Diego Pires Afonso

diego
From: São Paulo, Brazil
Division: Pro Division
Sponsored by: Dahora Skateshop
Age:  28
Skating:  14 years

I’m originally from São Paulo, Brazil, the 10th largest city in the world. The city dates back to 1554 when the small Portuguese village of São Paulo was founded by Jesuit priests. I started skating in 2005 with my friends when I was fifteen years old. I was influenced by skaters like Rodney Mullen, Per Welinder, Kevin Harris, Jaspion, Per Canguru, and Rene Shigueto.

Skateboarding has changed my life and although freestyle is my love, I also practice street skating and try to skate every day. When I am not skating I like to cycle, read books, walk, and play my guitar and travel. One of my favourite places to skate is Ibirapuera Park. This place is huge, totally undercover and has a flawless concrete surface ideal to practice your freestyle. One trick that I have really been working on, is the Coconut Wheelie which is very difficult to do. All that practice paid off though, as I won 1st place at the 2015 World Round-Up in the Longest Coconut Wheelie Contest. Got a nice trophy and even won $250 bucks, which really helped out with the cost of going to the event.

I love Vancouver and have been very lucky to have been at the World Round-Up the past three years. Last year two very important things happened to me, I turned Pro and came in 7th place and I met and married Danielle Fraser. I am currently visiting Canada and working on getting my Landed Immigrant Status so that I can live in Canada full time with my wife.

Its like a dream going to another country, experiencing other cultures, skating in a great contest with your friends, in front of huge crowds. It’s going to be so much fun to do it again this year.

RECENT CONTEST HISTORY:

2017 World Freestyle Round-Up: 7th Place Pro
2017 Big Rio Freestyle Contest: 1st Place Amateur
2016 World Freestyle Round-Up: 2nd Place Amateur
2016 Big Rio Freestyle Contest: 3rd Place Amateur
2015 World Freestyle Round-Up: 3rd Place Amateur
2015 World Freestyle Round-Up: 1st Place Longest Coconut Wheelie
2015 Big Rio Freestyle Contest: 1st Place Amateur