The Botafogo Banks

You know those spots that are almost perfect, but just have one minor imperfection? This isn’t one of those spots. EVERYTHING is wrong with this spot. In addition to the glue sniffing gangsters sleeping in the tunnel, the entire ground is made up of freaking cobblestones. Actually, it’s called “Pedra Portugues” which is Portuguese (duhhhhh) for Portuguese stone. Although it’s very stylish and slick looking, it completely shite for skateboarding on. Most of the sidewalks of Rio de Janeiro are covered with these black and white little bastard stones.
The city is gigantic, with over 6 million people in “metro” rio (not including suburbs) and yet every day you’ll see a bunch of shirtless guys with little hammers in random spots aroudn the city, fixing up the pedra portuguesa across the city. Luckily Zero Batista is plenty used to riding this kind of shizz that would scare most gringos away….!