History of the Prohibition of skateboarding in Blumenau/SC (1999-2007)

Abstract

This work is located in a historiographical domain known as “History of Sport”. We take as a case study the practice of skateboarding, usually described as an “Extreme Sport” which has been practiced by a significant amount of young people. The geographical context of the research is Blumenau/SC, a city most remembered for organizing the Brazilian Oktoberfest. In this city, the practice of skateboarding was prohibited by the Law No. 5211, which entered into force on May 17, 1999, and was withdrawn only in 2007, during the administration of Mayor John Paul Kleinubing. To understand the reasons that led the skateboard to be banned, a research was conducted based on printed sources, newspapers and magazines, as well as through interviews with key stakeholders involved in the practice of skateboarding in the city. The aim was to analyze both the reasons to ban this activity in Blumenau and its return to legality, mapping the action of the main agents of this process and also narrating the episodes involving the restriction acts and deterrence to the activity, usually carried out by municipal police. It was concluded that although the ban on skateboarding was enacted in 1999, a rather rigid restrain against this practice has existed since the late 1980s. Moreover, its return to legality, which occurred with the banishment of the law in 2007, was conquered by the pressure organized by skaters, led by George Gonçalves, President of the Blumenau Radical Sports Union (UBER), and the support of the magazine 100% Skate, a nationwide publication specialized in this activity.