The Skateistan family is saddened to hear of the death of Ruedi Herger on 6 Feb 2022. Ruedi was the CEO of TSG and has always been a great friend to Skateistan. Our Founder and Executive Director, Oliver Percovich, reflects on the friendship and support that Ruedi showed over the years. 

"I was introduced to Ruedi in 2008 through a friend Renton Millar who was a professional skateboarder for TSG. Renton heard that I had been to Afghanistan and that we needed safety gear for the children in the program. 

As soon as Renton had made the introduction over email, Ruedi responded immediately and said that he would like to help, and in doing that TSG became the very first official sponsor to Skateistan in January 2008. Ruedi signed off with "Aloha" which means love and friendship in Hawaiian, and this is what he put into the relationship with the Skateistan family and myself. 

Once we opened our Skate School in Kabul in 2009, Ruedi and his team helped us create a co-branded TSG X Skateistan helmet, and full safety gear set – which is possibly the first co-branding between a charity and a safety gear company in skateboarding. This initiative of Ruedi's was very impressive to many in the international development community in Kabul, who saw this as a sustainable model for fundraising for charity projects and led to many successful co-brandings with the skate industry since. 

Ruedi and his family warmly received me in their house whenever I passed through Zürich. His love of honey was infectious and he proudly shared with me some rare honeys collected from all over the world. I have fond memories of Ruedi talking about the start of snowboarding in Europe and his role in growing and supporting the sport. His Method Air on a snowboard was exactly the way they should be done.   

Thank you Ruedi for being the original Skateistan supporter and for your mentorship and kindness that you showed me and many others. Your spirit of Aloha will live on."