Skate Trip Brazil 2: (EN)

Lukas Danek is a talentedskateboarder. He just placed eighth at the national championships. "Nowadays I am taking it more as fun and inspiration for young people," he explains. Lukas found an organization the Ride For Happiness, which is dedicated to youth (www.facebook.com/RFHappiness/). Most of the time he spends with his wife in Poland, they are trying for a baby andthey travel regulary to Prague. His wife is also involved in the nonprofit sector–she is the founder and president of the organization Ternype International Roma Youth Network, which is dedicated to Roma youth.
 
We have for you his memories of the magical journey to Brazil. "Crail Trip to Brazil happened in 2012, when I was a professional skateboarder and I made a living from it. I am riding for the Crail company www.crailtrucks.com, which manufactures trucks – chassis for skateboards, for several years, says Lukas." The trip to Brazil was part of a video shoot named Crailers and I think it was my best and most inspiring skateboard trip in my life. "
 
 
BrazilTrip, part 2
 
27.11.2012
 
Pedro woke me up –we are goingfor breakfast.
In the second floor there is a wonderful place: Colors are playing everywhere and flowers are scattered all around, rain falling on them.
Meanwhile as its still raining, we are watching the Day Breakers movie.

Later we go for a lunch and then to the Art Museum on the Paulistastreet.
Sun began to shine, after two days of cloudy sky; Suddenly everything looks completely different.

We go by subway, my first ride in Brazil.

The metro is quite new, it has no driver, so that one can watch, as the train passes through the tunnel.
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We are on the Avenida Paulista, sitting in the same restaurant as yesterday and we are waiting for Eric.

We talk with Pedro about the homeless and generally people on the streets. I ask if it is possible to help them out somehow - after all Brazil has quite a lot  of goods -  but, not!
The government has banned giving any belongings and food to people on the streets. Crazy.

When finally, we are all together, we go to the museum, the entrance is free today.

The museum is interesting, there are paintings by famous artists (Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Bellini, Vincent Van Gogh, Pierre Auguste Renoir)

After tour all over the museum, we go back to the Crail House.
Jani needs sylemblosks (bushings) and tracks, for sure he will get it here fromthe guys.
Finally, in the Crail HouseI am meeting the office team, all young people, two girls and the boss, Sergio.
 
Jani got everything he needed, so we go, skating the streets to the Roosevelt plaza.
We are quite weary, since the morningwe are moving around the city on skateboards, and the day is far from over.
We're going to eat and see what`s next.
 
With Jani we have huge fun, we laugh all the time.
Jani: "Dude, here I feel more at home than in Finland !!"
We talk with Jani about Quiksilver for whichI ride for many years now, they finally moved me to the European team, but I still  feel that they dont have to much of interest in me. Jani knows the main photographer for Quiksilver Anton, who's photographing also for Flip Skateboards!
 
Jani says the whole skate business starts to go crazy, and that he knows that I love skateboarding with all my heart and will always make it on my own. This gave me quite a boost, because Jani is one of the top European riders, but still I have to pay the rent and regular bills.
 
22:00

We set out on a night session at the Roosevelt Plaza.
Roosevelt plaza is full of people, children and skaters.
We are starting with Jani to playthe skate game, so we go all around the Plaza after eachother - a good warm-up.
After half an hour of riding we're going to film on the bang- bang, as we call the lifted platform.
Super, the night session with Janie has been successful, I made some great tricks. The day before, I would have said that I wont make a thing here, the bang is very steep.
 
Jani made on the first attemptthe finger flip :) I followed with nose ollie big spin. I then thrown in back flip bs nose ollie, ollie nose fs heel flip, ollie flip nose and then nose ollie flip shov it. Jani still made a nose ollie heel flip and a nose ollie 360 flip. Super skateboarding.

Pedro has to go home, he has to catch the last metro.

Me, Jani and Eric we are having a spliff. Eric goes home, too.
 
We're going with Janie to my room, the the hotel. Jani is trying to persuade me, to go out somewhere. He talked me in to it. After shower we go out from the hotel, I am feeling much better.
We are trying to stop the taxi and there we meet  our friends, local skaters - Veneziuse and Thomas, who tells us that today is  ``HIPE Hopi`` (hip hop) night, and they invite us to go with them.

We go to the club Clash.
Everywhere lots ofbeautiful girls and people drinking on the streets.
After standing the queue I had to give my passport,they take down the numbers and address.

It is massive venuewith large-screen projections in the whole club.
Reggae concert follows - the band Pyntagono.
After a few drinks I am getting tired from the long day. I say goodbye to Jani and I take a taxi to the hotel.
 
 
 
 
 
28.11.2012
 
With a little headache I crawl out for breakfast.Afterwards for the first time since I arrived, am calling through Skype with parents. I am sharing with them how it is all here. I¨m Glad to hear them , after all, I am only soooo far away.

Pedro arrives, I m telling himabout our experiences from last night and I am  getting ready to go out.
We set out for the Roosevelt Plaza, on the way it¨s starts to rain.

Again, another strike of fate happened atthe Roosevelt Plaza, I ve met another friend, Sven Kilchenmana from Switzerland.
He said that as he never was in Brazil, he decided to go for a trip :)
 
He heard from local skaters that I was in the city, so he came to theRoosvelt Plaza, because he was certain he will see me here.
I am meeting many skaters here every day.

It keeps on raining and thundering.
The same as us, they do not have in Sao Paulo an indoor park, so we go to the hotel.
Jani also returned and again he trys to drag me to the party, but today I refuse, I need to recover and gain some strenght.
 
29.11.2012
 
I am getting up for breakfast. After food I feel better right away.
Meanwhile Jani wakes, and as always,we have laugh since the morning.
When he came from the party last night, he woke me up to tell me that he had met the most beautiful girl in the world and he is meeting her tomorrow at 5pm.
I told him to let me sleep, and that he can tell me allabout it in the morning.
Since the  morning we talk about yesterday listening to Lil Wayne.
Pedro comes, we are getting ready and we are going for a barbecue.
 
We arrive at a house where already the whole Crail crew is, including people from the office. We were invited by Helga, in the garden she has a cool mini ramp.
There are over twenty people here, meat is grilling, people are skating, drinking beers and music is playing .
Helga and Magda interviewed meforthe ESPN earlier.
When skating the mini ramp, doing the bs disaster, I  stabbed myself in the hand with bamboo stick, that’s nothing nice, I opened my hand a little. I will tie it up and it will be fine :)
I think skaters are the best community in the world, similar like Roma­/Gypsies. Of course, I ve met some bad ones, but those good ones, who many times do not get a chance in life, which I had, are the most hospitable, kind and friendly.
Everywhere they will welcome youand get you fed, it's amazing how they stick close together !!
That's why I could meet Jani and Sven, because we have unlimited possibilities.

Crakilatti Henrique, who's riding for Crail, has a very beautiful style. Sergio says that's why he is in the team :)

The evening starts coming to an end, the sun sets and I am beautifully stuffed and tired.
 
30.11.2012
 
After breakfast, I went to the laundry to wash my things, I can pick them up during the day.
I am going tothe Roosevelt Plaza where I'm meeting with Pedro.
There's a lot of people and children here with cameras, they are from a film school and they learning how to film skateboarding here :)
They filmed me talking about the Roosevelt Plaza.

Later we go to the office of skate magazine “100% Skate”, where I am supposed to do an interview.
 
Everyone in the office is very friendly, including the owner Douglas. We did a great interview and went for a lunch together.
After lunch we set off to the Ibira Puer. It's a huge park with a lovely lake and a walkway.
Everybody is riding on longboards here.
 
I found a great spot, it's a roof with waves and no one rode there yet : )
I climb on Pedro¨s shoulders, and get myself up there to try few tricks- finally I did a flip and a 360 flip over the wave, the picture looks awesome !!

We are moving to another spot. There's a guy here, freestyler, the oldest skater and one of the first who started to skate in Brazil - Temistocles Shiguaki Tumon. He is 47.

I filmed a line here: kick flip through the barrier, with nose ollie sw bs flip and flip through the basket, it looks nice, the whole spot is under the bridge.
 
We set out for Down Town.
It's Friday and what is happening in the public transport, is insane. Thousands of people go home from work, we have to wait until the third subway train to which we eventually just so so managed to squeez in.
Finally we are out of this hell and we go to pick up my laundry.

When I came back to the hotel the door to the room is locked, so I bang on the door. Jani opens me in a towel,saying he is just showering with some girl :))
I'm pretty pissed off, after the whole day, I was looking forward to the shower and bed. Instead I have to go for a beer.
When I returned, there was nobody in the room, so I went to sleep.

Every day I drink fresh juice, it costs four reals per liter, which is 32 crowns.
 
 
1.12.2012
 
Today Pedro wants to buy some new shoes. We go to a mall that is full of Skateshops, great. Uff but I almost boiled up there, there was so many people there.

When we arrived at Roosevelt Plaza, the sky clouded over and a terrible downpour began, with hail and huge wind, I would say it aroused a lot of people sleeping on the street.
I'm going back to the hotel, Pedro is going home to study (he studies at the Univeristy) and I'll chill and get in touch with my family.
Thanks God for Skype :)
 
Later Im meeting Sven, we talk a while.
He says that last night he was in the favelas, and it's very dangerous there. One of his friends took him there for a screening of a video about children living in the favelas.
He bought there some weed, after which he was pretty sick, and then he learned that apparently in some parts of favelas they spray weed with heroin so that people  come back  to them for more:) This sounds more like an urban legend to me.
 
2.12.2012
 
Finally, it is a beautiful day.
With Eric, I arranged to meet at 13:00 on the Roosevelt Plaza to finally shoot the switch flip.

I made two lines, the second one was more interesting. Almost everyone stopped skating and came to watch.
I did a monster flip from the bang.
We are waiting for the photographer and getting ready for the switch flip.
Meanwhile I look at the place, there is pretty bad landing, it might be better to do switch fs flip.
Photographer still nowhere, so we went to try it for now.
I make the run for it a couple of times, but there's an awful lot of people.
After a moment huge truck arrives, on which a lot of people are dancing.
It is a protest against the policies of the state.
On the roof of the truck the best DJ of Brazil, Carlos Capslok is playing.
Music is so loud that I can not concentrate on the trick, I rather let it go.
 
I need to save myself up for Rio.
Skaters hereride in the cap, under which they stick a phone and are listening to the music while riding.
 
Today we spend chill out day, because tomorrow we are going for the Crail trip to Rio De Janeiro.