BRAZIL’S SILVANA LIMA

Silvana Lima looks like a badass — and she is. She’s super fit and wears her confidence the way she wears her tattoos and piercings. Silvana Lima also looks like the first great hope surf-stoked Brazil’s got for a shortboard World Title.

Brazil’s notorious for its machismo, as anyone who’s surfed with Brazilians can attest, so for a female to survive a lineup there, let alone stand out in it, Silvana’s got some serious fire. But beneath the body art and the game face is a bashful girl from Paracuru in Northeast Brazil, with the expectations of a fan-ravaged country on her shoulders.

Growing up, Silvana’s brothers taught her to surf at the perfect right in front of her home, and it became immediately obvious that she had raw talent. Soon after she started, shy Silvana (who wouldn’t leave her mom’s side when she was a little girl) began competing in local contests. When she started winning, her friends convinced her to make it a career, despite some discouragement from people in her town. “There were always comments about me and about the way I surfed,” she says, flashing a smile full of braces, and glancing at her manager to see if the English is coming out right.

But with the success she’s had, people can talk all they want, and it will have little impact on her momentum. One of the most extraordinary things about Silvana’s surfing is her smooth, seamless flow on every wave. Aside from maybe Melanie Bartels, Silvana’s one of the most radical and creative female surfers today, known for doing big aerials and as-yet unnamed things with her board as part of her everyday routine. Last year, only freakishly talented Steph Gilmore and previous World Champ Sofia Mulanovich, kept her from the World Title.

Back in 2002, at age 17, she went pro and landed a sponsorship with Billabong a few years later. “The first time I met Silvana, after we had sponsored her, was something I’ll never forget,” says Billabong Girls Team Manager, Megan Brainard. Megan was at an event at Lowers in San Clemente when she received a call from Billabong’s Hawaiian Team Manager, Rainos Hayes, who’d spotted a little, dark, mysterious Billabong girl. He made a comparison to Taj Burrow, one of the most exciting male surfers in the world, and asked Megan who it was. “I was trying to think of my team riders and had no idea who it could’ve been, but to hear him talk that way about one of my girls was pretty cool. It turned out to be Silvana, and she ended up winning the contest.”

Now, at 23, Silvana’s making money from traveling around the world, surfing exotic destinations in and out of competition, but she’s not taking any of it for granted. She recently bought her family a new house to replace the one she grew up in—which doubled as a bar and flooded with surf at high-tide. She also donates money from her winnings to fund amateur surf competitions back home. Life today is a little different for the young Brazilian whose dad sold fish in their small village.

“The first year she came on tour, no one really knew what to expect from the quiet little Brazo,” says Claire Bevilacqua, the West Australian who also recently made a mark on the competitive women’s surfing scene. “We had four-to-eight-foot Cloudbreak that year for the Roxy Pro Fiji. Silvana paddled out and pulled into the biggest bombs, stalling her little booty like the Irons brothers to make it out of a barrel—and with the best style ever. My mouth was wide open and in that moment I knew I had to step up my game.”

Some of the girls on tour were actually kind of scared of Silvana. “I think it was just part of starting out on tour alone, with no sponsors, and not knowing anyone, but she looked tough and not to be messed with,” explains Claire, recalling meeting Silvana for the first time at a contest in France, continuing, “when I really met her and got a smile out of her, I knew she was just a pussycat.” Since then, Megan Abubo, Claire and the rest of the girls on tour have embraced Silvana and it’s just a matter of time before the rest of the world follows.

Competition is who she is, and Silvana seems to keep her personal life private, sticking to her own program in the midst of the surfing circus. But don’t let the game face fool you.

Claire insists, “She’s always genuine, kind and friendly. [Her surfing] is so progressive and above everyone else—at times it’s embarrassing—but it makes you want to do better and, she’s one of my favorite girls on tour.”

And ours.