Sandro Dias breaks a skateboarding record, dropping in from a skyscraper
- Text by Vince Medeiros
- Photography by Red Bull (courtesy of)
The Skate Ramp Building — The 22-storey CAFF building, shaped perfectly like a skate ramp, is located in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Huck’s founder and publisher Vince Medeiros explains what Mineirinho’s feat means to locals.
As you head to downtown Porto Alegre, Brazil from Cidade Baixa, it takes a little while for you to see its full drop-in splendour.
But once you slide under the Borges overpass, and look up to your left, OMG, there it is. It’s a giant modernist building – and it looks like a skate ramp.
The impetus to roll down the “skate ramp building” has been a part of the city’s imagination forever. In basic terms: every Porto Alegre resident has once considered it, thought about it, speculated on the possibility of a death-drop down the Centro Administrativo Fernando Ferrari, aka CAFF, tower. “One day,” they’d say, “One day I’ll skate down that building!”
I remember I told my son I’d once ridden it. For years, he believed me. (The early years when dad has superpowers, kinda thing.) And then he saw me actually skateboarding at Clissold Park, London, and any remnants of hero worshipping finally dissolved.
Today, Red Bull skateboarder Sandro Dias, aka Mineirinho, made that long imagined feat happen. He actually what-the-fuck dropped down the CAFF tower and rode it into glory. Insane. Did you know you can ACTUALLY ride the skate ramp building in Porto Alegre? A folk tale come true.
Vince Medeiros is Huck’s founder and publisher.
Buy your copy of Huck 82 here.
Enjoyed this article? Follow Huck on Instagram and sign up to our newsletter for more from the cutting edge of sport, music and counterculture.
Support stories like this by becoming a member of Club Huck.
You might like
Inside Parkuir: the art project queering sport, space and our bodies
Lie and play — Founded by Maria Laudes and Guiu Gimeno, it provides a framework for engaging, subverting, and celebrating the small details that make people unique – and queer.
Written by: Molly Lipson
London’s largest indoor skatepark to be demolished for padel courts
Better Extreme — The Barking skatepark’s fate follows that of similar indoor spaces in recent years, with operators GLL citing falling visitor numbers as the reason behind the decision.
Written by: Isaac Muk
In the pit at one of the UK’s last stock car & banger speedways
Stock Car Racing Isn’t Dead — Photographer Liam McCarthy spent time in and around the Arlington Raceway’s circuit, capturing the diehard community that keeps the sport alive.
Written by: Isaac Muk
Burning rubber with the Middle East’s women rally racers
Ripping dirt — Across the Middle East and North Africa, women are increasingly chasing the thrill of speed, competition and freedom that comes with driving on gruelling terrain, as well as podium positions. Roxana Diba speaks to trailblazers of the scene, who are reshaping ideas of what women are capable of behind the wheel.
Written by: Roxana Diba
The London sword fighters reviving medieval combat
Schola Gladitoria — Studying ancient textbooks and techniques, the historical European martial arts community duel with centuries old systems of engagement. Mads Jensen swings a blade in an Ealing church to find out more.
Written by: Mads Jensen
A decade of Palestinian skatepark graffiti gets turned into a clothing capsule
Concrete canvas — SkatePal’s new collection draws on artwork left by local skaters and visiting volunteers at the Asira Ash-Shamaliya concrete skatepark – the largest of its kind in Palestine.
Written by: Ella Glossop
