My friend Chris Grosso and I, went up to visit Donny Barley in Rhode Island to see what he has been up to. On the road to meet him, I kept thinking about all the amazing tricks he did in one of the first skate videos I ever saw, Welcome to Hell.

Meeting Donny and listening to his stories gave me a glimpse of how hard it must be to be an athlete trying to stay in the game. Which is a struggle I bet most athletes have. I also learned about how the economy affects skateboarders like him, especially with this inflation of young up-and-coming skaters who are taking the big checks and leaving the forgotten legends in the shadows.

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It was pouring the day we went to visit Donny. We saw so many floods that consumed cars which were left abandoned in the middle of roads.

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Donny puts on a skate school at this skatepark by his parents house. The money he makes from teaching goes right back to the skate park for future construction. He has already earned around $40,000 for the park.

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This is Donny and his parents. They are very supportive of Donny and his skateboarding career. His mom had a few autographs for Donny to sign that local skaters passed on to her.

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In the back room of Donny’s skate shop.

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This is Donny in front of his skate shop in Rhode Island. There is a corporate skate shop in the mall near by that just opened up thats been taking away from his business, so if you find yourself at a Zummies in Rhode Island, then…uhhh…don’t buy anything.

When we were saying our good-byes, Donny told us a with fire in his eyes, that we haven’t seen his last “great” skate part. So be on the look out.