Brasilia is amazing, straight up. It’s not crowded, it doesn’t smell, there’s not a lot of poverty, it’s central in the country so it has a crazy diverse population, and the spots are cool. We would pile into a huge van every day and skate probably five or six spots, which is wild with a group that large. While we were there we met up with our DC bros on some insane tour they were doing all over South America. It’s always nice to see friends in other countries.

We ate ceviche, drank beers, and played dice all night long. We also visited the forest about two hours outside the city; the private property we went to had a massive waterfall and staggering pools of crystal turquoise gem-colored water with enormous ferns and flora I had never seen before. No real wildlife besides huge lizards and such, but that day was unreal—very positive vibes with our crew as usual.

On the way back we stopped in a small town and skated this amazing skatepark sculpture combo at Mauricio’s homie’s family house. This dude had it all: He had built a massive cement park with all kinds of cool shit, he built a pizza oven into one of the hip humps, he had a 65-year-old tortoise cruising around, and he had the biggest smile in the world when he saw Evan and Klaus casually and politely killing his creations. Although we didn’t speak much to one another because of the language barrier, we all kept hugging and pounding beers together, so I think we are all best friends now. Other than that we just skated and ate a ton of acai and barbecued cheap steaks. I’m really proud of the people involved with Element in Brazil—they treated us like brothers and shared an immeasurable amount of stoke with us as well.