Imagine roller skating and break dancing at the same time. At 15, Chicago native Brandon Perea is the world's youngest professional break-dancing skater.
When Perea was 12, his passion was break dancing. He was also an in-line skater and a BMX rider. Then he saw some people break dancing on skates and thought it was "the coolest thing."
Vanilla Skate Co., a leading manufacturer of "jam skates," sponsors Perea. Vanilla's founder, Michael Lehrke, who is also Perea's manager, told me that he started the company as a freshman in college.
Perea is home-schooled by a private tutor and uses a curriculum called K-12. He gets straight A's, too, even though he's on the road 40 weeks of the year.
Perea tours the globe and stops at roller rinks everywhere to do his thing. Although his favorite city is Las Vegas, his favorite roller rink is Tucson's own Skate Country. It's quite an honor for this low-cost, high-fun roller rink to have the endorsement of the youngest pro break-dancing skater on the planet.
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To learn more about Perea, go to brandon perea.com, and check out everything Vanilla at vanillaskateco.com
And for everything you need to know about Skate Country, go to skatecountry.com
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