Brazil produced some world class skate boarders, such as Bob Burnquist, several times champion of the X-Games, the skate Olympics.
In this interview to Juice magazine, he describes the skateboard scene in Rio and São Paulo, where he grew up, in the mid-eighties:
Rio is more laid back surf/skate and Sao Paulo is more of the ‘skateboarding only’ mentality and where most of the skate industry is located. Sao Paulo is like the California of Brazil. It was super fun and I’m stoked that I had my roots set up in that way, because I have more respect for every aspect for skateboarding. I skated it all, mostly vert at first, then street, then cement parks, then I was forced into cement vert skating, then back to street. Nowadays, wherever I end up, I can have a good time.
When Burnquist got acquainted with the sport (a friend lost his soccer ball and gave him his first skate board, as a compensation), in the mid-eighties, it had been practiced in Brazilian streets for two decades. But it was frequently despised by the authorities that would, sometimes, forbid its practice and even call the cops. In 1988, former president Jânio Quadros, then São Paulo mayor, refused to allow skating in the streets of the metropolis. Nevertheless, skateboarding gained some respect in the nineties and became widely practiced. Today, there are at least 300 pro Brazilian skateboarders, according to Confederação Brasileira de Skate.
Burnquist and other Brazilian skaters, such as Lincoln Ueda, Sandro Dias and Cristiano Mateus, are the stars of a new documentary that shows how the sport evolved from an almost illegal activity to big business and popularity. “Vida sobre Rodas” (Life on Wheels), directed by Daniel Baccaro, himself a longtime skater, was released late last year. You can have a little taste of it thanks to this trailer that has (very few ) subtitles in English:
Also, check some of Burnquist’s amazing manoeuvres here.