New generation riding wave to surfing stardom

Young Brazilians out to dominate sport in ‘cradle of champions’

SAQUAREMA, Brazil — Slightly built and just 10 years old, Rickson Falcao looks no match for the waves crashing onto Brazil’s Atlantic coast. But within seconds of launching his surf board, the kid is transformed.

Waves rise and curl and foam, and in the middle of them the tiny figure of Falcao dips and dives like a dolphin.

“He has no fear. He’ll surf anything,” says lifeguard Flavio Souza, 23, watching Falcao cross himself, then paddle through the booming water off the beach in Saquarema, east of Rio de Janeiro.

Brazilians have been surfing for decades, but over the past few years they’ve become scarily good.

The sudden influx of talent even has its own name — the “Brazilian storm”.

It’s a storm led by superstar Gabriel Medina, who blew down the doors of the sport’s elite club dominated by US and Australian athletes when he became World Surf League champion in 2014.

The next year saw another Brazilian, Adriano de Souza, take the crown. Today, 12 out of the top 44 in the world rankings hail from Brazil — something unimaginable just a short time ago.

And if anyone in the traditional surfing bastions still hopes the “Brazilian storm” will dissipate, they’d best check the forecast coming out of Saquarema.

Falcao, who lives and goes to school right next to the water and spends half of every day surfing, began when he was two.

He’s now racking up agegroup trophies, as are several of his beach buddies.

“He has the psychology of an athlete; that’s very important,” said his mother Rejane Falcao, 37, who doubles as coach, manager and PR agent.

The tousle-haired kid, sitting in his tiny home, surrounded by trophies, doesn’t hesitate when he describes his dream in a quiet voice: “My dream? To be world surfing champion.”

Along Saquarema beach, where Medina is considered an idol, he’s not the only one. “Most of us, all of us who surf, want to be world champion,” he said.

Despite its vast Atlantic coastline, Brazil has few areas with world class surfing waves. Until recently, it also had only a small middle class with the means to travel.

One traditional hot spot has always been near Sao Paulo, where Medina is based. The other is Saquarema, a sleepy seaside city famous for a beautiful church on a rocky promontory, dividing two long beaches — each lashed by consistently good breaks.

Locals call Saquarema the Maracana of Brazilian surfing, referring to soccer’s grand temple in Rio de Janeiro. Where New York is synonymous with yellow cabs and university cities are often crowded with students on bicycles, in Saquarema you quickly get used to people of all ages wandering down streets with a surfboard under their arm.

At the core of that local culture is Luiz Augusto de Matos, a retired firefighter who opened the Saquarema Surf School in 1990. Today he has 30 students.

“All these kids have a future,” Matos, 50, said.

“Our project is to take them small and to raise them to be big in the sport. Rickson (Falcao) is another one. It’s a cradle of champions.”

All these kids have a future. Our project is to take them small and raise them to be big in the sport.” Luiz Augusto de Matos,