In this edition, we take you to another country where we are happy to report the longboard scene is not only alive but thriving. Over the past several years, we've been in touch with Julio Eduardo and watched with admiration as he hosted some of the first distance skateboard events on his continent. From the looks of things, the scene is quite vibrant with great skate spots, local crews in multiple cities and local Ultraskate events coming in 2024 and 2025. Start looking at flights, Brazil is ready for you to come skate.
Introduce yourself to everyone around the world: Who are you, where do you live, what do you do when you’re not skating?
My name is Júlio Eduardo, I'm 47 years old, I've been skateboarding since I was 16. Initially I practiced Downhill slide and since 2015 I started practicing Long Distance Skateboarding. I live in São Paulo - SP (Brazil). When I'm at home, I enjoy my family, I take the opportunity to study articles in the area of public health (I'm a Pharmacist) and I also love taking care of my coffee plants, which I have in my backyard. I harvest, dry, roast the beans and prepare my own special coffee.
Long Distance Skate Marathon-SP Brazil 2023-Photographer: Jeferson Gaspar
When did you start skating and how did your path lead to you hosting events?
When I started in the Long Distance Skateboarding modality, I always watched videos on YouTube and Instagram of some events that took place in various countries and I was amazed by the organization format, the positive energy of the participants and the perception that they were events that added more than just competition, but also the true spirit of skateboarding. It's great to be around nice people who enjoy the sport. Therefore, I chose to start organizing specific events in the Long Distance Skateboarding modality in the capital of the city of São Paulo.
What is the name of your organization and how does it work with the local community and government to help spread stoke in your country?
I opened the company JEPS EVENTOS ESPORTIVOS in 2018, with the aim of organizing events for the LDS modality in the city of São Paulo, but due to the pandemic we had to wait a while to start our events, the first of which took place in 2023 (Skate Marathon Long Distance) at the SPEEDLAND Kartdrome.
Parallel to this, I organize the LDS SÃO PAULO group, which is a group of practitioners of the sport from the city of São Paulo and is open to practitioners from other cities in Brazil. People from Distance Skateboard Baixada Santistas (City of Santos-Litoral Paulista), LDP Rio de Janeiro (RJ), practitioners who live in the city of Brasília (DF), Mauá, among other locations, have already been with us. These meetings are very much based on the first precursors of the sport in the country, which are the people from LDP Rio de Janeiro and Distance Skateboard Baixada Santistas.
We have good contact and open communication with the Municipal Department of Sport and Leisure of the City of São Paulo (SEMESP), in which they organize the VIRADA ESPORTIVA-SP event and included for the second consecutive year the Long Distance Skateboarding modality (Organized by LDS SÃO PAULO and supporters), which takes place on the cycle path of the Extreme Sports Center and also included the Skate RUN (Push Race 2022, organized by Dárcio França) which takes place annually (2023) on the streets of the city center of São Paulo .
The São Paulo Skate Federation (FPS), has a technical booklet of rules for the Long Distance Skate/Push Race modality, it was the first Federation at national level to have a technical booklet for the modality and created the Paulista Ranking with results approved since 2022. I and other skaters contributed to the construction of the rules of this Technical Notebook, in which we studied several rules from events in other countries and adapted them to our reality. Bruno Rinaldi Hupfer (President of FPS) supports and supports the Long Distance Skateboarding modality and this is very important for expanding the modality in the city and in Brazil.
Other companies include the modality in the Push Race format (SESC, Skate2You, Skate Run, Pinda Skate, Vamos Passeiar)
VIRADA ESPORTIVA 2022: Photographer: Kléber Rodrigues (Sk8 no Front)
Last year you hosted the first Longboard Marathon in Brazil. Tell us how that went. Any other events planned in the future we should know about?
This was the first Skate Marathon in Brazil and it makes me very happy to be able to offer an event at this level for Brazilian practitioners. The approval of the event by The IDSA and FPS was very important for us. It was a great challenge to organize this event, from finding a suitable location for the Marathon, which took place at the SPEEDLAND Kartódromo and which has a great asphalt blanket and very appropriate space, getting sponsors, timing, t-shirts, medals, trophies, STAFF among other things, make us proud and encouraged to hold the second edition in 2024.
The 2024 edition will have some new features. We will have ULTRASKATE 6 hours within the event and we will include roller skaters in this event. We are in negotiations to hold the event location.
In the future, I am already organizing, discussing and negotiating the holding of the first ULTRASKATE BRASIL, scheduled for 2025. It will be a huge challenge, but we are building calmly so that the event takes place and can bring practitioners from Brazil and other countries as well.
Organization JEPS Sports Events - Long Distance Skate Marathon-SP Brazil 2023 – Photographer: Jeferson Gaspar
What is you advice to someone that might be thinking about hosting a skate event?
It is important to be very determined, focused and organized to hold events of this size. JEPS EVENTOS ESPORTIVOS is a small company and we have limited resources, so we need budgetary strategies, a trustworthy team and experience in the sport, as a lot of what I have learned so far has been from practitioners who breathe Long Distance Skateboarding. Out of respect for them, I need to offer a good event. We are moving forward with this purpose, correcting errors and maintaining the successes we achieved in the first event. We will have news soon.
Let’s shift gears and talk about the skate scene in Brazil. Your country is home to tons of extremely talented street skaters like Latisha Boufoni, Felipe Gustavo, Rayessa Leal, Sergio Santoro to name a few. But what about other disciplines like DH, Dance, LDP?
In other modalities, we have big names:
Slalom: Thiago Gardenal, Bruno de Oliveira, Bruno Bou, Pedro Frangulis, André Andrade, Dácio Toco, Howard Waddington, Ana Beatriz Berton and Marina Nobrega Borges.
DHS: Sergio Junior, Natan Dos Santos, Jefferson Santos Ricardo, Nayara Nishimuta, Fernanda Tabith, Eliza Vitória and Fernanda Lavenère.
LDP: We have Vitor Sallazar (SC) who is the current champion of the 42 km-SP marathon. Vinícius Eduardo, Bruno Barros, José Augusto, Anderson Felipe, Silvio Soares, Joab Lins, Giulio Costa, Zaion Henrique, Arthur Maniero, Sofia Macedo, Beatriz Rodrigues, Cris Punk (and the other members of LDS SÃO PAULO).
Rafael Martins, Hercules Gomes (ES) and the other members of DISTANCE SKATEBOARD ESPÍRITO SANTO.
Fábio Gil, Patric R., Jairo C. (and the other members of DISTANCE SKATEBOARD BAIXADA SANTISTA) and Denilson Costa, Enia Lobo, André Briglia (and the other members of LDP Rio de Janeiro). All of them were the Brazilian team in the sport.
Are there local skate crews that meet up frequently? Who are the key players?
In São Paulo we have LDS São Paulo, which holds meetings in some months of the year. In Rio de Janeiro we have the LDP Rio de Janeiro (forerunners of the sport in Brazil). There is also Distance Skateboard Espírito Santo and Distance Skateboard Baixada Santista (precursors of the sport in Brazil).
LDP RIO DE JANEIRO / Photograph by: https://www.facebook.com/groups/LDPrio/?locale=pt_BR
LDS SÃO PAULO / Photograph by:https://www.instagram.com/ldssaopaulo/
Distance Skateboard Baixada Santista / Photograph by: https://www.instagram.com/ds_baixadasantista/?hl=hi
Distance Skateboard Espírito Santo / Photograph by: https://www.instagram.com/distance_sk8_es/?__d=11
If we hop on a flight to your city where should we go skate first? What are your favorite routes in your town? Best spots to meet skaters? Great skateshops?
We have good parks with great bike paths.
Below is the list of suggestions:
Sao Paulo City
1st Bruno Covas Linear Park Cycle Path
2nd Villa Lobos Park Cycle Path
3°Ciclovia do Parque Ibirapuera.
In other cities:
Baixada Santista (Beach Coast Cycle Path), Rio de Janeiro (Beach Coast Cycle Path) and Espírito Santos (Vitória Airport Circuit). They are great places to train, according to reports from those who practice the sport.Regarding skate shops, there are many online stores. We have some stores in the center of São Paulo (Galeria do Rock). Some companies have opened up space for the sport, a good example are the skateboard brands VILA SKATE, ROOL Skateboard and Thor. But most of the parts that people buy for the LDS modality are imported from the USA (Gbomb, Loaded Boards, pantheonboards), Cobo Boards (Portugal) and MelonenKacke (Netherlands).
Bruno Covas Linear Park Cycle / Photograph by: Path Https://farahservice.com.br/parque-linear-bruno-covas/
Ibirapuera Park Cycle
Photograph by: https://ibirapuera.org/bicicleta_bike_skate_patins/ciclovia/
Villa Lobos Park Cycle -Photograph by:https://bliv.bike/artigo_melhores.php
We all know Bossa builds top quality decks in Brazil. What kind of setups and gear are popular in your part of the world?
Bossa Boards, which is managed by Nicolai, does everything with a lot of love and dedication, a fact that can be seen in the use of its shapes in several countries.
What I understand is that the platforms are the most used in Brazil. Few use Top Mount as an option (I have both). But it is interesting to share that many new skateboarders use their traditional skateboards in the sport and gradually change the configuration to improve performance.
It’s hard not to notice that LDP is gaining popularity in Brazil but what about the rest of Latin America? Any other hot spots on the continent for distance skating?
I researched this a lot and I didn't find practitioners of this modality in other countries in South America, but I believe that we will soon have new practitioners in neighboring countries.
Where do you want to skate in the world? Bucket list spot?
Yes I have!!!
ULTRASKATE MIAMI is the main one, but also the other countries where ULTRASKATE events take place (Netherlands, Italy, France and others).
Who knows, maybe one day I will be with Team Brasil LDP at one of these world events.
Big hug to all lovers of this sport, which despite the distances between our countries, brings us together with a common focus, the love of Long Distance Skateboarding.