it
Left to right: The "Bean Bowl" at Wave Cat Skatecenter (now closed)
THE BRAZILIAN SKATE SCENE
Skateboarding began in Brazil with the
opening of the "Wave Park in Sao Paulo (the
biggest city of South America). Considering this
was during the early Carlsbad Skatepark days,
its design was pretty functional. The boom was
happening. We had equipment (made in Brazil),
magazines, fiberglass ramps for demos and
even a team which was sent to California to
skate (back in 1978). The boom provided a big
spread all over the country. It created skate
fanatics everywhere and that is why we have
several (oldtime) skateparks all over the country.
It looks good. There are many parks. But our
parks are small and most of them are kinked or
have unfunctional design.
Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais
states have the best skateparks, and is where
most of the action happens (park, freestyle and
street). Sao Paulo has always been the center of
attraction. Its heroes (Formiga, Jun and Kao
The "Turning Point" plays at Mario's cement halfpipe while Mario's brother Mauro "Pad" grinds. Photo: Dan Bourqu
Tai) were the most famous skaters of Brazil.
After the "Wave Park" closed (1980), we had a
new park: "Wave Cat Skatecenter." This was
probably the best park in South America ever. It
was unreal. Skating seemed to be doing well,
but it was not. The park was in the suburbs and
only the skaters knew about it. We kept skating
there all the time and did not realize we were
going to lose it. After two years the park closed
due to the lack of money, support and other
problems. Now some skaters skate Mario's
halfpipe, some are skating the Polidromo
Skatepark (no matter how kinked it is), some are
just streetskating or freestyling. Now we travel a
lot more to the neighboring states.
Sometimes we travel to Belo Horizonte. The
skaters there are pretty mellow (outside of the
bowl). They skate with poor equipment but are
radical. They were the only ones to push
downhill to extremes, holding the world speed
record during the old days (unfortunately it was
not recognized worldly due to the lack of an
Left to right: Maguard Keyhole. Bruce canyon jumps the Anchieta Keyhole channel. Photos: Dan Bourqu
association to officialize everything). Then they
got a public keyhole, which is still there and
perfect. They learned to skate on radical terrain.
Now they have a new public skatepark which is
attracting more new skaters because it is not as
vertical as the keyhole. The first generation
skaters still dominate. They are some of the
finest bowlriders of the country and could be the
best if they skated more.
We also travel to Rio de Janeiro. This state
has some fun skateparks like Campo Grande
(Big Field) and Buzios. Big Field has a big
shallow end reservoir which leads into a halfpipe
(Lakewood type). The halfpipe ends into a very
large bowl. Buzios is also fun. It is a banked bowl
located near a beautiful beach. Some surfers
skate there and the atmosphere is ideal for fast
and stylish lines. Like in Sao Paulo some
skaters are punk influenced. Locals of Big Field
Skatepark (Tatu, Lucio "Punk" Flavio, Cavalo)
are the members of the first punk rock band of
Rio de Janeiro, called "Coquetel Molotov."
Osmar Lattuce acid-drops Into Guaro Bowl in Sao Paulo. Photo: Cesar Lindergrun. Overview of Anchieta Keyhole. Photo: Bourqu
PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS
Lack of equipment is a big problem in Brazil.
There are no shops selling American equipment.
If there is one (like in Sao Paulo), the skaters
who know it won't give the address to the others.
Another big problem is organization. There
are no contest schedules for the year. When
there is a contest (like the coming one at
Haguara bowl), people talk around until
everybody knows about it. By the way, you can't
even talk about the Brazilian judging system
because for each contest, it is different. We do
not have any kind of associations. There is
nothing to unite all our skaters. Everybody is on
their own. I have rarely seen a bunch of united
skaters working together to build a good
halfpipe for instance. Small groups of skaters
are trying alone to get things like public
skateparks or sponsorship. It would be much
easier with an association to defend skaters'
interests and concentrate efforts on just one
good public skatepark.
Wave Cat Skatecenter kept us together.
Skaters from all parts of the country skated
there, specially during the national contest days.
But since it closed, skaters do not meet
anymore. Most of them are dreaming at home
about the old days instead of building at least a
halfpipe to keep skating.
Most of us are uninformed about modern
tricks and equipment. A few ones are traveling
to the States and buying as much equipment as
possible. We need more sequence shots about
new tricks. Most of us have not had the
opportunity to see the techniques of American
skaters (it would be great to have a big team like
Powell come over).
Still, skating manages to come through. The
boys, born to do it, somehow end up skating
exactly like the pros in the mags (even without
seeing them). There is, for instance, this guy in
Belo Horizonte, whose nickname is "Baixinho."
He has a simple way to look at the tricks. He
rarely skates (plays guitar all day), but always
Polidromo skatepark overview. Dan
Oscar Lattuce, handplant at Campo Grand Bowl. Photo: Cesar Lindengrun
rips. He does not crave mags, Caballero style or
something, but ends doing new tricks (some-
times making them on the first try), actually
skating with American pro style.
Another case is that black skater from Rio de
Janeiro, "Come Rato" (rat eater). He always
liked to grind and started doing it regularly.
Today he does the longest grinders I have ever
seen. It looks like he is rolling out (frontside or
backside) and as you look back, he is still on the
lip, grinding, grabbing the nose of his board.
During his early days he used to cut several
PVC coper bars inside the train while going to
the park (just one pair was not enough).
The skaters who crave will always be skating
They travel hours and hours, get robbed during
their trips, get in fights with BMXers but always
go for it!
Most of us Brazilian skaters welcome
strangers, as long as you skate, it doesn't matter
where you live, so until we see you down here,
so long from Brazil.
Bourgui says, "No way riding this.
by Dan Bourqui
Photo: Mario
28