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Blades, bullets and my escape from 'murder city'

Jessel Recinos loved the skate park in his hometown in Honduras, but it was there that he got drawn into a gang and was shot. When he rediscovered rollerblading, a new life began.

Jessel Recinos grew up on the outskirts of San Pedro Sula in Honduras - one of the most violent cities on the planet. As a boy, he loved rollerblading, but it was at the skate park that he got drawn into a gang. When he was 16, Jessel was shot in the back - and barely survived, but as soon as he could walk again he went rollerblading. He created a club called Skate Brothers which offers young people an alternative to crime. Jessel has been telling Jo Fidgen his story.

Since sport and exercise are pretty much off limits for most of us at the moment, today on Outlook we're celebrating the joy of it with people who've done extraordinary things - like Rodrigo Koxa - a Brazilian surfer who took on the biggest wave in the world. In November 2017 he broke the record by surfing a wave as high as an eight-storey building. To cap it all, it was on the same beach where, three years before he had nearly been killed by a wave. Jo spoke to Rodrigo in 2018 from his home on a little island off the coast of Sao Paolo, and he told her how his story began.

Picture: In-line skater flies off the ramp
Credit: LawrenceSawyer/Getty Images

Available now

44 minutes

Last on

Wed 13 May 2020 03:06GMT

Broadcasts

  • Tue 12 May 2020 11:06GMT
  • Tue 12 May 2020 17:06GMT
  • Wed 13 May 2020 03:06GMT

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Podcast: Lives Less Ordinary

Podcast: Lives Less Ordinary

Step into someone else’s life and expect the unexpected