I think of Love and Dedication in several areas of life and I can surely identify these two feelings whenever I see them. This struck me again recently when I saw a raw space, dirty, wet and ugly, turn into an awesome indoor skateable area made with that Love and Dedication I mentioned earlier.
One of the leading names in Portugal is Francisco “França” Lopez.
With over a quarter century with a skateboard under his feet, father of a kid who already has amazing skateboarding in his veins, team manager of the Portuguese DC Shoes, and the architect skater with more skate parks designed in Portugal than any other is now facing one of the biggest challenges of his career: create a company to build skate parks, starting at Parque das Gerações. I spent one day with him to try to understand how he can manage all this and still rip like a kid.
“We live in a small country, we crossed through nother economic crisis, our politicians do not know how to spend our money. We thought the following: let us take it that nobody wants to do what we want. In Leiria there are no shortage of places to skate. We have a skatepark, a beautiful square full of marble curbs, a half dozen street spots and a mini ramp in the woods. But Ceramica is where we feel good. Far from everything and everyone, here we have the freedom and tranquility for a few beers, barbecues , creating concrete ramps without scooters, rollers and bmxers to cross our path. Do it yourself, fuck the rest.