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This vast South American nation is home to a near-endless string of sand-bottom surf breaks and a colorful, hypercompetitive, fast-growing surf culture. Brazil's sun-warmed 5,000-mile Atlantic coastline runs in a sawtooth pattern from the subtropical south to the equatorial northeast, and can be divided into four main surfing areas: 

1) The southern states, most notably Santa Catarina, home to Brazil's most consistent surf, including the well-shaped beachbreak waves of Imbituba and Joaquina, as well as the right-breaking point surf—one of the few such breaks in Brazil—at Silviera. 

2) The frenetic and urban central coast, which includes the crowded lefts of Arpoador and the shifty beachbreak peaks of Ipanema, both in Rio; Saquerema's wave-rich Ituana; and the punchy São Paulo beachbreaks, including Guaruja, Maresias, and Itamambuca. 

3) The hot and sprawling north and northeast coasts, where a broad continental shelf filters out much of the size and power of incoming swells. The beachbreak at Maracaipe (site of the 2000 World Surfing Games), near Recife, can produce well-shaped peaks. 

4) Fernando de Noronha, the volcanic offshore island located about 220 miles from the mainland near the country's easternmost tip, is often described as Brazil's Hawaii due to its powerful wintertime surf, including the consistent waves at Praia do Italcabe and the perfect but fickle lefts of Abras. (It might be said that Brazil's most famous break, featured in general-interest media sources around the world, is the Pororoca, a tidal bore wave that occasionally runs up the Amazon River.) 

The surf on Brazil's central and south coasts is best from April to October, as South Atlantic storms generate fairly consistent three- to six-foot waves; breaks on the north and northeast coasts, as well Fernando de Noronha, are best from November to March, in response to North Atlantic storms. Rarely does the Brazilian surf get over 10 foot. 

Average daytime air temperatures in the far south range from the high 50s to the low 80s, with water temperatures between 62 and 75; air temperatures in the sweltering north range from 75 to 90, with year-round water temperatures in the low 80s. 

Shark sightings in Brazil are fairly common, especially in the north (the threat of shark attacks since 1998 has kept 40 miles of Recife coastline off-limits to swimmers and surfers; 38 attacks were recorded along a ten-mile stretch of beach near Recife between 1998-2003), and water in urban areas can be highly polluted; many of the urban surf lineups are also crowded and aggressive.

Surfing was introduced to Brazil at Rio's Copacabana Beach in 1928, when an unknown American took to the warm blue waves on a redwood board; Rio native Paulo Preguica rode a hollow paddleboard at the same beach in the early '30s, and in 1939 a pair of Rio teenagers constructed the first Brazilian-made surfboard by following a do-it-yourself Popular Mechanics magazine article. 

Skin diver Arduino Colassanti imported the first foam-core board to Brazil in 1960, just as Rio craftsman Irencir Beltrao started mass-producing plywood paddleboards called "Madeirites." Australian surf traveler Peter Troy arrived in Rio in 1964 and showed the locals how to build foam boards, and Brazil's first boardmaking factory opened the following year, in the Rio suburb of São Conrado. (Troy also introduced local surfers to the latest high-performance turns and maneuvers.) 

The Carioca Surfing Federation, Brazil's first surf club, was founded in 1965, by Rio locals Ylen Kerr, Walter Guerra, Fernanda Guerra, and Maria Helena Beltrao; the following year, with help from visiting American surfers Mark Martinson and Dale Struble, along with filmmakers Greg MacGillivray and Jim Freeman, the club organized the Brazilian Surfing Championships, the country's first surf contest, won by Jorge Bailley and Fernanda Guerra.

Surfing's popularity in Brazil skyrocketed during the '70s. The first official Brazilian National Championships were held at Ubatuba in 1972, the first international pro event was held in Rio three years later, and Rio surfer Pepe Lopes—the country's first surf star—was a finalist in the 1976 Pipeline Masters, and won the 1976 Waimea 5000, a world pro circuit event held in Arpoador. 

, the country's first surf magazine, began publishing in 1975; 

, Brazil's first surfing TV show, premiered in 1982. 

Competition became a defining element of Brazilian surfing, and 1986 saw the founding of the Association of Brazilian Surfing Professionals, as well as Hang Loose Pro, an international pro event in Florianópolis. (The Waimea 5000 contest ran intermittently until 1982; other Rio-based international events included the Alternativa Surfmasters and the Rio Surf Pro. Brazil also hosted the 1994 World Amateur Surfing Championships and the 2000 World Surfing Games.) Brazilian pro surfers Flavio Padaratz and Fabio Gouveia had by the late '80s given Brazil a formidable presence on the pro circuit. 

The domestic surf industry, meanwhile, led by Hang Loose surfwear, Mormaii wetsuits, and Redley beachwear, was versatile and competitive enough to obviate almost completely the need for imported goods.

Brazilian surfers flourished on the pro circuit throughout the '90s and '00s, with Padaratz, Gouveia, Peterson Rosa, Victor Ribas, Maria Tavares, and Jaqueline Silva all, at one time or another, finishing in the year-end top 10. The 2010s saw the arrival of a new crop of hyper-talented Brazilian pros including perennial top 5 finisher Adriano de Souza, possible future world-beater Gabriel Medina, as well as Jadson Andre, Alejo Muniz, and Miguel Pupo. 

Carlos Burle of Recife became the country's top big-wave rider, winning the 1998 Reef Brazil Big-Wave World Championships, as well as the 2002 Nissan Xterra XXL Big Surf Awards. Maya Gabeira, a beautiful, tenacious protégé of Burle's became one of the world's best female big-wave rides in the mid-00s, regularly taking top honors in the renamed Billabong XXL Awards. 

Meanwhile, Brazilian surfers in general were often derided by surfers from other countries as loud, pushy, and rude. "It's a cultural thing," Rio pro Renan Rocha explained in 2000. "In Brazil, the only rule is survival of the fittest. So we've got to be aggressive in the water, and we learn to fight for waves."

As of 2012, Brazil was home to approximately one million surfers, around 1,000 surf shops (mainly in the urban centers of Rio, São Paulo, Florianópolis, and Recife), three major surf magazines (

), one world pro tour contest (the Billabong Rio Pro), a dozen or so lesser international pro contests, and countless local pro and amateur events (most held under the auspices of the 2000-founded Confederation of Brazilian Surfing). The Brazilian surf is detailed in 

Brazil

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