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It was a warm, bright Spring day when I met Cristiano and Ana. Blue skies, clean sun, strong shadows. Everything that wanted to shine was shining, and every gritty texture on every forgotten facade was alive in the light. Spring can often be a bit of a roller coaster in our hometown of Torres Vedras. It’s a small city near the coast, so the weather doesn’t always play ball, especially when you really want it to. On this occasion, we’d had a good run of decent weather and even the wild wind had died down for the afternoon.
Torres Vedras, like many towns and cities in Portugal, has a wonderful way of interpreting light. Between old buildings and churches, down alleyways and across calçadas, through café windows and past old shop signs. There’s something about the subtle reflections and shades, a special kind of allure that can always surprise you enough to never lose its appeal. From crisp winter days to baking summer afternoons, there are infinite shapes and tones created by the sun in the urban landscape. Perfect scenes to explore on our bikes.
Why did we want to meet these guys? Because of the lifestyle they have. Almost everything is centred around bikes – from BMX riding through to MTB, Cristiano’s successful career in Motocross and lasting relationships with motorcycle brands, and now their kid’s fierce talent on motorbikes as well, it’s all about two wheels.
The other passion they focus their time on is tattooing. Blood and Thunder studio in Torres Vedras has: 1) an amazing portfolio 2) an awesome name. We are fans.
It can be easy to tell which page people are on from what they’re wearing, and in this case it was a clear vision of what the guys were about. I don’t want to flatter them too blatantly, but I’m still going to go with the words ‘effortless cool.’ Classic skate style, clear rock’n’roll leanings, some darker influences, a little irony and enough tongue in cheek prints to tell that they don’t take things too seriously, but just seriously enough.
Meeting Cristiano and Ana was one of those easy experiences where things just line up right. You know when you start talking to someone, and after less than a minute you realise you could be friends? Click of the finger. It was like that. People on the same page can do great things together. That’s pretty much what 50 Rebels is all about.
