Dadá Figueiredo

Like I mentioned on the posts before, Dada Figueiredo was one of the most important surfers of the generation that was there before mine, the generation that pretty much started the professional surfing in Brazil, or the first ones that started to take it more serious and turned it into a real profession. And consequently influenced many people in many ways. Even that Dada himself was very controversial and considered for many people the "anti-pro", he was so talented that he stayed for years in the top of the rantings.

Dadá Figueiredo

Around 1990, Dada Figueiredo was the highest paid pro surfer in Brazil. Despite his fame of "trouble maker", he was as hardcore as a surfer can be. Long nasty sun-burnt hair, skull tattoos, high-performance competitive approach, rad lay-backs, thrash metal loud music, black spray air-brushes on his self shaped boards, black Ray-Bans with yellow mirrored lenses... He started (with Eduardo Crivella) a surfboard brand called Anti-Fashion and a clothing brand named Necrose Social. Life full of controversies, but very interesting. Until these days he is considered one of the best surfers ever in Brazil.

◙ Dada Figueiredo ◙ 91 ◙ by joaoarcruz ◙

In the second half of the eighties and beginning of the nineties Dada Figueiredo was the best surfer in Brazil. Because of his unorthodox behave in public and innovative surfing in the water, he was constantly under scored. When he entered in some international events, like the Gotcha Pro in Hawaii which he finished 5th place, he would impress everyone with his speed and radical turns. He used to shape his own boards, some of them with crazy designs like stinger-wing very wide swallow tail. If you see this videos and compare to other surfers at the time, you can easily notice that he was way ahead of his time.

◙ Dada Figueiredo ◙ 88 ◙ Raro ◙ by joaoarcruz ◙

When I was a teenager, Dada Figueiredo changed the way I looked at surfing. And pretty much changed my life, and I'm sure a lot of other people's as well. When I saw him surfing at Guarda do Embau, I went in and sat on the rocks to watch gnarly approach. In 1986 or 87 I saw him surfing a couple heats at the Hang Loose Pro at Joaquina Beach and he got ripped off, he would surf so much better than the australians and americans, but just because he wasn't an international star, he would get so underscored. He had a lot of problems out of the water because he was a "punk rocker" drinking a lot, spending many nights in the bars and making trouble. Now he is clean, became a religious person, a father of three, runs a surfing school in Rio de Janeiro, and continuous to shape surfboards.

Good conditions at Joaquina Beach

A big southeast swell washed the southern brazilian coast and brought some nice waves to our homebreak Joaquina Beach. OutraCultura members Fabricio Machado, Andre Veras, Guto Morelli, Rodrigo Viegas, Evandro Cabecinha and others faced the power and were awarded with some barrels and epic rides. To check out the article click >>> Waves