Year 2000. We have no flying cars, no colonies on Mars, nor is Earth full of robots as many predicted. But one thing is certain: skateboarding has never been as successful as this turn of the century.
As a joke, it became a sport, style and reason for life for many, as is the case with me, that entering my 45s, I can still only think about Skate.
With several Brazilians occupying the top positions in the world ranking, which even has a stage held in Brazil, the Skate today occupies a prominent place in the Brazilian scene (youth, sports, cultural), with its own industry that includes videos, magazines and specialized TV programs, with the right to live broadcasting of some of the main national and international!!! But it was not always so...
Skate arrived in Brazil in the 60s, with a crowd that was starting to surf here, influenced by ads in Surfer magazine. At the time, the name was “Surfinho” and it was made of skates nailed to any wood, with rubber or iron wheels!
I remember that in 1968 my passion was 2 boards: a surf board, a 9 foot 8 inch São Conrado, and a of Skate, a 24-inch Nash Sidewalk Surfboards, with clay wheels and laminated wood. A real Skate I got from one of the gringos who frequented Fortaleza São João, in Urca.
The people at the American Consulate used the soccer field there to play baseball, and there was a group that had some skateboards. The kids were here and there on the courts and their Skates fascinated me.
After a conversation with one of the boys, who wanted more was money to buy candy, I took the opportunity and sent a candy...I ended up convincing him to sell me his Skate. I still remember the price, 13 cruzeiros... and a belt that the kid liked and insisted on having!
In America, Skate fell by the wayside, the same happened here.
Then, in 1974, chemical engineer Frank Nashworthy accidentally discovered Urethane, the material that Skate's wheels are made of, and that would revolutionize the entire sport.
The new wheels were quieter and tighter, making the Skates faster and safer.
With Urethane came the first skateboard boom.
The symbol of the time was Greg Weaver, the Cadillac Kid, and the slopes of Maria Angélica and Cedro, in Rio de Janeiro, were already threshed by the brothers Marcelinho and Luizito Neiva, Marcelo Bruxa, Alexandre Gordo, Maninho between others. While in Sumaré, in São Paulo, some skaters, eager for the emotions caused by speed,
like Curlew, Tchap Tchura and Kao Tai, were beginning to emerge.
And they painted the first stunts, 360s, Wheelies, Handstands and stuff like that.
At the Federal Club of Rio de Janeiro, the first skateboarding championship in Brazil took place, won by Flavio Badenes, in Senior, and Mario Raposo, in Junior.
Skates were almost all imported, from the most varied brands: Bahne, Super Surfer, Cadillac, Hang Ten...
The Brazilians were Torlay, made by the São Paulo roller skate factory, Bandeirante, from the toy factory of the same name, and the RK, which was a copy of the American Bennett Pro, the first axle made especially for skateboard.
The wheels also had the system of loose cylinders, which rested on conical nuts, locked by a locknut, and the axles were still used in skates. Until 1974, Dado Cartolano came up with a novelty: the Vortex, a Skate that had the axles copied from the Tracker Trucks, which was wider and so it allowed for more curves, and the Vortex wheels, copies of the Road Rider gringas, which replaced the loose cylinders with bearings with auto nuts. stoppers.
The championships started happening here and there, the modality was Freestyle with Pirouettes, High Jump, Barrel Jump (high and long jumps) and a still rudimentary Footwork. The competitive scenario was dominated, in Rio, by the Surfcraft team, which included Maninho, Quinzinho, Alexandre Calmon, Luizito and Marcelo Neiva, and also by the team Waimea, which had Flavio Badenes, Mario Raposo and Paulo Soares, as well as skaters who walked without sponsorship and who gave you goosebumps, as was the case with Luis de Jesus, the “Come Mouse". In São Paulo, the first Skate Team to emerge was Costa Norte, a surfing firm, which in addition to boards, also manufactured Skateboarding materials (wheels, axles, boards), and which had Tchap Tchura and Kao Tai as members. Later, others came, such as Gledson and DM, the latter even associating with Pepsi in the “Wavepark” era.
With the development of Skate, the next step was the improvement of the terrain, since since the beginning, Skate was practiced on the streets, sidewalks, parking lots, sports courts, etc.. There was a need to create specific areas for the practice of this new sport. And that's how Skateparks emerged, which quickly became a fever all over the world.
(NOTE: Skatepark is male. It is wrongly used A SKATEPARK, in the female gender, in a free translation for A PISTA DE SKATE. The correct thing is to make the analogy with AMUSEMENT PARK, which is male. Therefore, SKATEPARK is also in male, as it means THE SKATE PARK)
In Brazil, the first skate track to be built was in Nova Iguaçu, in Rio de Janeiro, in 1976.
It was also the first Skate track in Latin America, with two Bowls of approximately 20o incline!
And it's still there, with more than 24 years given to Skate...
I remember very well when I first saw this track! I just freaked out! For me, it was as if I had found that amazing surf spot, with the perfect waves crashing on both sides, smooth and windless, a source of unlimited and endless fun.
I wanted that for me... I thought to myself.
After that day, I decided that Skateboarding would definitely be part of my life.
This track changed the focus from Freestyle to "Bowlriding". Also due to the influence of the American magazine Skateboarde, which showed skaters on rinks and backyard swimming pools.
The maneuvers were Berts, Beats, One and a half (a 360 and a half in transition) and fast lines a la Surf.
In July 1977, the first track championship in Brazil took place in Nova Iguaçu, RJ, totally different from the events until then, which were only Freestyle or Slalom.
The applied rules were the basis for the current competition regulations. The winner was Maninho and local Quinzinho came in second. The two, who showed the lines developed in many hours of training, in this that was the first of a series of many tracks that Brazil would have.
One of them appeared in São Paulo. It was a gigantic Snake Run made of asphalt with rounded edges, which ended up in a 50o bowl. This was a gift that Paulistas received from Condomínio Alphaville, a place that today has some good quality lanes in its complex.
Here, Sampa entered the Bowl Riding era, with all the skaters from São Paulo wanting to drop in the newest and boldest track in Brazil. Skate, with the tracks, gained an air of Surf on concrete, with maneuvers very similar to that one, but that would evolve a lot in the future, taking its own direction.
On Christmas Eve 1977, another chapter in the history of national Skate was being written.
At the Clube de Regatas do Flamengo the 1st demo of Skate do Brasil was held, where the base of Freestyle was shown, as well as the ramp Skate, with the action rolling in a wooden Quarter Pipe, with PVC coping that reached the 90th!
In SP, the following year, the DM Team went on the first Skate Tour that is known in our country, with names like Sideney Ishi, Anésio, Wandy, Alois, Gini, Gean, Bola 7, Claudio, Cricket and Jun Hashimoto.
The first major championship, which had an audience of around 2,500 people, took place in early 78. The Luau Skate Tournament, held at the Circulo Militar de São Paulo, was the first event to have Slalom and Freestyle, in addition to having ramps in the competition area. The outstanding teams from São Paulo were DM, Gledson and Costa Norte, which had Kao Tai who won the Freestyle/Senior modality. At Junior, Marcelo Neiva da Surfcraft, with a routine rehearsed to the sound of Fleetwood Mac, showed why he was unbeatable in this modality.
In Slalom, Nelson Kaena won at Junior, while Ralph, from Wavepark, won at Senior. In Minas Gerais, in addition to Freestyle and Slalom, there were also competitions with the Speed modality, thanks to the local geography, that is, many hills! At that time, the emphasis on Bowlriding was intensifying and, in Rio de Janeiro, the Jacarepaguá track appeared, which already had some more radical transitions.
Many skaters from different parts of Brazil, thirsty for vertical emotions, built countless ramps.
The maneuvers were One Wheelers, Edgers, Snaps, and Tail Blocks, and the front line of the vertical trailblazers was in Rio de Janeiro, with Ernesto Tello, Mark Lewis, Marcelo Neiva, Eric Wilner and myself, who I became early on. “gunslinger”.
But a big change would come to Skate Nacional. The focus of this change was on Avenida Santo Amaro, in SP. The Wavepark was built there, by Charles Putz, an American teenager who lived in Brazil and was stoked on Skate. The track was a dream! It had a bar, Pro Shop and two Snakes that ended up in Bowls, one of them being Vertical. Everything with a perfect finish! It looked like something out of the pages of Skateboarder magazine...
From “Wave” emerged the first great skaters of the vertical. Jun Hashimoto and Formiga, who together with Ralf, Jofa, Kao Tai and Bruno Brown detonate the place.
With the proliferation of tracks and equipment, there was the 2nd boom in Skate.
The tricks were Lip Slides, Rock'n Roll, Carvings and Aerials with Skaters defying the law of gravity!
"Where are we going to stop!", I thought then... Little did I know that I was about to become part of something new, grand and revolutionary, the Skate Culture...
Until then, Skate articles were only published in non-specialized newspapers and magazines, or even in some surf magazines.
In 1978, Alberto Pecegueiro, now President of Globosat and one of those responsible for Skate, migrated for cable TV, it launched Brasil Skate, a magazine dedicated to the sport that was growing in the eyes visas.
The Brazilian Championship took place in Florianópolis, on the Jurerê track - a pirambeira built downhill.
Formiga showed in competition, for the first time, to the world of Skate, the aerials and won the Junior. Jun, shocking everyone with a Roll Out/Roll In impossible to be imagined for the time, won in Senior.
Tracks explode all over Brazil, such as Cashbox and Franete, in São Paulo, both focused on Bowlriding.
In Rio de Janeiro, one of the largest and most modern tracks was built, with a 30 x 70m reservoir, a 30m Half Pipe meters long, ending in a bowl of 13 meters, with transition walls ranging from 1 meter to 3 meters and 20 cm in length height!
At the inauguration, ZS skaters showed the entire base of Vertical Skate, cut little by little on the ramps built by the guys themselves who are cracked in vert! New names appear, like the brothers Carlinhos and Roberto “Lourinho” who lived a block away from the newest dancefloor.
In line with the natural evolution of the sport, Skate was also changing.
The shapes were getting wider and the wheels conical. Everything to facilitate vertical maneuvers.
DM Pepsi held, in São Paulo, a selective test to choose some skaters to participate in a championship of the NSA (National Skateboarding Association), in Oceanside, United States. A big crowd would be responsible for representing Brazil for the first time in an international Skate competition, with names like Formiga, Osmar Fossa, Jofa, Bruno Brown and Marcelo Neiva, who had been specially invited due to his expertise in Freestyle, being among the top 10. The final, which would have 10 competitors, ended up happening with only 6, making Marcelo stay out.
The scene in the south of the country also showed signs of ample development with the holding of the Brazilian Championship, at Swell Skatepark, in Viamão, Rio Grande do Sul. The track was a small Snake Run that ended up in a Bowl with blue tiles and Coping. Local Chico Preto packed Formiga and Jun Hahimoto, two of the best "verticalers" of the moment. I remember that in this championship I managed to buy from Edu, who worked at Wavepark, some yellow Sims Conical wheels and with them I got 6th place.
Still in Rio Grande do Sul, other tracks were emerging such as the Parque da Marinha, in Porto Alegre, with its gigantic Snake and the extinct super vertical Bowl, and the Ramon's Bowl, in Novo Hamburgo, which was a replica of a backyard swimming pool, the kind you saw in Skateboarder magazines, with Coping, Azulejos, Shalow End and Deep End!
Cariocas received another clue as a gift: Barramares, an “Eggbowl” pool with Shallow End, Deep End Coping and Tiles ranging from 50 cm to 4 m and 20 in height. With it, Rio resumed the front in vertical Skate.
I remember Homeric sessions in a pure “Dog Town” atmosphere, with Ernesto Tello, Mark Lewis, Come Rato, Osmar and Oscar Latuca, who were the skateboarders who dominated the art of Bowlriding at that time.
36 km was the distance from my house to Barramares and 75 km to Campo Grande.
It was in these two places that I spent most of my life, with a smile on my lips and a stroller at my feet.
Sometimes people ask me why Skate... and I say Skate is my life.
Through him I met people and places, established my best friendships, lost the fear and shame of trying, trying until I succeed. Which, let's face it, is not a very well-accepted posture by this unfair system called Society, where only success is rewarded.
Skate develops motor skills and creativity, exercises the body and mind!
Text written for the book:
"A Onda Dura - 2 Decades of Skateboarding in Brazil", 2000
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