Skateboarding
Skateboarding
Meet Brazil's smooth operator Lucas Rabelo
From skating barefoot on the streets of Fortaleza to turning pro for Flip Skateboards and winning the Pan-American Games, learn how Lucas Rabelo hit the skateboarding big time.
Lucas Rabelo is part of a talented contingent of young Brazilian skateboarders who are making their mark on the sport right now. He made a name for himself in 2023 with a big win in the street category at the Pan-American Games, but his route to success has been an unusual one, so continue reading to get the lowdown on how he went from skating barefoot on the streets of Fortaleza to entering events like Red Bull Solus.
Lucas started skateboarding at the age of 12 after being inspired by kids in his neighbourhood of Pirambú – and he was entering contests just a year later.
Lucas Rabelo nails a nollie 180 nosegrind
© Anthony Acosta / Red Bull Content Pool
"I was always a daredevil," he says of his formative skateboarding days. "Me, my friends and my brother were always up to something – we skipped classes to skateboard and didn't pay much attention in school, but we always behaved up to a certain point. We were those kids who sat in the back of the classroom…"
Rabelo was raised primarily by his grandmother and was just 13 when local skate shop owner Eli Martins showed videos of him in action to Brazilian skateboarding pioneer, Cezar 'Gordo' Dal Pozzolo. The park builder and mentor recognised Rabelo's talent and invited him to travel with him to Street Camp in São Paulo, the Brazilian equivalent of the USA's Camp Woodward and a place through which every Brazilian skater of note passes at one point or another.
10 min
Lucas Rabelo
A rising star with raw talent; link up with Lucas Rabelo in Long Beach to learn how he began skating.
Street Camp basically serves the dual purpose of allowing Brazilian teenagers to skate around the clock and keeps them out of trouble. But São Paulo has what might charitably be described as a lively reputation and Rabelo was advised to leave the unforgiving streets for Porto Alegre, a mellow but pivotally important Brazilian skate city that's home to the world-famous IAPI skate plaza.
"Gordo believed in my dream with me – he's an inspiration and someone I admire," says Rabelo. "Today we've lost touch a little, but we're still really close. He brought me to Street Camp with the sponsorship he had. Then, he said I should go to Porto Alegre."
01
Honing his craft
Porto Alegre's IAPI skate plaza is a city block-sized skate spot upon which every notable Brazilian skater from Rodrigo TX onwards has left their mark.
The location for the Red Bull Skate Arcade global final in 2016, it's difficult to overestimate how much the IAPI plaza means to the careers of Brazilian skateboarders, having somewhere safe and community-based in which to practise, refine and excel.
American professionals have private parks and training facilities; Lucas Rabelo and his Brazilian kinfolk have the IAPI plaza.
IAPI Skate Plaza
© Sam Ashleigh
It's a place where Rabelo could perfect his craft, free from the dangers of the neighbourhood where he grew up. He was making his way by doing what every street kid starting out in the skateboarding game learns to do: hustling. He would sell product he won at local comps to other plaza locals and picked up new sponsors like Matriz skate shop, which would bring him into the slipstream of Flip Skateboards pro Luan Oliveira. This familiar skateboarding pattern of holding a door open, as was done for you, would prove pivotal for his career.
"I started skateboarding when I was 12 and a year later I was already competing," says Rabelo, looking back on how he got his start. "Each time I skateboarded I felt happier, so I decided to have the skateboard in my life. I didn't have big goals at first – the focus was just to be on the skateboard and learn some tricks."
02
Turning pro
The British owners of Flip Skateboards, Jeremy Fox and Ian Deacon, have proven to be some of skateboarding's sharpest talent scouts, with a brand alumni that includes Rune Glifberg, Tom Penny, Geoff Rowley, Arto Saari, Batien Salabanzi and Luan Oliveira.
Being announced as the new rider for Flip in 2019 and turning pro just a year later elevated Rabelo's career into another strata – and a move to California beckoned. His debut board graphic was the Iracema statue, which is the icon of his Fortaleza hometown and one which matches a tattoo on his forearm.
Lucas Rabelo- Backside Overcrook
© World Skate
I’m living my dream, which is skateboarding, travelling the world and living from what I love to do
03
Making moves
Rabelo's last video from Brazil was his cameo in Greetings From Rio de Janeiro, as he bade farewell to his home country to make the well-trodden path north to try and make it in the skateboard industry heartland of California.
8 min
Greetings from Rio de Janeiro
Step inside the skate scene of one of the world’s most famous cites with the top boys from Brazil.
So meteoric was his come-up that by 2021 he was selected to ride the Street League contest series, won the Junior Pan American Games in Cali, Colombia, and competed at Red Bull Solus in Ryan Sheckler’s skatepark. The barefoot troublemaker who skipped school to skate the streets of Brazil had arrived.
"Yeah, I remember that I competed barefooted in my first tournament," says Rabelo of his first contest. "I skated without any shoes because the ones I had were too tight. A lot of people there thought I was nuts, but it was normal to me, because I always skated like that with my friends."
Lucas Rabelo - Front Blunt
© Fabio Piva/Red Bull Content Pool
04
Winning big
In 2023, Rabelo was selected to take part in Red Bull Rio Conquest and he secured a career-best fourth place at SLS Sydney, before heading to Santiago, Chile, where he won the senior edition of the Pan-American Games street contest against skaters from 10 other nations.
Lucas Rabelo - Nosebluntslide
© Tauana Sofia/Red Bull Content Pool
As he observes: "I'm living my dream, which is skateboarding, travelling the world and living from what I love to do."
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