Pioneer in big waves, Márcio Freire sponsored himself for the love of surfing

As a child, Márcio Freire would cry when his parents couldn’t take him to Itaparica on weekends.

It was on the island located in front of Salvador, on the other side of Baía de Todos os Santos, that he established a “sacred” relationship with the sea, as he liked to describe it.

He started doing poorly at school as soon as he learned to go to the beach by himself. The passion for surfing already spoke louder than anything else for him.

It was there, too, that he learned the basics of the sport, such as knowledge of sea currents and the practices of a competitor, until he became one of the Brazilian pioneers in giant wave surfing.

This Thursday (5), at the age of 47, Márcio Freire died while surfing in the city of Nazaré, in central Portugal, a scene famous precisely for its huge waves. The accident was much regretted among colleagues in the sport.

Recognition in the world of surfers, however, never translated into support and sponsorships so that he could live off the sport throughout his life. “I never surfed for a living. I lived for surfing,” he used to say.

Márcio could count on his fingers the times he made money from the sport. “There was always a picture of me in the newspaper, I would cut it out and go after some brand, some company to sponsor me”, he told Trip magazine in 2012.

Only once did it work, even when he was very young and had a sponsorship to compete in an amateur championship.

Over time, the difficulty kept him away from the competitive scene, but never from the waves. In 1998, when he was 24 years old, influenced by friends and also surfers Danilo Couto and Yuri Soledade, he moved to Hawaii, in the United States.

“When I came to Hawaii, I completely disconnected from competitions. At the time I saw that I would be a free surfer, working just to pay the bills, sponsor myself and go after the big waves”, he told the magazine.

So he did all his life. In Hawaii, he had several professions. He worked as a waiter and gardener. He also worked in civil construction, in free fairs and making changes. Everything, especially, to support his passion for surfing.

Alongside Danilo and Yuri, Márcio gained notoriety in the surfing scene for taking risks in giant waves without life jackets or the aid of a jet ski, therefore, practically without any kind of safety.

The practice earned the trio the nickname “Mad Dogs”, mad dogs, in English. In Hawaii, the slang is often attributed to those who take on challenges like they did.

“Mad Dogs” also became the name of a documentary by the Off channel, released in 2015, when the trajectory of each of them was told on screen.

“We had no security at all. It was pure courage guided by the desire to go down a huge wave. The risks were many without adequate security. If an accident happened, it would be the end of the journey”, stated Márcio when commenting on the release of the film.

Márcio was never one to seek the spotlight, he didn’t like to appear, but he was happy to participate in the production of the documentary. According to him, it was the only time he received good money because of the sport.

More recently, he’s been making a living making videos of people surfing, teaching surfing lessons, and developing his own brand of T-shirts. In the prints, he told about his trajectory in the sport and the places he went through.

In addition to Salvador and Hawaii, the Bahia native has already lived in Indonesia, where he loved to go whenever he could. He also spent a month in Portugal, where he returned at the end of 2022 to spend Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

As his parents would be in the country, he was excited about the opportunity to be reunited with his family. On social media, he recorded the joy of being with his family, especially his father, who turned 81 during the trip.

I was still excited about the chance to catch new waves in Nazaré.

“I’m just going there, I’m not going to catch the biggest wave. I just want to get that big surf vibe again and try to catch some big waves,” he said weeks before the trip to the “Let’s Surf” channel.

This Thursday (5), however, he ended up suffering an accident while surfing in the so-called “Cannon da Nazaré”.

Márcio Freire was the first victim of a fatal accident registered at the site.