‘Brazilian Storm’ is made of hugs and fierce rivalry

“We’re in a sport where they think, oh, we’re hippies,” says Australian surfer Tyler Wright in the first episode of the series “Make or Break: On the Crest of the Wave.” “We’re not. We’re competitive motherfuckers.”

This also applies to members of the so-called “Brazilian Storm”, the Brazilian storm that took over the World Surf League (WSL). There is camaraderie among the athletes of the country that has dominated the men’s circuit, but there is also a sense of competition that is not always transparent in the hugs exchanged on beaches around the planet.

Produced by James Gay-Rees (Oscar and Bafta winner), Paul Martin, Erik Logan and Ryan Holcomb, the Apple TV+ documentary seeks to show this feud more clearly. In several moments of the seven episodes of the series – which premiered last week and summarizes the 2021 season –, there appears, between laughter and words of encouragement, the ferocity in the fight for the title.

“If I can’t beat Gabriel and Italo, it could destroy me,” admits usually good-natured Filipe Toledo. “We all love to compete. So even though we’re close friends, we need to have this rivalry with each other. It’s a selfish sport.”

“I have a great relationship with him. He’s a great boy”, says Gabriel Medina. This great relationship doesn’t even make him look at the presentation that earns Toledo the title of the Lemoore stage, in the United States, in an artificial wave pool. Vice, Medina doesn’t make a point of attending the winner’s party.

With the explosive Italo Ferreira, the dispute becomes more evident. Champion of the 2019 World with a decisive triumph over Gabriel, the potiguar is asked if the opponent felt the decision time. “I don’t know. I just know it was my turn.”

“He’s a nice guy,” says Italo, in a podcast interview in front of an enthusiastic audience. “He’s a competitor, you know? Sometimes he’s different…” he states, before pausing playfully and bursting into laughter along with the onlookers.

One of the episodes of “Make or Break” pays special attention to this rivalry, portraying the champions as possessing antagonistic personalities. Medina, introverted, is always making out with his wife Yasmin Brunet – from whom he split in 2022. Ferreira, outgoing, is portrayed as a womanizer.

“You can’t talk about women because the microphone is on,” warns a friend. “I can, because I don’t owe anyone anything,” laughs Italo, who at another time appears enjoying photo after photo on Instagram. “It’s just a woman passing on my timeline”, he laughs.

Produced in partnership with the WSL, the series is restricted to the World League and ignores an important part of the feud, the fight for gold at the Tokyo Olympics. Medina was defeated in the semifinals, in a heat in which he questioned Kanoa Igarashi’s triumph. In the final, the Japanese lost to Ferreira, the first Olympic champion in surfing history.

In the league, the dispute was almost exclusively Brazilian. In the decisive stage, in San Clemente, in the United States, the third in the ranking, Filipe Toledo, beat the second, Italo Ferreira. Thus, he won the right to decide the title with the leader, Gabriel Medina, who had an excellent presentation and became three-time world champion.

The final episode, “The Finals”, portrays the joy of Maresias from São Paulo (and the sadness of Tatiana Weston-Webb, runner-up from Rio Grande do Sul) after a year of difficulties, with family fights. The battle to deal with mental issues also appears in an episode dedicated to Toledo, who speaks openly about the depression overcoming with the help of his family.

It is close to his parents, children and wife that Filipe qualifies for the final, in the waves of Lower Trestles. Defeated by an inspired Medina, he smiles and says he did what he could, without the bitterness of previous defeats in which he failed. The friend and rival in it glues his face and says: “Your time will come, and I will be there to hug you”.