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My name is Arnaldo Ribas from Luanda, Angola and I´m 23years of age. In my free time I just skate and chill with friends or play soccer. I have been skating since August 2011. My favorite trick is the backside 180 ollie. This is because it´s the steeziest of all my tricks.
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So Angola recently hosted an SADAC Skate championship, can you tell us something about it. Like who the organizers were and etc?
Yep, so this idea came from the Angola Skateboarding Union (ASU) which had the support of an energy drink company called Speed. They had the idea of making a championship for countries part of SADC(Angola, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa).
Didn´t see you ripping during the contest though, how come?
I was injured at the time, but I participated as judge. It was very beautiful to see other African skaters walk in and give the people a spectacle show.
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Oh shit, sorry about your injury, hope its not that bad?
Its two actually, one is in my leg and thats almost healed, but the other is a shoulder dislocation. Anytime I swing my shoulder very quickly, it goes out of place and I have to push it back. This has been happening for some time now.
Hope it heals quick bro. By the way, how did you get on Ultimate X 2017 roster?
It was through a championships by Africa skateboarding diary. They were held in several African countries to select the best of each country. I didn´t win the Angola one but the guy who won gave me his ticket because he didn´t have the documents to travel. This was my first time leaving the country by plane and it was funny you know. Lol
I can imagine your face during the trip. Lmao
Lol. When I arrived in Johannesburg, I missed the stop to Cape Town. This was because I didn´t know how to speak English, ahaha. But with my little English I managed to convince someone who had a tablet to open Google translator which I´ll type in Portuguese and translate it and he´ll do the same for English too, hahaha. I explained stuffs to him and he took me to some SA offices where they helped put me in a hotel and stuff. Got to Cape Town the next day but it was late to enter the main event. I still participated in the best trick event though. Ahahaha, it was very good.
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This story is funny, lol. But sorry you had to go through that bro.
Hahaha, it doesn´t hurt bro! Thanks for the strength.
Sure. By the way, how did you get into skateboarding?
Hahaha, I was 15 and I met a cousin of mine who skated and he introduce it to me. I was always dedicated.
Let me ask, what motivates you to skate?
Well in the beginning, it was that of wanting to have a skateboard just for fashion. But now, I think is being able to represent my country and the fact that I feel free when I am shredding.
