By Julio Adler:

(During the Rio Pro laydays Julio has been providing a diversion for Swellnet readers, retracing Brazil's short but colourful surfing history. This is part three of a potential four part series - it depends when the contest resumes.)

Fabio Gouveia and Flavio 'Teco' Padaratz changed the way the world perceived Brazilian surfing. Before those two, there were only a few lone rangers fighting for a place under the sun.

The first two IPS events in Brasil were won by Brazilians: Pepe Lopes and Daniel Friedman. In 1976 Pepe had been invited for the already prestigious Pipeline Masters and, at only 18 years old, ended up making the finals. In a picture depicting all finalists lined up before the final heat, the kid from Rio was the sole surfer displaying a logo on his surfboard - JB (Jornal do Brasil) one of the three biggest newspapers in Brasil back then.

By 1977, you had Ricardo Bocão, Otavio Pacheco, Cauli Rodrigues, Daniel, Pepe and Rico de Souza consistently making some money from surfing in Brasil, being among the first people in the world to earn a salary just to surf, aside from surfboard shaping.

Despite the whole hippie/counterculture thing, those guys were professional surfers even though we had no pro contests back then. The so-called "Nationals" would offer tickets to either Hawaii and Peru as prizes.

That was the first Brazilian Storm, but at that time, Hawaii was the only thing that mattered, hence the name 'Brazilian Nuts' had more impact than 'Brazilian Pros' although they are the same thing.

Now let's cut straight to 1994, to the ISA World Amateur Championships, held in this very town of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro. Two of the brightest young stars from a very exciting under-18 field amazed the public with performances so far ahead from the rest of the bunch that they both got instantly tagged as Future World Champs.

In heavy, challenging six foot Barra da Tijuca waves, Andy Irons and Neco Padaratz – younger brother of Flavio 'Teco' Padaratz - surfed savagely, passionately, wanting nothing but a blatant, undisputed win over their rivals.

Australian Sasha Stocker won the Open final, and, after the defeat, Neco, only 17-years-old at the time, exploded in tears of frustration and proceeded to destroy his board, his favorite board. Among the shattering noise of fiberglass and foam turning to pieces, he overheard some strangely dreary screams. With his eyes still red and wet from the tears, Neco looked and, in silent simplicity, watched as Andy Irons also proceeded to smash his lovely Town & Country.

Andy immediately recognized a soul mate. They crossed the street together and stared at each other, only the door was too narrow for both of them. They stared and, right there, made a pact: we're gonna win the whole fucking ASP shit.

And they did.

Andy put three consecutive world WCT titles under his belt - 2002, 2003, and 2004 - while Neco won the much underrated Warriors Qualifying Series in 2003 and 2004.

Before the AI/KS rivalry took the centre stage, Neco had some classic matches with the Kauai kid, making back to back finals in France and Spain. They fought like warriors and partied like brothers. Andy went to heaven, and Neco went to hell, banned, chased like an outcast.

It was a complete misjudgment, never admitted to by the ASP, using Neco to make a point. Here he was, a Brazo hellman for whom the mainstream surfing industry didn't really care about and that made him a convenient target.

What many don't know is four other surfers had been drug tested in France that year. All tested positive, yet nobody was punished but Neco, who was using painkillers to relieve his chronic fucked-up back problem.

He was ousted for a year. So he waited, and waited, and he came back to the top, always with a shadow of inequity hanging over him. Maybe if Slater was as vocal about drugs as he is today, Neco's reputation wouldn't have been so damaged.

Neco's real advantage was guts over soft cocks. Remember Occy's famous quote ? "We've got to stop these American wankers!"

Same shit with Neco, he had sheer desire and pure passion. And if one isn't careful they might mistake those qualities for something else.

Now all we have are these sterile top surfers, very professional, very trained, very composed. Adriano has some élan, Raoni speaks his mind, Wilko wears funny clothes...and that's about it.

Let's hope ZoSea doesn't standardize pro surfing for an American audience. Let's hope they aim for the core, like the surf industry is doing now, trying to get back to the surfers and not the wider audience.

Listen to Bobby Martinez folks: it's not fucking tennis!

PS: South wind howling here in Rio. There will be waves tomorrow for sure, but the forecast predicts a lot of rain and devil wind. It will be the survival of the fittest.

Julio Adler is a native of Rio de Janeiro. He travelled as a professional surfer during the late-80s and early-90s and got completely involved with the pro surfing hustle, questioning judges and journalists and wondering what the fuck they were all doing. Around this time Julio began writing for surfing magazines and is now a regular columnist for Surf Portugal and Hardcore in Brazil. He's never had an English lesson in his life and can thank surfing magazines and Neil Young songs for his grasp of the Queen's tongue.