Exclusive of Site Nacional de Skate
The True History of Skateboarding in Portugal
Chapter V
Irregularities, Federated Cards, and one more Professional
2018 was year 0 of skateboarding under the tutelage of the Portuguese Skating Federation (FPP), which organized the National Skate Championship for the first time.
Despite the fact that FPP is a Federation with decades of experience in organizing national championships, in this Skateboarding championship in particular there were several bizarre situations...
Some of these situations have intrigued the skater community and the Associção Nacional de Skate (Portuguese National Skate Association) whose history of contribution to the development of skateboarding has existed in Portugal since the 1970s.
If the legality of some of the situations can be debated, there are other situations where no one has any doubts that are ethically objectionable, such as:
Judges who are also parents of athletes can judge contests in which their children
participate?
Curiosidade: João Godinho é Juiz e também é pai de atleta.
Imagem: facebook oficial do Comité Skate
Some stages of the National Skate Championship did not have Health
Professionals to perform Medical Fitness Tests for those who were not yet
a federated athlete, but a simple form filling was enough to “federate”
these participants, and it will declare them immediately physically/healthy
to compete?
Complaints about lack of transparency and clarification regarding the
punctuation were not accepted and/or registered by the Organization?
Complaints about the lack of transparency and clarification about the
Professional Certification of the Judges were not accepted and/or
registered by the Organization?
Why was there a “free campaign” in March 2019 to federate athletes that only contemplated the skaters of the Parque das Gerações SkatePark in São João do Estoril, and not the skaters from the whole country?
Image: official facebook of Comité Skate
Why were the athletes who joined through this “free campaign” not told/asked for permission that the confidential results of their medical tests would be in the possession of a private company called COFIHST - Consultoria Financeira e Higiene e Segurança no Trabalho Lda ?
Why were the Federated Athlete Cards of the athletes who registered through “free
campaign” given almost 1 year later, when it was said at the time of registration they would be sent to the athletes' address within a maximum of 2 to 3 weeks?
Image: Official FPP website
It is speculated that these and many
other situations may have occurred
because the FPP (Portuguese
Skating Federation) gives excessive
autonomy to the Skate Committee,
whose overwhelming majority of its
members always insisted on ignoring
the experience and the contribution
of local Clubs and Associations,
never contacting or informing them
about anything previously, thus
showing a total disinterest in the
antiquity and history of these
entities.
If the Skate Committee continues to insist on this eventual posture of
refusing to collaborate/recognize the national Skate Clubs and Associations, it risks that the already many suspicions that the main purpose they have is to operate in a restricted circle, become a sad fact ... the future will tell, and the Portuguese
Skaters will be watching. Unrelated to all of this, Portuguese skaters always continued to do what they love most, which is to skate the best they know.
After a few years, finally in 2019 we had another Portuguese becoming a Professional skater, it was Gustavo Ribeiro for the Spanish brand JART Skateboards.
Curiosity: Gustavo Ribeiro is the son of Paulo Ribeiro who heads the Skate Committee.
Even before that, in 2017 and still as an amateur, Gustavo Ribeiro had won the Tampa AM in the United States, which is seen internationally as one of the most important amateur tournaments, as it is basically a gateway into the world of Professional Skateboarding.
Gustavo Ribeiro, Noseblunt, Tampa Am in 2017
Also in 2019 Gustavo Ribeiro was the 1st Portuguese to reach the best position ever in the Street League Skateboarding ever, achieving 3rd place in the Ranking this year.
Gustavo Ribeiro, Front Side Flip, “Nine To Five” Part in 2019.
Gustavo Ribeiro, Bigger Flip Front Side Board Slide, “Destroying The Berrics” in 2020
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The next chapter of “The Real History of Skateboarding in Portugal” will be released soon, so stay tuned and continue to follow all the current news on Skateboarding on our website sitenacionaldeskate.pt, and on our Instagram @sitenacionaldeskate