Pedro Henrique

He is 5' 2". He named his daughter "Ariel." What does that tell you? Pedro Henrique is from Rio de Janeiro, which means he has a certain style that lets the world know he is Carioca - and proud of it. The Carioca is a city dweller who lives on the beach, and his life is go go go. The Carioca says goodbye and drives like an Italian, greets and eats like a Frenchman, dances like an African. The Carioca kisses on both cheeks, parties hard and learns a big bag of small-wave tricks surfing Rio's beachbreaks from Ipanema to Prainhia.

A Carioca is a man of leisure, and while it's true that Henrique is incapable of surfing within an hour after he wakes up - once he gets his motor running, low flying planes steer clear.

Henrique was trained by his father as a very very very small Rio surfer, but his weightless floaters and Corcovado-height aerials attracted the attention of shaper Joca Secco, then Billabong, and Henrique has had a solid support group since he was a teenager. In 2000, at 18 years old, Henrique won the World Junior Title during a time when Joel Parkinson and the Coolangatta Kids were taking trophies and titles by the truckload.

Like most promising Brazilians. Henrique cut his teeth on the WQS events when they came to Brazil, and Henrique was jazzed to be surfing against his childhood idols like Kelly Slater - even when they beat him. On the 2005 WQS Tour, he won the Reef Classic in Sao Paulo and he made the WCT in the 32nd position.

Henrique follows in the tradition of Brazilian Little Big Men like Victor Ribas, who surf with blinding speed in small surf, and he has a thoroughly modern bolsa of Carioca aerial tricks, tailslides and floaters. He is struggling a little in his first year on tour, putting together a string of 17ths and 33rds, with a ninth in France. Henrique is slow to rise, but fast when he gets going, and he has an excellent support group in his shaper Joao Secco, his trainer Peter Robalinho and Jesus, up there on Corcovado, who watches over all the Carioca with talent.