Havana, Cuba (CNN) -- Rene Lecour's plan started out simple: Take his son on a skateboarding trip to someplace "epic".
While he and his son, Kaya, were searching the internet, they saw videos of Cuba's skateboarders making do with beaten-up and jerry-rigged boards.
Economic shortages and the U.S. embargo make it difficult to get most sporting equipment there. For skateboarders, it was nearly impossible.
"We both said right away, 'We are going there,'" Lecour recalled.
Lecour owns a chain of skateboard shops in South Florida and thought his contacts in the skating community would make it easy for him to bring boards to Cuba.
He was wrong.
"I e-mailed every single skateboard company I know," Lecour said. "The only two responses I got were unfortunately one person who said we shouldn't be allowed to go because of the embargo. Another 'genius' said we shouldn't come because all the skaters are all communist".
As a first-generation Cuban-American, Lecour had already been dreaming of visiting the island where his parents where born. The recent relaxing of travel restrictions under the Obama administration makes visiting easier for Cuban-Americans and for people on cultural exchange trips.
But he didn't want to go empty-handed.
A former DJ whose arms are crisscrossed with tattoos, Lecour put out the word that any board, no matter how worn or weathered, would be welcomed by the Cubans.
Slowly, as he and his family got ready for the trip, skateboards began to trickle in.
"The response from the kids has been amazing," Lecour said. "It's easier for a 9-year-old kid who skates to understand the need than for a 30-year-old head of a skateboard company, who just doesn't get it".
A week before the flight to Cuba, he held a skateboard party for people wishing to donate. Heavy metal rock played at a skate park in Miami's Kendall neighborhood in the background as dozens of teenagers practiced their moves.
The boards continued to pile up in front of Lecour.
"This is really awesome," he said as the reality of the trip sank in. Cuban skaters like Che Alejandro Pando Napoles rely on generous foreigners like Lecour.
Pando said there are skate parks around the island but no skate shops. There is nowhere for skaters to buy their first boards or replace ones that break, he said.
"Sometimes, it holds back your progression," Pando said. "You see a set of stairs and you say, 'I am not going to do anything down there because I will break my board. I'd rather keep my board healthy than do that trick I really want do'".
Pando lives for skating, a point he drives home by showing visitors his wedding video where, after the ceremony, he, his bride and wedding party roar away on skateboards. CNN
