Italo Ferreira’s body disappeared as he tucked down behind the barrel, emerging unscathed from the curling water before he pumped his board down the face of the fast-moving wave, propelling his surfboard into the air, twisting and then landing on it with ease.
His body and surfboard were on repeat through the morning: barrel, air, barrel, air, barrel, and another perfectly-executed air.
Ferreira was surfing in central California on a recent day, not in the ocean, but at the Surf Ranch in Lemoore during a training session put on by sponsor Red Bull to get his feet wet practicing on the machine-made wave, where he and the rest of the world’s best surfers will be competing in May as part of the World Surf League’s Championship Tour.
The Brazilian surfer, who this year will be inducted into the Surfers’ Hall of Fame in Huntington Beach, had just finished up a contest in Portugal and made the California pitstop en route to Australia, the stop for the next series of big contests.
“This year started not so well,” he admitted while taking a break from training.
Ferreira isn’t used to mediocre results, but in the first event this year, at the Billabong Pro Pipeline, he got 17th place. The next two events he placed 9th and at the last event, the Rip Curl Bells Beach, another 17th.
While it’s enough to likely pass a looming mid-year cut for the top best, the middle of the pack is not where he wants to be.
Ferreira knows what it’s like at the top and is intent on getting back on the winner’s podium. He’s currently the only surfer to have an Olympic gold medal, World Surf League World Championship title and an International Surfing Association World Games gold medal.
The trio of successes and his inspirational, explosive surfing helped land Ferreira his spot in this year’s Surfers’ Hall of Fame, marking the first time a Brazilian surfer will put hands and feet in cement in Surf City.
Last year, Ferreira came just short of securing his…
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