92
Brasil 92
Bed
Brazilian Grab Bag
STREET KIDS There are legions of
children that have no parents and roam in
packs like wild dogs. They find entertain-
ment in playing with traffic, begging and
sniffing glue. Some are not more than five
years old. No shoes, no shirts and no rules.
Every once in a while, the cops round up a
bunch and execute them.
MACUMBA is a form of Brasilian
black magic, and sometimes you see
little ritual sites next to trees. They
are placed there for many things
including love, life and death. Don't
fuck with Macumba
حمام
92
DO
107
GIRLS if you can speak
Portuguese you are set.
Even if you don't, they are
very friendly and are some
of the most beautiful in the
world. Take a seat and
watch the show. São Paulo
nightlife is out-of-control.
192
BANCO CENTRAL DO BRASIL
R0213023145
1000
1000:
MIL CRUZEIROS
REAIS
02130231458
0.00
MONEY The forty percent infla
tion a month is mind-boggling. The
money melts in front of your eyes
and every couple month they drop a
few zeros. They have paper money
that is worthless and the largest
denomination is 5.000 million cruze-
rios, which is worth only about eight
bucks (American) at last check.
DINNER A little friend poses
proudly with his next meal. If he
could skate he would surely rip.
sif
05
BUDA
HYPERMARKET
This supermarket is
as big as three foot-
ball fields and has
one hundred and
twenty check-out
lines. If you forget
something, there are
girls on rollerskates
who will get it for you
while you're in line.
he flight there was fourteen
hours of sweaty torture, but all
the discomfort faded when I set
eyes on São Paulo. Coming in on
the plane, there were apartment
buildings, cars and roads as far as
the eye could see. Twenty million
people live here and every one of
them has sweat forming at the
temples and armpits. The river that
Blows through town
is so polluted that it
foams up after a
heavy rain. My first
impressions of this
country were that of
incredible beauty
and overwhelming
poverty. Scores of
people live in wood-
Brasil 92
Clockwise, from top: We went to this park called ZN in São Paulo
where Chupeta stuck the fat 180° kickflips every time. At another
park called Piracicaba, Julien Stranger channel hopped over smooth
coment trannies. Bruno the tourguide, over the hip, into the shallow
and. Looking down the barrel of a loaded gun, Cards, "Get Some."
Between Rio and São Paulo, the Guarana country club awaits.
en and card-
board shacks
right next to
the highway.
The kids play
there. If you
want to live
in a card-
board shack
with no run-
ning water
under a bridge, go ahead. On
the other side of the coin, the
rich live the charmed life. For
most of the people, the mini
mum wage translates to about
sixty dollars a month. The
roads are lined with derelict
buildings covered with
Brasilian-style graffiti that, like
in America, denotes gang turf
and territory.
Skaters from São Paulo are
called Paulistas and are more
street tech, while the skaters
from Rio De Janeiro are called
Cariocas and are the more
bowl-oriented of the two.
There are about nine cement
parks within the metropolitan
São Paulo area that feature chal
lenging enough terrain for even
the heartiest of rippers. We hit the
'crete with locals Bruno, Caesar,
Gordo, and Porque in search of
concrete nirvana. Street skating is
very dangerous in Brasil because
the drivers are insane. Step off the
curb and feel the wind. The cli-
mate is very humid and it threat-
ens to rain every couple of hours
ar so. Between showers we man-
aged to session two parks and a
private halfpipe on our first day
there. The skaters here rip on
beat-up shit like there is no tomor
row, but after five hours of skating
and the jet lag steadily creeping
up from behind, we were on big
time crash mode.
The next days rolled into a heat-
induced daze of sleeping till well
past noon, kicking at the pool and
waiting for it to be bearable
enough to skate. The staggering
heat is enough to crush even the