When Manuela Calle was a kid, she used to make fun of her mom’s old-school roller skates. Manu (@marea_revuelta) joined an academy for speed in-line skating instead, but after a year of training, she just bladed for fun until she stopped altogether. Years later, in 2016, when she was 18 years old, she saw a clip on the internet. “I remember seeing a video of the Moxi girls, and I thought, ‘What is this? I want to do Moxi!’ because at that time I thought that’s the name of the sport”, she says. She asked her mom for her old roller skates and her father helped Manu remount the plate on another shoe, and off she went to the skatepark. “We had no knowledge of how to mount skates, so after 20 minutes the plate fell off,” Manu recalls and laughs.
Six years later, roller skating has become her career, even though she finished a bachelor’s degree in biology. It might be a good backup, but who knows whether she will need it? Today, Manu is part of the well-known Colombian skate crew Hell on Quads; she runs her own skate shop, Cuidado RollerSK8, gives skate lessons, and runs events.
After moving to Porto Alegre, Brazil, two years ago, she found a city full of skate opportunities but no quad community. Being the go-getter she is, Manu decided to build one and also managed to make the largest park in the city accessible to non-skateboarders.
