He surfed his first waves in July 1938, the date on which Brazilian surfing began. It is calculated that nowadays there are approximately 5,000 people practising the sport. The city is also pioneering in having a public surfing school and a surfing subject at the university, and it was the first to work to include people with special needs in surfing: it launched worldwide the first board for the blind and other special needs.
It has countless events and innumerable important surfers on the global and Brazilian surfing scenes. It has a large number of board factories and shops on high streets and in shopping centres, moving a strong surfwear industry.
Picuruta Salazar has been Brazilian champion ten times, world champion twice and has more than 150 titles; Cisco Araña was the first professional surfer in the state of São Paulo to participate in international championships. Undoubtedly, they are two important names in the sport.
Santos has the first Surf Museum in Brazil. Santos has the Quebra-Mar, a special place for championships that has a natural amphitheatre that allows spectators to get close to the surfers. Santos has more than one hundred pioneers who still practice this sport and participate in championships.
In Santos, Gilberto Nogueira grew up and discovered this sport, he is known as El Neguito, the first Brazilian judge on the international scene who, for more than 20 years, has been part of the European Circuits.
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