By: Giovanna Amorim (Grade 2)

It is believed that surfing came about when fish-men realized that using a wooden board made it easier to reach the shore. In 1778, the English navigator James Cook arrived in the Hawaiian archipelago and took the idea to Europe. 

Surfing has been practiced for over two hundred years. It wouldn’t be until 2020, in Tokyo, that it would be able to enter the Olympic Games. 

In 1930, the sport arrived in Brazil. The first surfers in our country were not from Rio de Janeiro, but from Baixada Santista. The American Thomas Rittscher brought surfing to us. And so it spread along the Brazilian coast.

Surfing has been practiced in Brazil for years. There are some famous names like Gabriel Medina and Italo Ferreira who have already taken part in international competitions. 

Medina has won the WSL (World Championship) 3 times, and now he has an Olympic medal. He started surfing at the age of eight, when his parents divorced. He is now 30 years old and is considered one of the best surfers in the world. 

The athletes usually put on wax to prevent slipping. It’s used on the top of the board, where we place our feet, to give stability when we fall. Surfing in comfortable, suitable clothing is the best option. Neoprene suits are great allies on days when the water is low. They help keep your body temperature stable in the sea, so you can concentrate more. 

The earliest boards were made of solid wood and weighed up to 40kg. Today, they are plates weighing up to 2kg, made from materials such as epoxy, resin, glass and carbon fibers, among others.

How does it work? The athletes are divided into eight heats of three surfers each. The surfers catch a wave and perform maneuvers on a board. They are evaluated by five judges based on the variety, type and difficulty of the performance, speed, power and fluidity (the way they link their movements from one maneuver to the next). Whoever has the highest score goes through with the best position. The first from each group goes through to the round of 16, and the other two play a play-off. Each heat lasts an average of 30 minutes. Priority is one of the rules of surfing that promotes partnership and cordiality, traditional to the sport. In the rule, the surfer who gets to the place where the waves form the fastest gets the priority to choose the waves they want to surf. When the surfer catches the wave or paddles into a wave and loses, he no longer has priority.

So now, after reading this and learning a little about this sport and its characteristics, are you going to start practicing it?

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