“Lisbon is getting better” for skateboarding
Gustavo Ribeiro has a share of responsibility for the resurgence of skateboarding in Portugal. A year ago, he shone in Tokyo – it was the first time for skateboarding as an Olympic sport to fulfill a dream that started back there. He appeared in sixth, but the recovery would not take long – at the time of the conversation with the best skatepark in Campolide, Gustavo occupied the position in the world ranking. Today, he is at the top of the podium, having won one of the most important competitions in the sport, the Street League Skateboarding, in Las Vegas. Now his eyes are on the 2024 Olympics.
Why did you choose this skatepark?
place, in Portugal, we don’t have many [skateparks] inside. This one has a bridge to protect it from the rain and, if it’s too hot, it also protects it from the sun. It is more or less in the center of everything and is one of my favorites. Already here days and days followed a training for championships. Every time I come back, it’s special.
Is this preparation a solitary work or can it be done in a group?
Skateboarding is very much in the collective. You always walk with friends and that gives you more energy to walk, more desire. But I think there’s some focus in the head, some kind of maneuver that I have to film, I end up going alone. If it’s a normal situation, and with my twin brother, at least, and that ends up giving another motivation.
And having entered high competition changed your relationship with skateboarding, or do you continue to have fun?
It’s a little bit of both. There are days when I have to skate because it’s my job. Sometimes my foot hurts or my leg hurts and I don’t feel like walking. As with all jobs, we have to do it, even when we don’t want to. Obviously, skateboarding is often overwhelming, you get hurt, but if it’s what you do for love, everything makes more sense.
We know your skateboarding story started with a Christmas present. Before that, had your family never thought of that possibility?
I do not remember very well. I don’t think it even deviates from what a skateboard was at the time. I think my uncle was longboarding, he wasn’t really into skateboarding. Maybe he saw it at Decathlon and thought, ‘I’ll take two skateboards and I’ll give them to my nephews’. From there, things took off. My brother and I are going to start doing a skateboarding championship, over the years things started to evolve.
And did they immediately count on the support of the family to invest in the sport?
My family has always supported us 100%. My father, at first, even stopped working. My mother, who is a teacher, skipped school to go with us to championships. Skateboarding is not the most expensive sport, but it is not the cheapest either. There was a risk and I think my parents should have been afraid too, but if you like your children you will have to support them.
At what point does skateboarding stop being just a hobby and start (and around you) realize that you can have a professional path ahead?
When I was seven years old I made the first title and that was when I had the energy to feel more interested in it. But when I was nine or ten years old, they were able to take the leap, gain more strength in their legs and see that after all it was possible. That it really proposes to me and determines me, nothing was impossible. And that’s when someone bet on being a good skateboard.
How do you rate Lisbon in terms of conditions and possibilities for those who want to learn to skate?
I think Lisbon is getting better and better, also following the evolution of the last five years in terms of national skateboarding. We have more and more skateparks. In addition to skateparks, we have more and more street spots on the streets. And more and more kids are skating.
You said five years. What happened in that period?
There were several things put together by the Olympics Skateboarding Games. From that moment on, people didn’t understand how to look at skateboarding, something marginal, but as a sport. There are more skateparks and more people coming together and wanting to create. I feel that five years ago it was very much against each other, whereas today we are becoming more of a union. Five years ago, there wasn’t a Portuguese who said that one of us was going to get there. This opens up the horizons of kids today – if I can do it, they can too.
Do you feel like people like a person to look at skateboarding marginally?
I still keep looking. But with each passing year, it is seen more as a sport. It is no longer that idea of the skater who is going to destroy the street, who is a drunk and a junkie. The skater is like a footballer, like a basketball player, he is a sportsman.
There’s a lifestyle associated with skateboarding – the way you dress, the music you listen to. Was this package complete for you from the start?
You can’t just skate – you’ll like to have your own style, to listen to a certain music, there are several complements. It’s very much part of urban culture, because we don’t just walk in skateparks, we walk on the street. My ear likes everything a little bit, but I’d say I’m a bit calmer person. I like to listen to jazz, I like to listen to reggae and hip hop. My favorite artist, right now, I would say is Djodje.
Do you have a plan b for when skateboarding is no longer an option?
Grab every opportunity that you don’t have a plan a and, from there, create a plan b. Be smart and secure the future if the plan doesn’t work. I would love to open a skate school, or a private skatepark, the first outdoors in Portugal. I have a great passion for cooking, who knows, maybe one day I will open a restaurant.
Do you like cooking, generally speaking, or do you have any specialties?
I won’t say I cook every day, but almost. I love cook. Within Portuguese cuisine, it’s what you want. I’m not a big fan of cook fish, just because I don’t like to eat it very much. A Portuguese stew? Quietly.