September 21, 2022

The story of Marcos Hiroshi, a Brazilian skater, who, in the beginning of this century, was responsible for mapping out all the skateparks and skate spots in Brazil in one guide for ‘100% Skate’ magazine.

If there is one thing we know at Trucks and Fins is how much time and work it is to make a skate map, but to pull this off in the days when there was no internet, is insane. Back in those days everything had to be done the “old-school” way, send things by post. But, Marcos made the impossible happen and even found a skatepark in the middle of nowhere in the Amazon jungle! Twenty years later, he still proudly says this was a key moment to put the community in touch with skateboarding. A skatepark guide in a magazine that brought together the skaters in Brazil and created an “onda de skate” (a skate boost), which resulted in what we can see today.

When did you start skating?

I was three years old, when my father bought me a skateboard as a toy. It became more serious when I was around eight years old, when I started riding the streets of São Paulo. When I was about fourteen years old, my friends and I found a nice spot, far away from home. Here we could do wallrides and other tricks, but one day a security guard came, took our skateboards, and called my dad. He wasn’t incredibly happy with that, and I was forbidden to skate. Only at the age of sixteen, when I got my first job, I got myself a skateboard again and never stopped since.

Then you became a professional.

Yes, it was in 2003. I got a sponsor after participating in some youth competitions.

But it was not enough, though.

Yeah. I worked in a bank at the same time because I graduated in management. But the bank was sold and all the people from my department got fired. I thought: ‘I will dedicate myself one hundred per cent to skate with the compensation I received’. Unfortunately, the money ran out and I had to find another job.

Then you came across to ‘Cem por cento skate’ magazine.

Cem por Cento skate (100% skate) is a Brazilian magazine, one hundred per cent dedicated to skateboarding. They started a project in the beginning of the century and wanted to create the first skatepark guide in Brazil. I was chosen to embrace this project.

So, making a skatepark catalogue from scratch in a huge country like Brazil, in the early 2000’s. A great undertaking.

Yeah, my guys thought it would be finished in three months…

It took a little bit more, I presume…

[he laughs]. I took a year and a half. Remember: in the beginning of this century there was no internet. I had to send handwritten letters, asking them to fill out a form about all features of the park, to print photos and send all that by mail. I phoned to everyone to check out if they knew someone who knew someone who knew of a good spot, things like that. That’s how I met a lot of people from all around the country and made friendships that still last two decades later.

How many skateparks in Brazil did you gather in that guide?

We did that in stages: 427 parks in our first edition in 2002, then we increased to 721 parks in 2004 and in 2006 we had a total of 1024 skateparks and spots. It was an ‘ants job’, like we say in Brazil.

What distinctive features did you have?

The same you find today and some other warnings, like ‘hey, this place is dangerous, you must go there with a local rider, don’t go alone’. We added a danger scale and things like that.

What was the most exotic skatepark you found?

We were able to find a park in the Amazon Forest, right in the middle of the jungle. And they were some other bizarre parks too. Due to a total lack of criteria about spending public money we had all kinds of crazy spots: hand wide handrails, a quarterpipe facing a wall... We made observations on the spots description like ‘there’s this place but it’s horrible’.

Instagram Marcos Hiroshi See all skateparks in Brazil