Skateboarders compete, party in Prague

By KEVIN DEAN
School of Communication
University of Miami

PRAGUE— “There are so many Brazilians here that they should be called ‘Bazillions!’” Aussie vert skater Trevor Ward yelled to the fans seated around the half pipe.

People laughed, but in the end, everyone knew that it was true.

The Brazilian presence at the 2004 Mystic Sk8 Cup at the end of July here was indomitable.

In the semifinals 12 Brazilians qualified and in the finals, a third of the 15 competitors were Brazilian.

Brazilian vert legend Sandro Dias won the vert competition and the best vert trick competition with two 900s.

And the street contest winner Rodil Jr. was Brazilian, too.

Even though the Mystic Sk8 Cup has the lowest amount of prize money on the World Championshp Tour, $30,000, competitors from all over the globe still flock to Prague for the parties and the great course layout.

“The course here is amazing every year, I come back every year and they’ve made the course better,” said Rodney Clarke, a 31-year-old pro from London. “It’s worth coming just to skate the course. Forget the competition.”

But perhaps the most noteworthy Brazilian at the contest was Rogerio Troy from Sao Paulo, Brazil, not because he won anything, but because he took his pants off during the semifinals and skated only in his briefs in front of hundreds of people.

“I do what I want to do, do you hear me?” he said. “I skate on the streets. I go to the competitions because it’s a party.”

Troy agrees with Clarke that the Mystic Sk8 Cup is something very fun, indeed.

“Mystic Sk8 Cup is very special because the money isn’t there and the prizes are almost nothing, and the other places have higher prizes but it’s not as much fun,” he said.

Troy is a member of the Daggers, a skateboard company based in Huntington Beach, Calif.

The announcer and organizer of the event, Dave Duncan, was in a skateboarding film from the 1980s called Thrashin’. In the movie, the group of rebel punk skaters were known as the Daggers and they ran around town burning down rival skate ramps and spray painting bloody knives on their skateboards and leather jackets.

Many years later, Duncan moved back to California and started to make Dagger clothing in an effort to rekindle the rebellious skateboarding spirit that dominated the 1980s.

Troy is a perfect example of a Dagger.

He’s not very technical and he takes average tricks to crazy new heights. He listens to punk rock and doesn’t care how he finishes in contests. All that Troy wants to do is skate.

“Rogerio is a true street skater,” says Dan MacFarlane, 26, from Houston. MacFarlane lived with Troy during the competition. “He’s not very tech. But he’s gnarly.”

“And that’s what Rogerio’s all about, pure shredding.”

Troy says that lots of skaters in Sao Paulo, his hometown, get trapped by their sponsors into portraying a certain hip-hop image. They wear baggy jeans and listen to rap music and feel as the only things that they can do are what their sponsors tell them.

He relates the troubles of gathering sufficient sponsors while living in Brazil.

“It takes a lot of effort for American companies to sponsor someone living in Brazil because it’s another continent,” he says. “I’m different. I’m not into fierce competition and I’m not into hip hop and I’m not very technical, so I don’t fit the requirements that most sponsors look for in Brazilian skaters.”

Still, Troy refuses to compromise.

“I don’t fit the image that most companies look for and I won’t change myself,” he says. “I just want to skate and pay the bills.”

Otavio Neto, a 24-year-old skater from Sao Paulo, was one of the few competitors that participated in both the street and vert competitions. He says that competing in both makes him a more well-rounded skater.

“I feel that vert and street go hand in hand,” he says. “Skating vert helps your street skating, and street skating helps your vert.”

Otavio finished 51 st in the street competition and in the top 10 for vert.

Duncan says that he’s not surprised that the Brazilians finished so well in the competition. It’s their unique nature that helps them succeed in skate competitions.

“They are aggressive people, yet very warm and friendly at the same time,” he says. “Every year they help make this skate contest what it is.”

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