PEOPLE OF SURFING EP02 | Laure Mayer meeting the surfing community of Brazil

As a free surfer, I feed off being in the ocean and meeting people who are as passionate as I am. I want to get a glimpse of other people's experiences to understand their world, their culture and witness a fresh perspective. So I'm taking a journey around the globe to seek out stories of local surfers from distant shores. My name is Laura Maia and this is People of Surfing. Surfing here in Brazil, I don't know, I think because we have a lot, many beaches, you know, we have, I don't know how many kilometers of beaches in Brazil and we love to go to the beach, especially Carioca people, you know, they love. You go on Monday, it's full of people. Even in the night, you know, they go to the beach. I feel like people here are so full of personality. Everyone just, especially here in Rio, everyone just expresses themselves in such a unique way. But I think we have a lot of inspiration by sounds, by music. I think we are more able to party and I think like longboarding and surfboarding here is like a dance, you know. Everything that you want to have in Brazil is a beautiful place, it's a beautiful country. It's tropical but you have big cities, you have many cultures, many foods for everywhere. So Brazil has everything that you want. After freezing my toes off in New Zealand for episode one, I decided it would only be right to go seek some sunshine and warm waters for episode two, which landed me in Brazil. Since meeting my dear friends Kai and Janz back in 2018, I've always wanted to visit them in their home country. So what better place to start than the heart of Brazil, Rio de Janeiro. With Brazil being one of the largest countries in the world and home to over 218 million people, I knew we had a lot to see and a lot to do. Considering we only had three weeks to explore as much of the 8,000 kilometer long coastline and immerse ourselves in the culture, we wasted no time. So after a few travel mishaps, missed flights and overweight luggage, we finally touched down, ready to hear the stories of some of the local communities of this vibrant, colorful country. While there is no definitive evidence that indigenous Brazilians surfed the way we define it today, early accounts suggest that coastal tribes like the Tupi Guarani used small wooden canoes or body surfing techniques to navigate waves. Some believe they may have even ridden them for fun. Before diving straight into the present, we took a detour through downtown Rio to meet one of Brazil's female surf pioneers and hear her stories from the early days. And you're not filming that, are you? Yeah. Serious, serious, serious, serious. Bom dia! My name is Eliane Oliveira, I'm 74 and I'm from Rio, Brazil. Oh, I started surfing when I was 13 years old, so that is 61, 61. The first time that I surfed was with, it was a wood surfboard, yeah. It was the first surfboard that appeared here in Brazil. Then after that, then it was the fiberglass ones. Yeah, I think when I started to surf, everybody knew each other. So it was a very small community because it was really in the beginning of surf. Yeah. And so everybody knew each other. It was nice and we went to have fun. It was people who used to go to the beach all the time that suddenly, you know, discovered surf. Yeah. I don't know. Now it's more difficult because of the thing everybody gets on each other's wave, right? And fights they have, the men, they have fight with each other. The women? No, I don't think so. But at my time, oh, it was nice. We were around, you know, four, I think. Four girls, yeah. There were too many waves for only us. We were so few, you know. After a couple of days figuring out the tricky beach break of Praia da Macumba, the conditions finally lined up and our friends put on a show. Especially born and raised local, Jasmine Avelino. She isn't just one of the best female longboarders I know. She's also a driving force in pushing women's surfing forward in Brazil. I wanted to find out more about what she does and get an insight into her inspirational story. And when I was nine, he gave me my first longboard board. And when I was 12, I started surfing only longboards. I started competing and didn't give up. Well, the surfing culture took a long time to develop. Especially the longboard. Because of our waves in Brazil, which were known as difficult waves to surf on a classic longboard. And I see that nowadays, with the growth of surfing in the world, Brazil has adapted a lot of the culture to surfing. Bailarinas do Mar was a creation of mine, according to the lack of encouragement for the female longboard. And I decided to leave my profession aside and focus on surfing again. And I said, I'm going to start teaching women focused on the evolution of longboard. And with that, the interest of the girls grew more and more. And I said, I need to give a name to this movement. And the name Bailarinas do Mar came from the ballet, which is like a dance, surfing. And through the movement, the voice of non-competitive female surfing, but of freesurfing, of joy, of the spirit of sharing and having more women in the water, only grows and is making a lot of sense nowadays, the movement. Well, after five years of Bailarinas do Mar, through trips, clinics, the idea is just to grow more and more, bringing this focus really on fun, non-competition between women, this rivalry that is sometimes very strong. Showing that the sea is for all of us. So, depending on the place you are, if you are the only woman in the water, among a lot of men, maybe they will think it's cool, or maybe not. It depends on your behavior. So, this growth of the female community is important for all of us to strengthen ourselves and also know that there is our place, regardless of whether we are just one in the water or if there are several. And a compliment for us was to say, wow, you surf like a man. And nowadays I don't want to surf like a man, I want to surf like a woman. Ah, Caio Teixeira do Brasil. There isn't a dull moment around this guy. It's all fun and smiles. Caio has always impressed me with his incredible surfing and shaping skills. I wanted to dig deeper into his story, knowledge, and how he became one of the most influential classic longboarders in Brazil. How do you say in English? It's for made surfboards. We cut this and we made a glue. How do you say? Yeah, and we made a surfboard with this. If you see, it's so light. Yeah, it's perfect. Caio's dad started the biggest surfboard museum in Brazil, which made his upbringing around surfing quite unique. My name is Caio Teixeira. I'm from Brazil. I'm 38 years old. I'm a professional free surfer, but I make surfboards. When I was eight to nine years, I have a lot of friends in my street, and I'm watching all these little kids go to the beach, walking with big surfboards. And I walk in and ask my dad, hey, dad, I want to surf like these kids. So at the same day, I was on the beach and started my first surf day. When I was seven to eight years, my dad took the first surfboard he put on the wall. So just remember when he was young, he asked the good old times and appreciate the surfboards. And I remember then more two or three or four. From that day forward, the surfing museum today, it's around 800 surfboards. So for me, it would be so good because when I was young, I have in the house, in my house, around 800 surfboards. I touch every single board and I know every single rails and feel it like in my arm. And this is for me, will be so good. Because when I'm 15 years, 16 years, a little kid, I have contact with many boards. When I was young, I pay for an old surfboard and I get out the glass, yes. And I shape, use a kitchen knife. And you know the, I don't know the object, the name to... The cheese grater. Yes. And I use this to mold, to shape in my surfboard. And I use this and the knife works. I prefer shaping longboards because I think the longboards, you can feel better the wave. My inspirations, of course, the old bands. I prefer the old band because slow down and do it more calm. I prefer when the surfboard was more connected in the water. It's in the rail works better to flow on the wave and made huge turns. And so I think for the longboards, it's better for me because my personality from longboard. What a time we had in Rio. We felt so included in the community and could have easily stayed longer. But it was time to head north to chase that small coastal town vibe. I've always been drawn to quieter places, raw coastlines, hidden waves. I just knew the north would have that magic. Rio Grande do Norte looks nothing like what we have just experienced. It was quiet and packed with dreamy surf spots. The beauty of the landscapes was absolutely mind blowing. And our friendly goal made sure we didn't waste a second, guiding us straight to some of the best longboard waves in Brazil. Before arriving to this area, I'd heard a lot about local surfer Eli Andrade. Eli was born in an indigenous community of Paraíba. And let me tell you, her story is one you'd never expect. She picked up her first surfboard around 30 years old and less than a decade later became runner up women's longboard champion of Brazil. Now she's a pillar of the local surf scene. If you're on the hunt for epic point breaks around here, you'll probably find her along with her one-of-a-kind surf club. It wasn't easy for me as a woman. I had a lot of prejudices, the boys would curse me a lot, pull my rope, throw water in my face, fight with me. My surfing trajectory was very difficult at first. I'd spend 5 or 6 hours rowing like crazy, without any notion. I'd get out of the water just to drink water. I'd use the rope on my front leg, just so you know. No one would come up to me and say anything. There was no woman in the water, there were 50 men in a buoy, and I was alone. I'll never forget, I close my eyes and I remember that day. The first time I surfed with a bigger board, and I came and grabbed a whole wave. And I said to myself, my God, what is this? It changed my whole mind. So I started setting up the club, slowly, little by little, buying boards, and the women started to come here. And since I was still traveling to Europe, I would leave the space closed, and the boys would throw fire, and I'd lose everything. This is the third house I'm building. They tried to take me out of time in many ways, and I never gave up. So I went through a lot of things, and I thought, I'm going to turn this place into a place for women, where women are respected, where they can come and have someone who treats them well, where people can feel lighter, you know, safe. Because when we're in there, we're all the same. It's not just for me. I'm thinking about women, I'm thinking about children, I'm thinking about family, about teenagers. So it's very difficult for me to say, I want to do a job just for women. I think it's a bit of a dispute. It would be good if we got together and strengthened more. The culture of Brazil has always been focused on this sexist side. So I think the culture that doesn't serve you anymore, leave it aside, let's build a new culture, a way for everyone to be kind, a way for everyone to be able to surf freely. Because if I'm going to live only in a culture that doesn't add anything to me, what's the point? Marola is the baby wave, the perfect baby wave. You know, it's like this wave that hugs you. It's like a way of life, you know? Like, let's go with the Marola. People here are so full of personality. Everyone is so unique. So it reflects in surfing, and especially through my pictures, I feel like I can capture that. When I was 18 years old, I said, no, I don't surf anymore, because I have to work, I have to do my life. And then, yes, I was in university, I was like, now I have to do my life, the surf was not good for me here, so let's go change my life. And one year in university, I was like, no, no, I have to come back to surf, it's not my life. But what am I going to do? And then I think, okay, I will do a good festival for surf, longboard, because I love longboard. And I also have to help my community. Yeah. We did two years, and then maybe one year, we come back with the festival. More big, I hope, yeah. With you, I hope! Hey, I'm coming back! For me, I lived in Hawaii, so over there, I always saw people going to the beach with shortboards in one arm and longboards in the other. And I thought it was really cool, because you can see how the surf community over there are united, you know? But here, it's kind of not that way. So people that surf with shortboards only surf shortboards on shortboard spots. And people that surf longboards, only longboards in longboard spots. But the longboard community here in Praia da Macumba, it's amazing. Like, everybody helps each other. Because I think it's like the cliché of Brazil about alegria and like... I think we are more able to party, and I think longboarding and surfboarding here is like a dance, you know? As we fastly approach the last few days of our time here, it's hard to believe three weeks have flown by so fast. We wasted no time. Yet, it still feels like we only just scratched the surface. As much as I won't miss the 162 stairs down and back at our current location, I certainly will miss the happy faces, the positive energy, and all-round good times this small town provided. From morning up to the beach every morning, always greeted with a smile by the locals, to the warm send-offs at the end of the day, it's a place that's going to stick with me for a long time. With just one day of surfing left, we decided to take a gamble and head down the mystical south coast in search of new point breaks. We knew that just outside the town, the ground turned to red dirt for as far as the eye could see, and our little rental car did not stand a chance. So Igor's friend Lucas collected us and our boards, and we were off. Next stop, another right-hand point break. And just like that, we wrapped up the trip with an epic adventure and some super fun little waves. I remember coming in from this session and seeing Cam filming on the beach while drinking beers with a bunch of Brazilians, knowing that you can't even string a sentence together in Portuguese. That's the thing about this place. Everyone's got a smile for you, a moment to chat, and a way to make you feel at home. Not to mention the main reason we went there, finding perfect longboard pillars and endless point breaks. To describe Brazil, I'd say passion. Happy. Smile. Joy. Diversity. Personality. Brazilian smiles. I would say passion because, like, even if you say like soccer, like tennis, like surfing, even like concert, and if you can compare with other places, it's way louder here. But for me, traveling is about the people, the connections, the new friendships, the moments you share that stay with you long after you've left. And as I head home, that's exactly what I'm taking with me. The energy, the laughs, the shared waves. Até logo, Brazil. I'll be back.