Brazillian Snowboard Team Pushes Toward 1998 Olympics
by Andrew Hood

With more than 4,000 miles of tropical coastline, and loads of trees and monkeys and bikinis in between, there's nary a flake of the white stuff. In fact, in hot and sweaty Brazil, there isn't any snow at all. Most of the world's fifth-largest country lies in the hot and humid lowlands of the Amazon.

The highest point in Brazil - the Pico da Neblina near the Venezuelan border at 9,945 feet - hardly puts a blip on the radar screen when compared to the world's mountains. But there's a group of young Brazilians with too much winter on their minds. They're drawn to the power of mountains, seduced by the style of snowboarding and attracted to the romantic notion of pioneering a new lifestyle.

Seven men and one woman are bringing snowboarding to Brazil with the style and panache typical of Latin America. They've organized the Brazilian Snowboard Team and they have their eye on legitimate competition. They're still learning the ropes, getting used to competing in race situations, but they're having a hell of a lot of fun doing it.

So when you hear about the Brazilian Snowboard Team, it's easy to scoff and make comparisons to the much-maligned, movie-version of the Jamaican bobsled team.

While only a fraction of Brazil's 160 million people have even seen snow, let alone ventured onto it (Brazil boasts about 70,000 people who take ski vacations), the country does have one attribute that lends itself instant credibility in snowboarding circles - surfing.

The nation is surf crazy. Besides the devotional passion to soccer, surfing is the top sport in Brazil. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out if you put a surfing nation on a snowboard, plenty of good results will follow. That's just what Brazil's snowboard squad is hoping for. Eight members of Brazil's snowboard squad tore up the slopes of Vail last week, getting instruction from some of the best snowboard coaches on something that's as foreign to Brazilians as understanding the rhythms of samba is for uptight gringos.

"Most Brazilians haven't even seen snow. They don't know anything about it. When we tell people we snowboard, they have no idea what it is," says Dario Dos Santos, 24, from Sao Paulo, one of the world's largest cities. "The sport is really growing in Brazil. More and more people are learning to ski and snowboard. People head to Chile and Argentina and Vail and Aspen," he says.

The team members are effusive, animated and passionate when they describe what snowboarding means to them. They see themselves as ambassadors for the sport, introducing a snow-wary nation to the joys of carving turns through powder fields. "We're the first Brazilian ski bums," explains a beaming Leonardo Clark Ribeiro, 27, from Rio de Janeiro.

After picking up snowboarding two years ago at a Chilean resort, Ribeiro was hooked. He quit his job as a computer programmer and spent the winter at Mammoth Mountain, California. Then he returned to South America for the southern hemisphere's winter. A true disciple of endless winter, Ribeiro is now living in Vail.

And like any true ski bum, he's struggling to make ends meet. He's on the hill every day, working to improve his snowboarding and dreaming of representing his country in the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, just in time for the first year of medal-status for snowboarding. "I began because I love the mountains and I love surfing. I surfed my whole life. When I got on the snowboard, I knew this is what I wanted to do," he says.

The squad has realistic goals when it comes to competition. Since the team can only train in North America or the ski resorts of Argentina and Chile, the Brazilians are hoping to compete in the first Brazil snowboarding championships this summer in Valle Nevado, Chile.

The team stayed in Vail nearly two weeks and worked with former U.S. Snowboard Team coach Kurt Hoy. "We've been working on giant slalom, that's what the Brazilian championships will be," Hoy said. "We're working on the future. We've focused on race techniques, what to do when they're out of the gate and try to develop good racers for the future. This is a new sport in Brazil so we're really building from the ground level."

Hoy, a seasoned snowboarder, says he's impressed with the Brazilians attitude and almost envious of the chance the new, young breed has to make an impression on the raw, fertile snowboard culture in Brazil. "These guys are total pioneers down there. This is a snowboarders' dream. They're making it all happen. The whole country is ready for snowboarding and they're right there in the front lines," he says.

The team wants to build its abilities to an international level in time for the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics, when snowboarding will be a medal sport. Oskar Metsavaht, 34, of Rio de Janeiro, has been snowboarding for six years and wants to bring as many of his fellow countrymen into the fold. On top of his snowboard team duties, Metsavaht is a snowboarding entrepreneur. He has a snowboard shop and clothing company in Brazil, as well as a travel company called "Snow Clinic," which puts snow-wary Brazilians on skis and snowboards.

"We are teaching Brazilians about snow, skiing and snowboarding. We work with them while they are still in Brazil, before they come to Vail, and get them used to the equipment, the clothes, everything. Most Brazilians have never even seen skis before," he says.

Metsavaht, who was the first Brazilian to climb Mount Blanc, is also working with Vail Associates to bring Brazilians to Vail on vacations. He says excitement for winter sports is growing in the land of eternal summer. "It's building fast. More and more Brazilians are learning about winter sports. Once they're here, they love it," Metsavaht says.

While Brazil is thousands of miles from snow, it's also thickly wound in the Third World economics, where a vast majority of its citizens live at near-poverty levels. Snowboard team members know they are among the elite of the nation, where a week's ski vacation usually costs more than a typical Brazilian makes in a year.

"We have big responsibilities. We want to put snowboarding in the front of the nation's sports. Perhaps everyone cannot do it, but they can still enjoy it. We want to work, to train and improve and race for our country," says Jose Barbosa de Carvalho, 25, from Sao Paulo. "Yes, it is very expensive for ski vacations, but more and more people want to come to the mountains to try skiing, to enjoy snowboarding. We are hoping to promote snowboarding to Brazilians," he says.

Once the Brazilians are on the snow, you can tell they're no slouches. While a few of the riders are still a little rough along the edges, the team has some legitimate talent.

Most of the team members have been riding for at least four years, some even longer. What they lack in discipline and technique, they make up for with verve and enthusiasm. This would win the gold medal if the Olympics were based on passion.

"The Chileans and Argentines are still better than us. This is our first year to practice with racing with a coach like Kurt," explains a confident Flavio Cunha Sodre Santoro, 23, of Sao Paulo. "But we will improve and we will beat them. This is just the beginning to something wonderful."

Andrew Hood is a staff writer for the Vail Daily, in Vail, Colorado.