden uses skateboarding as a means of reaching the youth. Poseiden does not believe in building up and breaking down parks and is not big on „demos.“ Our whole outlook is to bring everyone together on a humanitarian level of equality. We have “meet and greet” sessions at local skate parks where the youth is able to interact one-on-one with professionals, get pointers, do best trick competitions, win swag giveaways and play capture the product. As we see the local community leave our events with smiles and motivation, we know that our mission to inspire young-adults to believe in themselves is being accomplished.