The Ben From Brazil

Latest Update: October 15, 2006

By Ben Marcus

19:00 LOCAL TIME SUNDAY THE 15TH OF OCTOBER, 2006  ROSALDO’S OFFICE

Rosaldo (pronounced Hosaldo) today sez: “Chooday you leeeave like Carioca!” Which might explain why I am sunburned, my back is sore,  I am full of food, full of coffee, I am a little stoned and a little drunk.

Carioca Day started with me waking up late and a trip to the beach with Carol, to meet Rosaldo and his daughter Maria who were already down there. We were just a few K’s down from Quebra Mar along Barra Beach, which is a very long strip of beach backed by highrise condos and hotels and then a lagoon, something like 18 K of beach and surf and kiosks and buns.

I tried to surf again today on a borrowed longboard but the thing felt like a 5’ 2” Fish so I didn’t accomplish much more than bob around, but the view up to those high rocks that overlooking this part of Rio was nice.

When I got to the beach Rosaldo and everyone packed up and walked about a mile up the beach to watch the finals of the Brazilian National Championship, a pro contest.

That was an interesting walk and I videoed some of it. A lot of buns, breasts, bunhuggers, blacks, beach chairs, bulges, boobs, bikinis, bellies, beers, etc etc. Took a while but we made it to the scaffold that was set up nicely. I watched for a while with Rosaldo and then someone dragged me up to the scaffold and I met some people who were running the event and Rodrigo Resende and I was reminded that I am Ben Marcus who has been writing about surfing for a million years and people have heard of me.

So I watched the event from up there for awhile and drank water and ate an apple and a banana and then I went back on the sand to watch the final which had a surfer with the unfortunate named of Jihad. I have heard he has big trouble getting on planes and getting into the US. Jihad was surfing against another guy from Rosaldo’s homebreak in decent, windy, three foot lefts and the other guy did okay but at the end Jihad got a victory ride into the beach on a PWC and we packed up and walked back down the beach, and it took a while.

It is Spring in Rio and the beaches are packed on the weekends which makes me wonder what it’s like in summer. It’s got to be hotter than stink in Rio in the summer and the beaches are probably five times more packed, which is a scary thought, but it must be impossible to stay in the favela when it’s 125 degrees and 125 per cent humidity.

We packed up from the beach and on the way out I saw some guys playing footvolley which is a form of volleyball using soccer skills. Interesting, when you think about it, but these guys had it wired.

We sat at one the kiosks drinking beer. “Chop” means draft, I learned and I had been wondering what that word meant.

After the beach I was sticky and hot and wanted a shower, but instead we went for lunch at a place near Rosaldo’s. We had feijoada, which is a kind of Euro Africa dish that puts different kinds of meat in black beans, over rice. It was good, and because I was a little buzzed on beer and a caipirnha and a drink called cashasha, or something, which is fermented sugar cane and can probably be poured directly into your gas tank.

At lunch Rosaldo said he had met the President of a big telephone company who was looking for ideas to make the company younger, as they represent old school telephones in Brazil. I suggested my Sports Awards idea, which I still think is a good idea for America but would work in Brazil, too.

For Brazil it would be soccer and auto racing and volleyball and surfing and BMX and jiu jitsu and whatever other sports Brazilians are into. There would be Play of the Year, Male Athlete of the Year, Female Athlete of the Year, Most Inspirational.

When I was at Fernando Aguerre’s after the World Cup he had a website up showing a Brazilian player who was tying his shoes when the French guy scored a goal, so there could be a category for Biggest Mistake.

People could use their cell phones to vote and the awards would be held in Maracana Stadium in front of 75,000 people and then televised on TV Globo to all of Brazil.

Rosaldo thinks the awards ceremony should be held in a smaller setting, but since this is a phone company trying to attract customers, why not invite 75,000 potential customers to Maracana Stadium.

I also explained to Rosaldo that one of the attractions to the awards is you would have legendary Brazilian sports stars like Pele and Rickson Gracie and whoever else handing out awards to the younger generation.

Anyway, we might pitch this to the guys from a phone company called Tim tomorrow, and also the guy Rosaldo met today.

After feijoada we came back to Rosaldo’s house and I answered an email from The Champ who thanked me for sending him all those DVD. I’m glad he is enjoying them.

Then we were back in Rosaldo’s car and up and over the mountains instead of through the tunnel. There was a turnoff to Corcovado but we kept going and parked at Maracana Stadium which was built to hold 200,000 people. Rosaldo told me about a famous futbol game in which 200,000 Brazilians watched Brazil lose to Uruguay in the last few seconds, and the stadium went from very loud to very quiet very fast.

Reminds me of the famous football game between Stanford and Berkeley I saw in the 80s, which ended with the infamous Play..

Rosaldo has a press pass and he talked me into the press area so we sat up in the second level about midfield and watched Flamengo against a team from Sao Paulo called Corinthians.

Brazilians love their futbol and they make a sustained noise with their songs and chants and drums and fireworks that is as loud as any single outburst at an American sporting event.

It was all pretty wild and Flamengo played well, scoring three goals to Corinthian’s none. Soccer is fun to watch live. It seems faster than on TV. I got into it.

Rosaldo seems to know half the people in Rio and he introduced me to all of them. One guy spoke English perfectly because he had lived in New York and he told me I was on TV Globo – Brazilian national TV – for five minutes last night.

Gulp. I want to see it, but I don’t.

At least I was wearing a nice jacket.

So Flamengo won and we drove home by way of Ipanema. Rio is a pretty spectacular city and I really don’t think there is a big city in the world that can beat it for being scenic and exotic. How many Old School European cities are built on the Tropic, with all those beaches on one side and all that high jungle on the other?

Not many. The sun was setting as we were driving home and we stopped at a place popular with young people for pizza and beer. The pizza had too much cheese, but the beer here is good.

So now we are home and in Rosaldo’s office. His daughter Maria is watching High School Musical and singing and dancing to some of the songs.

I need to finish that final chapter of the history of the surfboard book because Michael Dregni is going to be waiting for it tomorrow.

Not a bad day, but I am eating too much and need to surf more. Living here would be fun if you were set up right. I would probably buy a Volkswagon bus and surf from that.

Tomorrow I am giving my talk on How the World Changed Surfing and How Surfing Changed the World. We are going to surf maybe in the morning or go to some massage parlor that Rosaldo has been threatening and then go to the Mall early and do a run through.

I will try to be interesting. I think some woman from Elle wants to talk to me, too. I have to try and pull some images off my backup discs to give to her. I might try and see if that works now. I think they are in the Hoffman Project folder, and I think that was all done before I backed up that disc.

So that is what is like to live as a Carioca: Hedonisme as they say in Porkandcheese.

10:00 OR SO MONDAY THE 16TH OF OCTOBER, 2006 UPSTAIRS AT THE MALL

That was weird. Rosaldo and I were standing outside the Rio Design Barra Mall, sweating, waiting for the doors to open, when a guy walked up to me in a green uniform with the word “Malibu” on his hat, on a decal on his chest and on his back.

Weird. He worked for the Condominio Malibu, and rode away on a bike.

Rosaldo just whistled for me to join him at a café upstairs. BRB.

Okay I am in a nice chair in front of the In House Café Bistro which advertises “feijoada light in house” among other things, which is kind of like saying Chicken Fried Steak light. Rosaldo needs a pen and I didn’t have one.

This place is slow coming to life because it’s a national holiday for shopkeepers or something. We drove by Barra Beach today early and there were already a lot of people there, and the holiday is why.

The Brazilians have as many holidays as the Jews, mayhap.

Anyway, we are here early to set up Rosaldo’s DVD player and – yay the Wi Fi just kicked in – and go through the DVD I am going to show today to make sure there are no glitches. Last night we were half asleep and under the influence and we went through Surfando Antes Dos Anos 50 and I talked about what I was going to talk about: surfboard design, surf fashion, etc.

I am already thinking about the bigger production and what I am going to steal and where all the video clips and photos and music are. This could be a lot of fun.

So right now I am going to send the final chapter of the History of the Surfboard and it’s about time. That took waaaaaay too long but it wasn’t all my fault.

It is getting hot in Rio already and I am getting a glimmer of an idea about coming here this winter and working. Rosaldo said I could stay at his place and he might be gone in Hawaii anyway. I want to buy one of those 60s or 70s Volkswagon buses and surf every day and keep the routine going I had this summer in Malibu.

It’s hotter than stink here in the summer but as long as the ocean is close by it won’t be so bad.

So we shall see about that. Maybe after Hawaii. All depends on money and what is going on with WET and SHACK and everything else.

Right now I am going to look through my backed up discs for some images the woman from Brazilian Elle is going to do. I am starting to get the picture here that Brazil is a little surf crazy, so some dingaling blundering into town with all these moving and still images of surfing and fashion history will strike a nerve here.

Let’s see if Photoshop can open this disc, and if there is anything on there I can use.

We just did an audio and visual sound check in the room where I am going to give the speech and it’s perfect.

I love it when shit works – right that Latin and tattoo it on my back – and shit is working here. Now I want to see if Photoshop will open my backup disc so I can get some images out for Elle Brazil.

12:20 Okay Photoshop didn’t work but I managed to find a copy of the old SHACK manifesto in my files and scavenged a couple of photos I think they can use.

Rosaldo just said, “Ben! Come you are working too hard, let’s go eat!” So I’d better send this and eat.

Wow this is really good a buffet of rice and feijoada and salads and potatoes and good healthy stuff.

Might just have to spend the winter here. Anyone want to sublet a Malibu apartment?

Rosaldo is on the phone trying to get surfboard shapers and others to come to this speech today.

Now they are showing the highlights from Flamengo v. Corinthians last night. Two really great goals and one penalty kick. The conditioning, speed and ball control of the best soccer players is amazing. Flamengo kicked ass last night.

I am working when I should be eating. Better send this before the Carioca police come and work me over and throw me in jail with those two American private pilots who crashed that passenger liner. They are in big trouble.