MEET: Kurativo – Longboarder 

Passionate about everything that is extreme, especially downhill longboarding.

Written by: Pam Diaz

Who is Kurativo? We all are Kurativo. But we decide whether or not to “cure” ourselves. Haha! Apart from that, lately everybody is calling me “Kurativo” since the day I put that name on Facebook. But for the ones who don’t know me well, my name is Gabriel, it’s a pleasure!

How would you explain the “Longboarding” sport to a person who has no idea what it is? I think the best way is to show him or her what I know and what I learned over time.

When did you start going down the hills? I started back in 2011, when a buddy was riding in front of my house and I asked him to lend me his board because I wanted to go down. He lent it to me, but then I never tried it again. I started surfing but I didn’t take it serious because I had to go to Buenos Aires to study, but I always had that thorn of getting  into a discipline in which I could rip on a board.

In Buenos Aires there is no sea and there is a lot of cement which made me start to grab the longboard. With a large skate scene this made me try more boards. One day I started to watch videos of downhill skateboarding and I fell in love right there. Just then, my friend Tony lent me his longboard for about a month and I started using it. I came back to Dominican Republic for vacation in January 2012 and decided to get my first board.

What are the things to take into account when arriving at a new hill?

• Awareness of your limits for the safety of your life and the lives of others.
• Get to know each curve and analyze it well.
• Surface conditions in which you are going to descend.
• Vehicle circulation.
• Make sure your set up is the right one for that hill.
• Respect yourself, the vehicle that is going up with people in it, the people that live around that area, and the road.
• Spot curves.

When riding longboard, what do you consider to be your greatest motivation? Descending the most radical and technical roads in the world.

I prefer not to ride if…

• If there are no minimum safety conditions for pumping from a hill (asphalt condition, weather condition, lane space, vehicular traffic)
• If I’m alone.
• If I have no helmet or gloves.

Besides going down the hills, what else are you passionate about? Climbing the hills, haha ​​nah I’m just kidding. I am passionate about anything that is extreme. I study music production, so it is also a passion that at some point will become  a full-time job. But nothing makes me feel what downhill skateboarding makes me feel, this is the best thing I have ever felt. 

The best thing about practicing this sport is: The teaching it can give you, since for me it is the same teaching that life gives you. Try it.

To follow Kuratuvo’s adventures closely, follow him on Instagram: @kurativo

Images: External Sources