CONGRATULATIONS ITACOATIARA PRO!
From IBC, we want to give a big shoutout to the entire Itacoatiara Pro team for their amazing work, dedication, and effort!
Giuliano Lara is the promoter of the Itacoatiara Pro in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
This event has already had 12 editions, and this year it was awarded as the best event of the IBC World Tour 2024.
It’s a huge testament to the hard work, effort, and dedication of a team that gives their all for bodyboarding, set against the stunning backdrop of Itacoatiara beach. No doubt, it’s the best sand wave on the Tour, with perfect barrels and ramps where the top athletes in the world put on an amazing show.
Giuliano, besides being a promoter, is also a super rad bodyboarder, and definitely one of those people who make bodyboarding even better.
- what do you think about receiving the recognition as event of the year for the ibc world tour 2024?
Yeah Stoked! Thats awesome! I just want to thanks the riders, technical team and Ibc staff on this recognition, and say that im really thankfull!
There are many requirements to fulfill , but I recon, we are blessed with the brasilian vibe, the weather, our people´s hospitality, the environment surround this place, I fell blessed.
I am thankfull on the way this city embraced this event, Rodrigo Neves and Axel Grael, the mayors on these last 12 years, were so importants also the sports ministry Luis Carlos Gallo and Zeca Azevedo, they were essential on the public policy process. Also my associate Bill Aquino who jumped in on 2022 and made this ideia of a festival came into reality.
- When you started dreaming about the Itacoatiara Pro, who supported you in this project?
Back in 2011, I promoted an event at Fernando de Noronha with a local friend Adriano Silveira, than I was notice that IBA became interested in holding an event in Brazil. There was a good collaboration from Guilherme Tamega and Chico Garritano who made very positive comments about my work, the wave and the place of Itacoatiara.
I was completely unaware how big it was and amount of money and work involved in carrying out one event of the world tour. It was very challenging, as it was just me with the support of my parents, and a small group of friends with no experience, but with a great sense of the quality of service that we would like to offer.
It is impossible not to recognize the importance of the city of Niteroi’s public policies in favor of sport, without which the event would not have reached where it did.
- How many years have you been bodyboarding, and what does it bring to your life?
I started bodyboarding in the summer of 1988 and have been riding waves for 35 years, since I was 12 years old. At first I just wanted to spend time in the water and have fun. The evolution was natural since Itacoatiara offers power waves that I had the pleasure to share with a crazy crowd including Guilherme Correa, José Otávio and Dudu Pedra.
Than the magic happened, i became addicted to heavy waves and dreaming of Hawaii. In 1998 I had my first Hawaiian season and since then I believe that living a life traveling around the world surfing perfect waves, is the best life you can imagine.
Through the sport of bodyboarding I made the main choices of my life. I chose where I want to live, how my body needs to be and working with sports management was something natural that came into my life, being part of my maturity.
Now days I have time to be with my family and my goal is to keep surfing at the highest level I can, as long as possible! I am very grateful for the life that bodyboarding has given me, including my wife who is also a bodyboarder!
Pipeline / Hawaii
Indonesia and Mexico
- Share a special story or moment about the Itacoatiara Pro.
At the beginning of 2020 with the covid, the whole world lived under a climate of uncertainty and just a few events happened in these two years, and yet those that did happen were under severe control and surveillance and for a moment, I had the feeling that the Itacoatiara Pro would lose strength and resources.
But it was precisely during this period that I became close to good people, who shared thoughts similar to mine and a great desire to undertake sports and art. In 2021, I teamed up with Bill Aquino, who in the following year brought his expertise in holding international concerts and the idea of a major Skateboarding event at Itacoatiara Pro. This was a turning point in the history of this project, where we became a sports and culture festival, bringing with us a strong socio-environmental program, which took us to another level in several ways.
- Is there any edition that has been particularly special for you?
The next one is always the most special. It seems cliché, but the butterflies in your stomach and the adrenaline of starting a new project is unreal, which above all is a business that needs to be healthy to be continued.
Getting the elephant back on its feet is a lot of work, but it gives me an indescribable satisfaction and it is completely different year after year.
But of course, the first time is always something different and special, and the year 2022 also needs to be highlighted as we come with a much greater proposal of achievements.
- What does this event mean for you and for the local bodyboarders?
I always wanted to have my own business, my father always put it in my head. I had a very broad academic background, I have a degree in marketing, biology and arts, in addition to my passion for sport.
However, I am interested in many things and had difficulty focusing on something to really invest in.I think Itacoatiara Pro was the point where everything came together, an achievement that channeled my interests.
I see Itacoatiara Pro as a great boost for the region’s economy, especially everything linked to tourism, entertainment and sports development. It starts with the financial injection, the positive exposure of the city through the media and everything else that happens during the festival. I observe the emergence of new photographers, videographers, clothing brands, food retailers and several other small businesses. Good energy and exchange of experiences.
It is very clear, year after year, the emergence of new athletes and the rescue of old ones, driven by idols, the best athletes in the world performing at Itacoatiara.
- Is there something you’d like to do in Itacoatiara that hasn’t happened yet for some reason?
Itacoatiara is special on calm and ordinary days. The birds, the sea, the mountains, its a bucolic tranquility. Embracing this environment and being able to hold a technically perfect event with awesome waves is always the goal.
I really wanted to be able to carry out this project every year, The security of multi-year contract would be nice.
- Tell us a bit about the area surrounding Itacoatiara, its nature, its people, etc.
It is a 1 kilometer long beach, in a residential area, which is part of an environmental preservation zone of Atlantic forest under the management of the Serra da Tiririca State Park.
It is a calm and silent neighborhood on regular days, with a community that practically everyone knows each other.
The beach is surrounded by mountains, andone of them called PEDRA do ELEFANTE ( Elephant Rock) is one of the post cards of the city and was the inspiration for our logo.
Unlike most of Brazil’s coastline, which faces East, Rio de Janeiro faces South, receiving directly the biggest waves on our shore, provided by the cyclones area at the south of the American continent.
Added to this, the mountains that surround it channel the waves towards the beach, with the formation of triangular waves, which enhance their strength and the relatively thick sand bottom makes the waves break tubular and very close to the beach.
- Here’s your space to thank anyone, mention your team, say hello, or express anything you want:
Once again I would like to thank to the public policies of Niterói, the authorities, mayors and sports ministries, everyone in the tour (riders, tech team and IBC staff), local riders and all surf community from Itacoatiara, the local sponsors, my friends and family!
- How do you feel about your future with Itacoatiara Pro and IBC?
I belive this is a solid event, and with the idea of the festival we will amplify into new sports. The open air sports ideia mens ocean, earth and sky so i feel we have some good future ahead in these three areas.
Regarding IBC, I’ve been working closely with the tour even before IBC foundation, and in all these years living bodyboarding i have been almost everywhere in a competition. As an athlete, promoter, technical team member and comentator, but more than that i fell myself close to the riders, who need to be listened in a way to grow IBC and the sport itself.
I feel we have a good team working in the tour and i will always be ready to collaborate with anyone who’s working seriously. What role i will play, will depend on what is needed.
Thanks everyone!
