Italo Ferreira is a well-deserved legend in the world of surfing. With his ferocious passion for riding waves and his undying vigor to become great, he has dominated the sport since he first started competing. However, Italo Ferreira’s roots go far beyond the numerous trophies he has won and the achievements he has garnered. No, Ferreira’s story begins from the small community of Baía Formosa, in Rio Grande do Norte on the northeastern coast of Brazil.
At the moment, the Brazilian surfer is one of the top professionals in the sport on an international level. When surfing made its debut at the Olympics, Italo Ferreira was there to stroke gold. Thus, he became the first male surfer to win a gold at the Olympics. But life was not always so glamorous for the 29-year-old. During his Surfer’s Hall of Fame ceremony, the surfing great reminisced about the past that fed his ardor for surfing.
The humble beginnings of a surfing legend
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On August 4, 2023, Italo Ferreira attained a great honor in surfing. He was officially made a part of the Surfer’s Hall of Fame and got his hand and footprints on the Walk of Fame. No doubt, the journey to this point has not been a cakewalk for the Brazilian. Greatness and sacrifices come hand in hand, and Ferreira has made many of those. During the official ceremony of induction into the Hall of Fame, Ferreira gave a speech thanking the industry for the great honor.
According to Shop Eat Surf, during his speech, he said, “There’s a lot of history here and my history here, too, so I’m really, really stoked to be added.” In saying so, Italo shed light on the difficult path he had to pass through to get here. When he was born in 1994, no one could have imagined Ferreira would traverse all adversities so perfectly. There was a time when the Brazilian used to go surfing on the lid of the foam box in which his father kept the frozen fish. His father earned a living by selling shoreline-bought fish to nearby restaurants. Watching his son’s passion for surfing made Italo’s father get a board for him.
Merely 2 months after he got the board, Ferreira won a surfing contest. This led his family to start saving for him so he could travel and compete. The Brazilian prodigy was discovered by the surfing coach Luiz ‘Pinga’ Campos at the age of 12. Campos is a surfing and life coach responsible for unearthing nearly every Brazilian surfer of note in the last 10 years. His pupils include Adriano De Souza, Caio Ibelli, Jadson Andre, Miguel Pupo, and Italo. From riding the waves on a foam lid to becoming the Olympic Gold medalist, Italo Ferriera has a story that would bring tears to anyone’s eyes.
The gift that keeps on giving
…is the perfect manner to describe Italo Ferreira. At the age of 27, he was both the WSL reigning champion and the Tokyo Olympics gold medalist. Ferriera’s victory at Tokyo was an eventful one. He broke his surfboard in half during his heat. But nothing seems to faze him, as he swam back to the shore to get a new one and fell right back into the ocean like nothing happened. Itslo Ferreira defeated the surfing champion of Japan, Kanoa Igarashi, to get the gold for himself.
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He came to the limelight internationally in 2018 when he defeated the three-time world champion Mick Fanning in the final at his last-ever event, the Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach. He kickstarted his career on the Gold Coast in 2019 when he competed in Championship Tour’s Quiksilver Pro and won. He claimed his first-ever world title at the Billabong Pipe Masters in 2019. In 2021, he excelled at the biggest sports stage globally. One thing is for sure, Ferreira is not done yet and nothing will stop him from barreling forward in surfing.
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