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Volatile pro surfer from Florianópolis, Brazil; world-ranked #13 in 1997, and described by 

 magazine in 2000 as "the first legitimate world-title contender from Brazil." Percy "Neco" Padaratz, younger and wilder brother of world tour pro stalwart Flavio Padaratz, was born (1976) in Blumenau, Brazil, began surfing at age nine, and turned pro in 1995 at 18. A broken ankle kept him out of the water for three months in 1996, but he qualified nonetheless for the world tour, and the following year finished at #13.

Halfway through the 1998 season, Padaratz suddenly quit the circuit and returned to Brazil, due either to a stomach ailment or—as reported in the surf magazines—because his wife, upset at the amount of time Padaratz was spending on the road, had put a voodoo curse on him. He returned in 1999, with close-cropped bleached-white hair, new tattoos, and an oblong lime-green stud piercing his lower lip. His stomach was healthy (or the curse had been lifted), and he won the Gotcha Pro, America's richest contest, in Huntington Beach. Padaratz' only other WCT win came in 2002, when he defeated Andy Irons to win the Quiksilver Pro France.

Padaratz, a regularfooter, surfed with aggression and power, and only passing interest in connecting his moves smoothly. His go-to move was the frontside hack off the top—similar to Sunny Garcia's signature turn, but without the flow. (Padaratz and Garcia, coincidentally, came to blows during the 2007 Pipeline Masters after colliding in the water; Padaratz required a police escort from the beach to his rented house.)

While competing, Padaratz remained in near-constant motion, and often punctuated his rides with fist-pumps and exhortations to the beach. Australian surf journalist Tim Baker described Padaratz as "vague, laidback and confused on land . . . puffing and snorting with a terrifying will in the water."

While Padaratz' WCT campaigns never quite got on track, he was nearly unstoppable at the WQS level, where he finished on top of the rankings in 2003 and 2004. He career took another strange turn in 2005, when he tested positive for steroids, lost all his ratings points for the season, and was banned from competition for a year; Padaratz claimed the drugs were for a chronic back injury. He was the first professional surfer to be penalized for drug use by the world tour. Not surprisingly, Padaratz fought his way and competed at the WCT level in 2007, 2008, and 2010.

Padaratz, Neco

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

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