Photo Credit: Steven Lippman for Red Bull

 

Clad with pink hair, a tattoo sleeve, and enough accolades to send any skater, male or female, packing, Leticia http://www.lost-theseries.com/ has been a force to be reckoned with for a whole decade now. 

 

She is currently tied with Elissa Steamer for most gold in Women’s Skateboarding Street with her recent win at the X Games http://www.difolders.com/ Shanghai 2019. She has won the same contest time and time again for years 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014.

 

She currently holds a http://www.medmeanderings.com/ Guinness World Record for Most Wins of the World Skateboarding Street, World rankings (female,) with a total of four.

 

At present, her roster of sponsors include Nike SB, Bones Wheels, and Grizzly.

 

She has 3.4 million followers https://todaslascasasrurales.com/ across Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

 

In July 2021, she will be representing Brazil and competing among the greats with the hope of bringing home an Olympic Medal.

 

‘Not bad for a girl’? Let’s see someone rtp slot else step up to that rap sheet! But how to account her rise to the top? Let’s find out.

 

Leticia Bufoni Skateboard Deck
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Leticia Bufoni Breaking expectations

 

Hailing from Sao Paulo, Leticia credits her first skateboard to her grandmother who bought one for her as a gift when she was 11. 

https://www.lonelantern.org/
https://ackack.net/

 

“Everyone had a skateboard, and after two months I was begging my parents and my grandmother to buy me one,” she told Red Bull for an interview. “That’s how everything started.”

 

She expressed that while she lived a full childhood playing in the streets, it would always be with boys. Being the only girl in the neighborhood who liked to skate, her father initially disapproved of her interest in the sport and the consequent playmates. 

 

“I was around boys so much, I wanted to be like them,” she says. 

 

She added that her father disliked people calling her a tomboy or anything else to that tune that he even cut her board in half. 

 

Leticia tells us that while she cried for a day over the predicament, this would not stop her from doing what she loves. She was determined to skate and nothing was going to stop her. In her words: “You know what? I love skateboarding, and I’m going to skate.”

 

 

Following this, she scraped together parts from her friends’ skateboards in order to create a new one for herself.

 

When a contest inviting girls from all over Brazil took place in Sao Paulo, Leticia couldn’t miss the chance to prove her worth. 

 

“He (Leticia’s father) never really saw me skating before that contest,” Leticia said. 

 

Luckily, a friend who has seen her skate and believed in her potential convinced her father to at least allow her to participate. It was there that her father finally saw what everyone else did and he became her number one supporter. 

 

“He started taking me to the skatepark everyday,” Leticia says.

 

With her family’s support, Leticia’s skateboarding career was on a rise. In an interview with Thrasher Magazine, she mentioned that she was competing in Brazil from ages 11 to 14, and was ‘pretty much winning all the contests.’ 

 

When Poseiden and Check it Out Magazine did a tour in South America, Leticia stood out and it was there that she met the founder of Poseiden Foundation, Micaela Ramirez. She was the one who shopped Leticia’s skate videos around until finally in 2007, she received an invitation to compete at the X Games in Los Angeles. 

 

Micaela found a company to sponsor her flight to LA and her father paid for the expenses. She came home with an eight-place finish. But while the win and exposure foreshadowed a future in skateboarding, with no sponsors, worries about her family’s financial resources would naturally creep in. She confesses that it got to the stage where she had to ask if she should keep going with her skate career or to simply focus on school. 

 

The Quick Rise of Leticia Bufoni

 

Three years down the road from first hopping on a deck and only $200 in her pocket, Leticia decided to move on her own from Sao Paulo to Los Angeles with the help of LA-based Brazilian skate photographer, Ana Paula Negrao.

 

“Everything happens in LA and it was always my dream city,” she says. “You’re skating with the best pros and skating the best skateparks.”

 

 

Then, a wide-eyed 14 year old who merely watched skaters in California back home, she was stoked to be, as she calls it, ‘the centre of the skateboarding universe.’

 

Fresh off the boat as she was however, the opportunities came in by the dozen. According to her, once she got to LA, she immediately got a shoe and clothing sponsor. “Everything changed so fast,” she said. 

 

Female Representation for Skateboarders

 

But while she was climbing up the ranks and proving herself time and time again as a competent skater, the world proved to be not ready for a woman from off the coast to take the skateboarding world by storm. 

 

First of all, she had to learn English. At age 14, she only spoke Portugese and had to navigate Los Angeles alone. 

 

“The parties, the drugs, the clubs – all the bad stuff happens in LA all the time,” she says. “Imagine being a 14-year-old girl by herself with older friends but no family around.” 

 

In addition to being teased at a younger age for not conforming to the societal ideals of women, she was also not taken seriously as a skater because of her gender. No one wanted to sponsor her.

 

Leticia says that she has had multiple experiences with brands that strung her along for years before finally letting her go without offering her anything. Because of this, she was determined to create her own skate brand

 

“It was very hard to find a company that wanted to sponsor a woman,” she says. “At that point, I was like, you know what – if these guys don’t want to support me, I’m going to make my own company,” she says.

 

With her demonstrated drive in full tow, she was set to create her own skateboard brand and represent herself. As soon as it was to materialize however, Plan B, one of the biggest skateboarding brands, finally offered her a contract. In November 2017, she was officially signed as the first female skateboarder to ride for Plan B. 


Welcome video for Plan B’s newest and first female rider, Leticia Bufoni 

 

Looking back, Leticia fondly surmises the big steps taken by the skateboarding community for women. 

 

“I remember, back in the day, I was one of the few women who was getting a paycheck,” she says. “Now every company has more women on the team.”

 

Living the dream

 

Now at age 26 and on the road to compete for the 2021 Tokyo Summer Olympics, Leticia is as determined as ever to win.

 

She works out regularly, doesn’t drink or smoke, and while she takes the time to enjoy the present and her celebrity life, she tries very hard to be healthy and skate at the highest level.

 

“I go to the gym every day, not to look good. I’m going because I want to skate for longer and I don’t want to get injured. I want to be a better skater. I do everything to keep my body in shape so I can skate as long as I can,” she says

 

 


Leticia shows off the fruit of her hard work: A place for more hard work.

 

“I’m definitely living the dream,” she says. “I think that every day. Having my own house, my own skatepark, my own car. It’s super dope. Everywhere I go, every place I travel, everyone I meet – it’s a dream. Sometimes I ask myself, is this real? It’s a really crazy life.”

 

But while she expresses extreme gratitude for the life she leads, she is also not oblivious to the negative aspects it comes with. For instance, although her massive following is a huge platform for a lot of adoration, it also encompasses a good amount of hate.

 

“People say I show off a lot, [ ] because I like cars,” she says.

 

Quick to shed a positive light, Leticia admonishes her followers to look at her as a success story instead.

 

“I’ve been working my whole life to get the stuff I have right now. It’s not that I’m showing off, but I love what I’ve accomplished in life so I like to show everyone that it’s possible. I came from a poor Brazilian family. I live in the US now, living the dream. I want to show people that anyone can do it!” she added.

 

A true story of what hardwork and determination can bring, Leticia leaves us with this: “Just follow your passion. Even if people tell you it’s not the right thing, just do what you want.”

 

 


 

 

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