1a Copa Sao Paulo Open de Slalom

1ª COPA SÃO PAULO OPEN DE SLALOM, by Guto Jimenez

The typical winter morning weather in São Paulo made that Sunday just like any other – cold, misty, kind of drizzling outside. All you’d wanna do is to keep yourself warm & calm under your mattresses and enjoy your sleep as much as you can, and the mere thought of going outside to skate seems even more unconfortable than a nightmare.

Unless you were a slalom skateboarder with a unique chance to ride a street with a permission, for the first and only time ever. Those were we, and there we went then.

 

A couple of things were special about this contest: it was organized side by side by Wave Boys skate shop and Garage Metallica chopper custom shop, in an event that mixed both cultures in the whole staff but not among the public. Needless to say, skaters and neighbors were the majority. The location was also somehow rare, a street in the lower part of Vila Madalena, the city’s best known neighborhood of great restaurants, some killer clubs and truckloads of beautiful chicks around night time – and hangoverland during the day. Kind of like the best location for the battle for the R$ 6,000 (a little over US$ 3,000) prize money, plus a 1.98 m (6’6” ft) tall trophy, which was said to be the largest one awarded in a skateboarding contest ever. No Guinness reps were available for any comment, though.

The greatest thing about the contest was the biodiversity of skaters of all kinds among the competitors. From OG vert riders like Wave-boys man Bruno “Brown” Leonardo to frestyle master Paulo “Folha” to street vet Oscar “Mad” (8th), not to say some downhill stars like a knee-busted, Spider Man-dressed Sergio Yuppie (4th) and other sliders like Willians “Indião”, Ricardo “Mikima” (9th) and Jose Carlos “Birinha”. Speedsters like Alexandre Maia (3rd) also showed up along some DH legends like Paulo “Coruja” and Fernando “Batman”, top slide pro in the 80’s whose last contest had been in 1990 (!) previous to this.

Do you get straight now why we woke up early and all that morning?!

The cold weather was slapping at our faces like the whip of a wet towel, since 50º F is reeeeally cold even for the local winter temperature standards – it’s supposed to be a tropical country here, remember? Riders didn’t give a sorry f for the harsh conditions and began riding around 8:30 AM, trying to adapt themselves to the short, but tricky hybrid course of the final lower section of the Harmonia street. Some rain & shine period went on for a couple of hours but neither could make the guys stop skating for a longer period. The heat was on, in spite of the freezing day.

If you noticed well I said the circuit was tricky, and insidious it was as a matter of fact. A few riders missed cones 4 & 5, the area which became the proving ground of the whole hill – those too fast wouldn’t make them, those too slow would regret at the end of the course. The “make or eat” section of every good slalom course was right in front of my location – couldn’t be any luckier, could I?

 

Ever since the very first practice runs, it got pretty clear that Kako Max was riding quite faster than most others and the final results proved that in the end of the day – an amazing time of 12,90 seconds, 1.5 sec faster than “Gardenal”, the 2nd placed competitor. Oh, and less than one second was the difference between this and the 10th. Tell me about going faaast – and tell Kako about how to send a taller-than-thou luggage home with no excess weight charges…

1ª COPA SÃO PAULO OPEN DE SLALOM

ORGANIZATION AND SPONSORS: Wave Boys, Pocket Pistols, Garage Metallica

SUPPORTED BY: Speed Demons, Sector 9, Freestyle, Nike SB, Black Flys, Spitfire, AGEAC-MADA, TRIBO Skate magazine, Rolling Stone, Skate Brothers, I.S.S.A., Krial, 40 Polegadas, CBSk

1º - Kako Max – 12,90 s

2º - Gardenal – 14,45 s

3º - Alexandre Maia – 14,50 s

4º - Sérgio Yuppie – 14,90 s

5º - Rogério Sammy – 14,90 s

6º - Bruno Japa – 15,10 s

7º - Ramon Oliveira – 15,20 s

8º - Oscar Mad – 15,20 s

9º - Ricardo Mikima – 15,30 s

10º - Márcio Natividade – 15,30 s