The True History of Skateboarding in Portugal Chapter V – Irregularities, Federated Cards, another Pro

Exclusive of Site Nacional de Skate
The True History of Skateboarding in Portugal
Chapter V – Irregularities, Federated Cards, another Professional

2018 was year 0 of skateboarding under the ownership of the Portuguese Roller Skating Federation (FPP), which organized the National Skateboard Championship for the first time.

Although the FPP is a Federation with decades of experience in organizing national Hockey and Roller Skating championships, it has no experience or history in Skateboarding, and perhaps that is why several situations have occurred that are at least ridiculous…

Some of these situations intrigued the skateboarding community and the National Skate Associations, whose history of contributing to the development of skateboarding has existed in our country since the 70s.

While the legality of some of the situations may be debatable, there are, however, other situations that no one has any doubts about that are ethically reprehensible, so let’s see:

– Skateboard Judges who are also parents of athletes can judge competitions in which their own children participate???

Fun fact: João Godinho is a judge and is also the father of an athlete.

official Image: from facebook of Comité Skate

– Some stops of the National Skateboarding Championship did not have Health Professionals to carry out Medical Physical Fitness Tests for those who were not yet federated athletes, but even so, a simple filling out of a form was enough to “federate” these participants, and immediately declare them physically fit to compete in sports???

– Complaints about lack of transparency and clarification regarding the score were not accepted and/or registered by the Organization???

– Complaints about lack of transparency and clarification regarding the Professional Certification of Juries/Test Judges were not accepted and/or registered by the Organization???

– Why in March 2019 was there a “free campaign” to Federate athletes that only included skaters from Parque das Gerações in São João do Estoril, and not skaters from the entire country???

– Why did they omit the athletes who joined through this “free campaign” 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 did they only deliver the Federated Athlete Cards to the athletes of this “free campaign” almost 1 year later, when at the time of registration they said that they would be sent to the athletes’ address within a maximum period of 2 to 3 weeks???

It is speculated that these and many other situations may have occurred because the FPP gave (gives) excessive autonomy to the Skate Committee, whose overwhelming majority of its members have always made a point of ignoring the experience and contribution of local Clubs and Associations, never contacting them or informing them in advance about anything, thus showing a total lack of interest in the seniority and history of these entities.

If the Skate Committee continues to insist on this possible stance of refusal to collaborate/recognize national Skateboarding Clubs and Associations, there is a risk that the already many suspicions that their main purpose is to operate in a restricted circle, will become a sad fact… the future will tell, and Portuguese Skaters will be paying attention.

But not everything was bad, oblivious to all this, Portuguese skaters always continued to do what they love most, which is skateboarding the best they know how.

After a few years, finally in 2019 we once again had a Portuguese person becoming a Professional skateboarder, it was Gustavo Ribeiro for the Spanish brand JART Skateboards.

Fun fact: 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.

Also in 2019, Gustavo Ribeiro was the 1st Portuguese person to reach the best position ever in Street League Skateboarding, managing to be in 3rd place in the Ranking that year.