My skateboarding history starts in Brazil. I got my first skateboard in Galeria do Rock in São Paulo. You can read about that story here. I’ve had the opportunity to travel to Brazil since I was 14 years old. I’ve taken advantage of wherever my (older) brothers are, wherever they’ve lived I’ve been there. And because of this I know a thing or two about skateboarding in Brazil. The country has had several booms much like the United States. First in the 70s, then 80s, 90s and so on. And on these booms important things happen, like skateparks being built all over the country and eventually starting an industry there, an industry that doesn’t rely exclusively on products from the US. They make their own skateboards, their own trucks, wheels, bearings, griptape, hardware, shoes and anything one would need to skateboard. Why is this important? It drops the price of items and makes it more accessible for anyone to skate. You can still find a lot of the big brands we all know and love but think about this. A $60 board let’s say a Flip board costs around R$350 Reais (Brazilian coin) or more. Whereas I bought a Brazilian skateboard (or “shape” as its know in Brazil) with griptape for R$150. Now the quality might not be the same, but who cares when you’re trying to save money and we all know skateboarding can get expensive, since we constantly destroy our gear as we skate.
Now I’ve been to Brazil many times since I was a teenager but mainly São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and anything in between. Brasilia was a foreign city to me and when I first got to visit in 2019 (after meeting and falling in love with a Brazilian from Brasilia) I got to meet a very unique city. Brasilia is the capital of Brazil but only for the last 61 years, the number of years the city has existed. Rio de Janeiro used to be the capital. Because is relatively new, the city was structure unlike any other city I’ve visited and there are tons of spots one could skate at. A lot of government and bank buildings with marble floors, stairs, rails, ledges, and more.
The most famous spot “Setor Bancario” is right in the middle of the city. It features perfect marble floor that is covered (perfect for the raining season) and skaters bring ramps, boxes and other obstacles to make it more fun. This is the place where Felipe Gustavo learned his tricks. Across from Setor Bancario there are two big malls, one that looks new and is up to date with several stores called Conjunto Nacional and one next to it that is old and beat up called Conic. The latter has a few skate shops and to me the most important is Overstreet. Overstreet is a skate shop that first open on October 8th, 1997 and that’s very impressive to me. Why? Well, considering Brasilia is the capital and relatively new, I would say 80% (or more) of the population works in some type of government job. The fact that skateboarders are present and with a community that’s very much alive is a testament that when there’s a will, there’s a way.
On my first trip there I only got to skate Setor Bancario only on my last day of the trip, while skating and trying a Nollie 360 kickflip I fell down on my arm and popped my left shoulder for the first time ever. It didn’t hurt at first (probably because of the adrenaline), but when I got up I saw my arm hanging literally down to my knee, I got scared, however intuitively I took a deep breath, pumped my chest and while doing so my shoulder popped back into place, then the pain kicked in. It sucks when it happens but as skateboarders we all know is part of the game. It took me a month or two to feel comfortable to skate again and the first I wanted to do was a Nollie 360 kickflip to make sure I still had them, but more importantly to break this mental block of doing a trick that I got hurt doing. Whenever you get hurt doing something, it takes mental fortitude to try it again and eventually land the trick. But it didn’t feel like redemption just yet, I had to do it where I got hurt, I had to do at Setor Bancario.
It took two years to comeback and get it done. And I got it done, went there, warmed up and immediately started trying the trick. I did a handful of them to be sure, to be completely sure. I did fall on my ass a few times, but I got the trick, I got redemption.
On my second trip to Brasilia I had a little more free time so I did some exploring. Remember the booms I mentioned earlier? Well, now there’s a new boom, the Olympic boom or as I like to call it the “Rayssa Boom”. New parks are being built, old ones are being renovated and there’s new life and a lot of capital to invest in the “Olympic sport”. I put that in quotes because skateboarding to me is not a sport, but a lifestyle as Jason Dill so eloquently said on Transworld’s skate video Feedback, but hey bring in that olympic money into the “sport” and build new parks and plazas.
With the latest boom there’s also a lot of kids learning, I actually got to witness a skate class at Setor Bancario, about 8-10 kids with only a couple being boys, the rest girls, which is awesome. Some of the parks are built well while others you can tell someone without skateboarding knowledge built them, and normally those things happen because someone wants to get things done for cheaper and they always have someone they know who can do it for less. Those type of parks end up costing way more at the end, skaters can’t enjoy them, wrong materials are used and renovations have to be done constantly. But again, not all are bad, actually a new plaza was built really close to the mall that has the skate shops and from what I understood, they’re trying to revitalize the area, so building a skate plaza with bright lights was part of this project. It’s done really well, given the space available I certainly think they did an amazing job. I visited as many parks as I could on two days of the trip, unfortunately a lot of the parks were rained out, which is funny because Brasilia is dry most of the year and has a short rainy season, what are the odds.
So if you ever find yourself in Brasilia here’s what I recommend: Go to Overstreet skate shop (at Conic Mall) and get yourself some local gear, ask about the brands, where they’re from, who makes them and you’ll be amazed about the passion we all share for skateboarding worldwide., Then head over to Setor Bancario and skate until your legs can’t go no more, talk to the locals and share stories, get yourself a freshly made juice from the little shop that’s right in front or find yourself an açaí, with banana and granola, that’s the Brazilian way. Can’t wait to go back.
