Do you, I wonder, believe in magic?

Salzburg, in Austria, has a population today of 150,000.

It is the birthplace of immortal classical composers Mozart, Haydn and Woelfl.In their lifetimes, the population was probably less than half that number. Not only were those three all born there, but they were all known to one another. Three maestros, one small city, one lifetime. Coincidence?

What is it about some places that become a wellspring for some gift or another? Bands from Manchester. Distance runners from Ethiopia. Cuban flyweight boxers. French flick.

Well, I’m here to tell you this: I don’t know the answer to that particular conundrum- but I do know that Florianópolis is whatever that phenomenon is, but for skateboarding.

Floripa, as she is lovingly known, is a place apart.

Pedro Barros. Current WSR Ranking- 4th Ph: Atiba

Florianópolis is an island just off the coast of Brazil. Connected to the mainland of Santa Catarina state on that vast country’s Atlantic seaboard by just an expansion bridge, Floripa is not only home to more bowls per square metre than anywhere else in the world, but a fearless downhill scene, world-class surfing and is also somewhere in which nature in all its diverse glory expresses itself more fully than almost anywhere else on the planet.

We’re talking palm trees, mountain rivers, small lakes and beaches longer than human vision can perceive. All told, Florianópolis is a lot like paradise, and somewhere in which skateboarding is woven into the fabric of everyday culture.

Where it all began: Hi-Adventures Guesthouse. Ph: Marcelo Maragni/ Red Bull Content Pool

With a population of around 500,000, Floripa is just the 39th most populous location in Brazil, but of Brazil’s top twelve Park skateboarders in the WSR rankings, five come from that one 54 kilometre-long outcrop in the Atlantic Ocean. To put it another way: 2.5% of Brazil’s population account for more than 40% of the nation’s double 2024 World Championship-winning Skateboard Park team. Why?

Well, we will come to the backyard bowl scene which undoubtedly plays a part in a second, but for some wider context it is worth pointing out that it is not only transition skating in which Floripa has made a global impact: the legendary downhill-slide pioneering Yuppie clan also hail from here.

Sergio Yuppie. Ph: Gaston Francisco/ Red Bull Content Pool

So: Floripa is a skate island in which the activity is sewn into the social fabric. What makes it punch above its weight internationally, however, must in some part be down to the proliferation of straight-up gnarly backyard skate terrain: RTMF Bowl, Sushi Bowl, Hi-Adventures, Konig Bowl and Secret Spot are just five of the privately-owned proving-ground pits where locals soar and visitors struggle to catch grinds for the most part.

Yndiara Asp. Current WSR Ranking- 27th Ph: Landi

Add to that public parks like Trindade and you have several world-class skate destinations within 50 kilometres of one another.

Kalani Konig. Current WSR Ranking- 20th Ph: Haruta

However, as we said in the Basque edition of Currents, if great skateboarders were just a consequence of great skateparks then we would be in a concrete arms race and the reason why that hasn’t happened is because it is not just as simple as that. Part of the reason must of course be not just the amount of skate terrain but the amplitude of it. Even the comparatively small Hi-Adventure bowl is steep and whippy because Brazilians seem to like to design danger into- not out of- their own shaped skate terrain.

Isadora Pacheco. Current WSR Ranking: 13th Ph: Atiba

The second has to be the spirit of the people. Brazil came to dominate competitive skateboarding across the world on most fronts at around the turn of the millennium because they don’t care if the people they beat have got a pro shoe or not. There is an expression which begins with the word ‘Zero’ and ends in the word ‘given’ which summarises their attitude in that department, and they shook up the conventional order of skateboarding so much that it had everybody else scrambling for excuses to deny them.

Pedro Carvalho. Current WSR Ranking: 21st Ph: Kanights

So we can say with some certainty that the fact skateboarding is embedded into the culture over generations there is one factor; the abundance and scale of their concrete terrain another; the gung-ho spirit of the wild and reckless youth, a third.

But perhaps it is like we said at the top of the article- maybe there is an element of something untouchable in the air, too.Call it magic, passion, whatever you will- you may not be able to trap it in words, but you know it when you see it.

So for now, magic will do.

Florianópolis is a magical place, full stop.

Long may they flourish both within the World Skateboarding Tour, and beyond.

*Opening photo: Pedro Carvalho, China. Ph: Atiba