Every year at the Tampa Pro Contest Chad Cardoza makes a special deck to be signed by all the visiting Pros.  Every Pro attending makes time to sign the decks and then they are put up on e-bay for auction. All the money goes directly to the Johnny Kicks Cancer foundation. So far Anthony Morales has gotten all three of them. Skateboarding is Incredible, simple as that.- jimt43

An Interview with Chad Cardoza

How did the idea to make the custom Tampa Pro boards get started? Is there a story behind them?

Well the first one we did was not even a board, it was that crazy playground turtle.That was the year (2008) that Jeremy Fish designed the trophies for the Tampa Pro and I thought what if I made that playground turtle look like the Jeremy Fish trophy and we had all the pros from that years Tampa Pro sign it. How cool would that be? We knew going into it that we were gonna auction it off and give the money to the Johnny Romano “Johnny Kicks Cancer” Fund. I knew we could get the pros / ams / legends to sign it and I just thought we are stupid if we dont use what we have here to give back. So I did it and I made it happen and let me tell you after Mark Gonzales signed it, I did not wanna give it up. To have Mark sign that silly turtle I painted and arted up is something I will never forget, that made it all worth it right there. Then the next two years I made decks to be signed, they were alot easier to ship. Ha ha ha.

Each one of them have some intricate woodwork involved in their designs. Do you do that all yourself, does anyone help you with it?

Each of the two decks I made for the last two Tampa Pros were 100% thought up and handmade by me. I have been skating and building ramps since 1985 so I know how to use me some power tools. Each of the boards were sanded down and cut out with a jigsaw, that simple. The deck for 2009 I had the idea to do a cut out from the middle of the board and then take a thin ply of wood and remount it so it looked like it was cut out with a router saw. And what better image to use then one of the coolest graphics of all time, the Lance Mountain future primitive graphic, the cave drawing of a guy doing a sad plant.Then the idea for the 2010 board I wanted to do something more. I wanted to make a similar style deck to the 2009 one but I wanted the cut out image, whatever it may be , to spin.Once I saw the Johnny Romano skull graphic I knew that would be perfect and fitting for this project. So I cut out the skull, sanded down the rest of the deck, redrew his name back on the deck and added another skull to the back side of the original skull. The teeth in the original skull spell out REAL, the teeth in the skull I drew spell out SPoT for Skatepark of Tampa of course. The I mounted the skull back inside the deck with some metal dowls and there you have it.

Do you work with anyone at SPOT that helps you get all the SIgnatures of the pros?

Ryan Clements and Brian Schaefer give me run of the whole park to get everyone I can to sign the board. Tatum Llewellyn, who is like my little sister, also will hang out with me and get the pros to sign the board. We hang out all weekend, watch some amazing skating by the top pros in the world and all I have to do is art up a deck and get the pros to sign the board and then auction it off for a great cause, what could be better.

How much Money have the 3 boards raised for the Johnny Kicks Cancer foundation so far?

The turtle sold for $ 350, the Lance Mountain sad plant guy sold for $ 250 and the Johnny Romano spinning skull sold for $ 300 for a grand total of $ 900.00 So what I was told by Julie Romano, Johnny’s mom, is that the same person bought all 3. Now to me that is really cool! (True Story Anthony Morales has gotten all 3)

Anything else you would like to ad, or want people to know about the decks and the efforts to raise money for the Johnny Kicks Cancer Foundation?

People can check out my artwork and goings on here, I would just tell people to get involved, find something they are passionate about and get out there and make it happen be it with art or your time and efforts or anything. My wife Suzie and I just put on an art show at the Tampa Museum of Art where we got 25 local artists to bring awareness to 25 different charities and causes. It was an amazing and inspiring event. I made a piece for that show of J. Robbins from the band Jawbox, who’s son, Callum, has SMA (spinal muscular atrophy) The background of the art piece is made from 12 different skatedecks that I sanded and cut into 96 - 3 inch by 3-inch pieces and then painted over that. I sold the piece that night and gave all the money to the Robbins family to help for the care of Cal. It feels good to do good, so get out there and do something good for someone and be on the look out for what I come up with for the 2011 Tampa Pro.