The New Idea

The urban beach is the great "democratic space" in Brazil, the place where poor and rich, white and black, can intermingle, stripped of the usual barriers to mutual understanding. Vanderlei Paiva Gonçalves, known universally as "Berzó," exploits this space by bringing the historically elite sport of surfing to the children of the Brazil's favelas, or urban shanty towns. His organization, Surfavela (1) teaches Surfavela kids to surf for free; (2) provides refurbished boards to those who show desire and have a passing grade in school; and (3) teaches them how to repair and even manufacture surfboards. Surfavela also sponsors major surfing competitions and operates its own surf club with both favela kids and middle-class "asphalt" kids as members. Surfavela's surfboard workshop is developing its own brand of board which promises to have a considerable appeal with the radical chic set, both inside and outside Brazil.

The Problem

Disparity runs deep in Brazil. Nowhere is the divide between rich and poor as obvious as in Rio de Janeiro where the city's ever-growing favelas fill in the hills behind five-star hotels on world famous beaches. Drug traffickers dominate the favela economy, bringing children in as customers and functionaries. It is estimated that in Rio alone, the drug mafia employ as many as 6,500 armed boys and men.The lure of quick money and the "flash" of the drug trade seduce too many favela youth. Berzó has seen many friends and classmates caught up in the drug trade; most have died violently. "While the problems of drugs and violence in the favelas are complex and no one thing can finish them," argues Berzó, "surely the creation of healthy, fun alternatives is a basic part of any strong solution."

The Strategy

Berzó realized that the beach, with its democratic nature, could be a bridge between middle-class kids, "asphalts," and children from the favela. To do this he realized that he had to make surfing, a sport previously reserved for the privileged, accessible to favela kids.

His first step was to establish a surfing school. Boards were a problem as they are expensive–costing from $200 new–so he established a surfboard workshop that refurbished donated and abandoned boards. The surfing school provides loaner boards and teaches the basics of surfing. Older surfers serve as role models and share with the younger students what they have learned. Students earn their own surfboards by showing true effort in the surfing school, competence in the workshop and good academic standing at school. And of course, each must refurbish his own board.

While the workshop began as a way to salvage donated and abandoned boards for the school, it has since evolved into a surfboard factory that is developing its own brand, Surfavela, the name of Berzó's project. Its most important goal is to teach the children a marketable skill and impart the discipline and pride of craftsmanship. In addition to learning to work with fiberglass in board production and repair, they have expanded to silk-screening board designs and T-shirts. These skills are in high demand, as Brazil is an exporter of surfboards and other surfing equipment. One of the early members of Surfavela has already moved to Natal, a major city in the northeast of Brazil, and has opened a surfboard repair shop.

Berzó also founded the Association of Surfers from Contagalo and Aproador (ASCA) as the social club that could provide the permanent home for local surfers from diverse social backgrounds. The Association trained and sponsored surfers who earn top international titles, most notably the Brazilian "vice-champion" of 1990 and the "vice-champion" of the Aproador Beach Championship in 1994, as well as a fourth place in the state-wide Quicksilver competition. Berzó emphasizes success in surfing competitions in order to build a sense of pride and accomplishment in the children, and to break down stereotypes in the surfing world. ASCA draws in new members by word of mouth on the beach and through other surfers.

Surfavela has earned international recognition from the surfing community and has gained the attention of the media. Initially, journalists who jog on Rio's Ipanema Beach took note of the new racial diversity of the surfers and sought Berzó out. Now he actively promotes Surfavela to the media, and to great effect. As the word has spread, other favelas have set up surfing organizations on Berzó's model. He encourages the spread throughout Rio's favelas and to other states in Brazil, bringing surfers from disadvantaged backgrounds to ever more prominent competitions.

The organization is a tremendous source of pride for the children, be they champions or novices. Surfavela is providing an alternative or, to put it in Berzó's own words, "a sense of security, character, responsibility, discipline, respect for others and pride," themes desperately lacking in today's world of angry urban violence.

The Person

Berzó grew up in Cantagalo (one of Rio's largest favelas ). Surfing caught his attention when he was only six. As a shoeshine boy on Ipanema beach, he admired the surfers and yearned to surf. He made himself popular with the surfers by retrieving boards washed in on the surf and paddling them back out. Sometimes they would let him take a few tries. One day, one of his regular surfer "friends" gave Berzó his old board. The rest, as they say, is history.

Surfing became Berzó's passion, an escape from his heavy routine of work and studies. He became a skilled surfer, gained confidence, and began placing in competitions. His status grew in two worlds, in the favelas and among surfers. Even though it did not provide a livelihood, surfing became his way–emotionally and literally–out of the ghetto.

Today, the thing that Berzó is more passionate about than surfing is what surfing can do for favela kids. He has pitted himself deliberately against the drug lords. And he knows that his program is working.

"One day a friend from my childhood came to me," says Berzó. "He had become a powerful drug trafficker. He told me that my work with Surfavela was interfering with 'business' and that, if he had not known and respected me since we were kids, he would have killed me. But that wasn't why he had come to me. That was his way of showing how powerful he was. He came to ask me to involve his son in Surfavela, to keep him out of drugs. He was killed a short time later. Now I have his son."