Skateboarding
Skateboarding
Street dreaming: learn about Lucas Rabelo’s real-life story
After spending a day kicking it in California with Flip Skateboards’ newest pro for his Field Day, we sat him down to bring you bang up to date with his story so far.
How's this for a skateboarding story: Lucas Rabelo left his home in Fortaleza, Brazil a decade ago, aged just 13. The son of a skateboarding father who sadly passed away early in Lucas's young life, Rabelo had only been skating for a year himself when he headed for São Paulo. Spotted by widely-respected Brazilian pro Cezar 'Gordo' Dal Pozzolo at Brasil Skate Camp, he was encouraged to leave the unforgiving streets of São Paulo for Porto Alegre, a mellow but pivotally important Brazilian skate city that's home to the world-famous Iapi skate plaza.
The city block-sized skate spot is a crucible through which every Brazilian skate pro from Rodrigo TX onwards has passed and also where Red Bull's Skate Arcade global final was held in 2016. Cezar Gordo also put in a word with clothing brand LRG (which still exists in Brazil) and by the age of 14 Rabelo filmed a welcome part in which he was already Tre Flipping into handrail Lipslides.
Rabelo was on his way: selling the product he would win at comps and picking up sponsors like Matriz skateshop, which brought him into the jetstream of Flip Skateboards pro Luan Oliveira. 2019 would see him not only cameo on our street-level sojourn around Rio De Janeiro, but also be formally announced as the newest amateur addition to the Flip team – although he had quietly joined the team a year previously.
There's a tide in a skateboarder's career in which they must know when to catch the wave of a lifetime and in that moment Rabelo made his move onto the international stage, just as a global lockdown arrived. Notwithstanding the challenges that relocating to California had made to him, Flip surprised Rabelo at the airport with his debut pro model at the tail end of 2020. In a nice bit of circularity, his debut graphic was the sensational Iracema statue from his hometown of Fortaleza; a place he left a little over a decade and a whole lifetime ago, but still carries close to his heart courtesy of an identical tattoo on his forearm.
Having made it out to Europe for both Red Bull Paris Conquest and CPH Open from his new home in California last summer, we took the release of his Field Day episode to catch up with one of the leading lights of a golden generation of Brazilian talent ushering in a new era in the skate game – whether the lifestyle pros like it, or not.
Rabelo with a Nollie 180 Nosegrind at the Red Bull Solus competition
© Anthony Acosta/Red Bull Content Pool
Learn more about skating in Brazil
Let's begin with home: you are originally from Fortaleza, but your adoptive home in Brazil was Porto Alegre, right?
Yeah. I was born in Fortaleza and I started skating when I was 11, but when I was 13 I moved to Porto Alegre. I felt like it was a better place to skate.
How important would you say the IAPI plaza in Porto Alegre is to Brazilian skating?
It’s really important – it's an historic place. So many good skaters have come from there, plus it's a big spot, if you know what I mean. You just feel free when you skate there. It's no pressure no matter how many people are skating, just because it's so big.
How do you feel about the turning pro now as life begins to return to normal a little bit, post-Olympics. Good time or bad time?
Being pro is always a good time! It was my dream, so it is always the right time. It's crazy to see the number of people out skating now, though. When you go to the park you see families watching their kids skating, so I think things are getting better now.
Any word of a new Flip video?
I'm not sure yet. Sometimes they say they want to, but we have to talk about it with everybody on the team together, first. I would be up for doing it, for sure.
It's all day, every day skating in Rabelo's new California home
© Jaime Owens/Red Bull Content Pool
I've never thought of myself as doing well, because if I had that mentality, maybe I would relax too much.
What would you say are the differences between pro skating in Brazil and the US, and is the balance between video and contests changing for you now?
I feel like it's a 50/50 split right now. In Brazil, contests are a bigger part of getting by, but in California, it's skating street almost always. It changes for me: sometimes, contests can be important, but other times I'm focused on filming video parts.
Is your move to US permanent, or will you return to Brazil at some point?
No, this is permanent. This is where I want to spend my whole life. I mean, I love Brazil, but I love skating and the US is better to skate, so it feels like this is the best place for me to be.
You made it out to Red Bull Paris Conquest, so would you like to spend more time in Europe?
Europe was good! I didn't have a whole lot of time to skate street, but I'd definitely like to make it back over.
What are the plans for you in 2022?
Well, it's always skateboarding; just skating every day. I want to do my best for this Red Bull video part and hopefully I'll be in Street League as well. I'm not too sure what contests are on for 2022, but it's just about giving everything in front of you 100 percent.
