La Ceramica
Ceramica is a truly unique place, not only in the eyes of a random passerby, but also, or perhaps especially in the eyes of a skateboarder. That place, oh, that place. Theres no ceramics whatsoever anywhere on the spot, so it could be a subject of dispute how that heaven got its name and supposedly only the architects- without a doubt core skaters themselves- would answer that. Ceramica represents quite a mysterious, magical place, that is hard to find thanks to its secret location in the surroundings of a city called Leiria. Theres lack of information about this place on the internet, but also between the portuguese skaters out of whom only every third have ever even heard of this place. For us, gathering the information, looking for it on the maps, cruizing with the cars in circles and eventually finding it was I believe the same feeling Columbus must have had when he discovered that great country we now call America. First look is astonishing. Its huge, its raw, its pure white, its in the nature, its hardcore, but particularly, its beautiful. The feeling we had was not just eagerness to skate, it was more of a greatfulness for choosing to live such life. At first it is hard to skate there, there is cracks in the ground, pieces of glass from the numerous parties, plants and weed growing from the walls in an effort to get some of the sunlight, but after few hours, you feel like you own that spot. Wallrides, polejams, grindboxes, quarterpipes of all sizes, bumps and so much more seems to be build just perfectly for having a long long runs. Well of course, it was built by skaters, guys like my or my friend here.
.... is what you realize soon