our story

BRAZIL AND BEYOND

With long stretches of stunning beachfronts lined with cycle paths, Brazil is a longboarder’s paradise. The beaches are always buzzing with life, colour and activity and make for the perfect background to go longboarding, enjoy the sun on your skin and the breeze in the air, before stopping for a sip of fresh coconut water to enjoy the breathtaking views.

The name Guanabara (pronounced gwa-na-bar-a) is the native Brazilian name that the indigenous people gave to the city of Rio de Janeiro. We gave this name to our company because we are proud of our Brazilian roots and we are passionate with sharing the Brazilian longboard lifestyle with the world.

Alex Batista

Co-founder, Alex has been teaching longboarding since 2010. Skateboarding was his passion since a child and it became a lifeline that pushed him to explore the world outside of the poor Brazilian favela he came from. After a spinal injury in his 30’s he had to give up on high impact, street skateboarding tricks, but soon realised he was able to follow his passion in a new direction – longboarding. The softer wheels and gentler style of longboarding gave him his wheels back. Both seeking a way to provide for his family as single father that still allowed him to spend quality time with his daughter, he combined his background as a street skateboarder with his passion for getting more adults involved in the sport, his innate understanding of the human body and knack to teach others to create a step-by-step method to successfully teach adults to longboard in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – and beyond!

Teresa Batista

Co-founder, Teresa found herself obsessed with boardsports in her 20’s after a stint of surfing in Australia and snowboarding in Austria she found herself bored and board-less back in her hometown of London. She decided to take up skateboarding and soon realised what a male-dominated sport it was. Teresa decided to use her professional background as a journalist, photographer and filmmaker to create a blog and community to provide encouragement to those who already practiced and to inspire more women to get into boardsports. This blog soon took her to Brazil where she ended up falling head over heels (quite literally off of her skateboard) in front of her future husband and skateboard instructor Alex. The two combined forces to turn Guanabara Boards and their team of athletes into an international name as both longboard dancing practitioners and a longboard school.

Teresa Batista

Co-founder, Teresa found herself obsessed with boardsports in her 20’s after a stint of surfing in Australia and snowboarding in Austria she found herself bored and board-less back in her hometown of London. She decided to take up skateboarding and soon realised what a male-dominated sport it was. Teresa decided to use her professional background as a journalist, photographer and filmmaker to create a blog and community to provide encouragement to those who already practiced and to inspire more women to get into boardsports. This blog soon took her to Brazil where she ended up falling head over heels (quite literally off of her skateboard) in front of her future husband and skateboard instructor Alex. The two combined forces to turn Guanabara Boards and their team of athletes into an international name as both longboard dancing practitioners and a longboard school.

6 years later, they now run the company as their main family business with an incredible collective of longboard athletes such as co-founder Ana Maria Suzano and Brazilian longboard champion Lucas Inke. Guanabara Boards has appeared in national and international media, collaborated on projects with brands such as Nike, Verizon and MTV and proudly taught more than 2000 people to longboard across the world.

Book your class

As seen in...

Beyond our own YouTube and social media channels, we’ve had the pleasure of working with some incredible publishers on projects across international television, print and online media. Click a logo below to see more.