Fort Lauderdale, FL – After an amazing journey down to Brazil I am happy to be back reporting that the Zap team had a successful skim adventure full of fun waves, new friends, and memorable experiences. Next month we plan on releasing a few small videos to show what our crew found as we traveled to Rio and Sununga to skimboard and experience the country with local Brazilian skimmers.
The Zap crew assembled for this trip consisted of Dave Scott, Toeknee Bianchi, Emanuel “Mega” Embaixador, and myself (Jason Wilson). Toeknee, Dave, and I flew in from the US to film and join Mega who is in the middle of a 3 month skim tour of the country. We started out in Rio where we caught a few fun skim sessions in between wandering the beach side city streets and hanging with local friends. We were able to skim some fun reform waves in Macumba and spend a few days in Ipanema with Brazilian skimmer Lucas Gomes and his family.
From Ipanema we rented a car and drove 5 hours to meet Mega and catch a south swell that would be hitting Sununga. Once arriving there we were greeted by our new friends Michele and Pretao who were gracious enough to hook us up a room and open their home to our entire crew. Our week in Sununga was filled with skimming, bbq’s, biking, bus rides, acaci, siders, hair styling, happy hours, forming new bonds and of course filming every thing we could there and in between. New team rider and cinematographer Toeknee should be providing some stimulating visuals from land, air and water as he made it a point to try to capture many aspects of our travels with his creative vision. More excitement was brought to our trip as we were joined in Sununga by skimmers from France and Holland who happened to have planned skim trips on the same date as ours. Cederic Fort from France was also staying at the skim house with us and turned to be a great addition to the crew. He was on some what of a spiritual journey/ solo mission vacation that landed him right in the middle of the Zap Brazil film trip. Cedric provided much entertainment with his bilingual skills, cafe making, and unique approach to life. Michel Brands a skimmer from Holland that Mega and I had met in Portugal showed up the last weekend of our trip for some of the best swell of the trip. Working on a skimboarding documentary he was able to capture some great waves and interview us during some epic sessions. It was great to mix it up with the them and the local skimmers while enjoying some quality beach time. Sununga treated us well, and gave us waves until our last day. It was truly skim paradise!
For our last day we headed back to to Rio for one final taste of the city before flying home. After an uncomfortable all night bus ride back we skimmed an early morning session in Ipanema, checked out the hostel scene, and got some rest. That night we were treated to an amazing all you can eat Brazilian steak house dinner that was topped off with a Birthday cake as a pre celebration for myself turning the big 30. It was a great ending to a great trip! Dave and I flew out that night. Toeknee flew out the next day and left Mega to catch a bus back to Sununga.
Be on the look out for more on the rest of Mega’s tour of Brazil in weeks to come. Big thanks to all our friends in Brazil or extending such amazing hospitality. We will be back again!
Jason
Words: Jason Wilson
Lifestyles: Jason, Dave, and Toeknee
Skim: Michel Brands
