In an unfavorable environment, overflowing with football and with limited or no resources to carry out a publication or a program on an alternative sport, these five communicators put the birth of professional surfing in different Latin American countries on their pages or screens as best they could.

In different ways and with different styles of communicating, each of them had in common the sacrifice involved in bringing forward something that was non-existent, in an environment in which surfing was just beginning to break into the oceanic landscapes on both sides of the subcontinent.

Sacrifice was the common factor, as surely was the satisfaction of being able to produce each magazine or each program as if it were a child, with everything that that implied.

Below are five, from Argentina to Costa Rica, via Venezuela, who rather than leaving a mark, left the mark left by surfers. Some still do.

Javier Fernandez Urbina
Founder of Tablista

Quiet, highly cultured and meticulous editor of the oldest surfing magazine in Latin America. Too organized for such a dynamic and vibrant world, Javier Fernández, known as Ocu, founded the Revista Tablista in 1985.

He captured in the pages of his publication some of the most important moments of surfing in his country and around the world.

It was when Peru was moving away from its status as a power that it had achieved in the sixties (with a world champion and an international federation created in its country) that Fernández activated a publication that followed the progress of the country with the most history in Latin America.

In its pages you can see the birth of Peruvian surfing as it is known today, all those who preceded a world champion like Sofía Mulanovich and those who came after, who now make a profession out of what was once a dream.

Over time, the magazine fell to the digital wall, leaving behind a library of some of the greatest surfers in history who may not have been recognized as such.

A philanthropist, Javier helped create the Peruvian surfing federation and the creation of a system of protection for breakers that resulted in a law unique in the world. He also helped finish the book 5.000 Years Surfing Waves, which was mostly written by one of his pupils, Óscar Tramontana.

Javier is now interested in history topics, he studies and sells books.

He is a giant expression of humility in a world where everyone shows how “cool” they are; there he is, he has seen it all, and he doesn't even raise his hand to speak.

Cristophe Kiki Commarieu
Founder of Surfos magazine

French surfer who moved to Costa Rica in the early 1990s. He founded Surfos magazine, which began as a local publication but quickly gained ground in Latin America.

Together with the great photographer and human being Philippe Demarsan, he created a real publishing empire for at least a decade. In those years without the Internet, appearing in Surfos was a glory for professional Latin American surfers.

He established a continental distribution system and made sure that his magazine reached every corner of the region.

It was visually beautiful, dynamic and radical.

As a good Frenchman, he had a complicated character. More than once he came across some human being who dared to contradict him.

His character and his addiction to cigarettes took their toll on him and caused him to suffer more than one stroke, but he escaped it because life is great and those around him knew how to help him.

Her personality does not in any way take away from her status as a legend of Latin communication. Kiki Commarieu made an apostolate out of her passion for communicating surfing.

They say he is now a waiter in a bar in Tamarindo… Things from Latin America.

edward salazar
Founder of Extreme Surf Mag

A worthy Venezuelan, he put his heart into surfing journalism, he was daring and took it upon himself to fill his publication with psychotic lines, controversial topics and radical maneuvers, issues that were visually a success.

He did not care and did not care at all about publishing anything that was politically incorrect and because of that work philosophy he created such a successful publication that a North American group saw the vein and bought the magazine, hired him as an editor and gave him a hefty salary.

The proposal led him to live in California where he rented a luxury house in Costa Mesa, bought a Jeep and a BMW and lived in the midst of the action where everything happens.

He was so rebellious that he became bored with the lack of challenges and after some clashes with the new owners, he left his job to launch his own magazine: OLAS.

Distributed free of charge throughout the continent, it was an immediate success that, due to problems between partners, did not last more than four editions.

He will never forget that trip to the Rip Curl Pro The Search in Arica, in 2007, where he officially launched the magazine.

Eduardo now lives in Venezuela, is married and the father of two children. He is a real estate agent and his days as a surfing editor are behind him.

 

Nicholas Nervi
Founder of Zero Gravity

Cable television burst onto the scene in Latin America in the mid-nineties, and someone very clever realized, some 30 years earlier, that extreme sports would be at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

That someone was Nicolás Nervi, who challenged his family's roots in selling cattle to film surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding and everything that doesn't go hand in hand with the status quo.

The show had pure punk rock introductions, was dynamic and showed everything that was not on the other channels: Football, football and more football.

He shaped and created idols such as Diego Bucchieri, Gianni Di Gennaro, Martín Passeri, Alejo Martínez, Santiago and Carlos di Pace, the Galindo brothers, Jorge Belardi and a very long etcetera.

The meticulous, almost surgical care of every cent of a peso spent on the production of the program was key to its becoming a classic and an economic success (considering the permanent instability of the region).

After passing through several networks, his program continues to run, now on Telefe and on various internet channels.

Nervi is married to the former model and former presenter of the show, Mariela Pra, with whom he has two children. He continues to work at the production company where, in addition to Gravedad Zero, he develops other projects.

Freddy Tortora
Founder of Surfista magazine 

Hypnotized by the aloha spirit, Freddy Tórtora created the magazine Tablista in 1986 and miraculously communicated surfing in the Argentine Republic and, miraculously, still does so, on paper!

A graphic designer by profession and a surfer at heart, he began by helping design posters for surfing championships, then took his first surfing photos with a Kodak Fiesta and later created quality material with more professional equipment. The magazine was first called Lip and then Surfista.

“I was always a fan of Surfing and Surfer magazines and I dreamed of creating a similar magazine,” he said in an interview with Surfline en Español.

He is today the publisher with the longest experience in the sector on the continent.

Daniel Gil, Micky Arandía, Leo García, Daniel Silvagni, Alejo Abramidis, César Colombo, the Di Pace brothers, Alejo Martínez, the Galindo brothers, Martín Passeri are just some of the surfers who have appeared in the magazine, including world champions Santiago Muñiz, Lele Usuna and Nacho Gundesen. Not long ago, one of its covers featured the Argentinean who brought surfing to the Olympic Games, Fernando Aguerre.

Always with a particular language, very influenced by Portuguese, Freddy captured the surfing of his country talking about the “galera”, in addition to notes with waves and local surfers, he placed a few pages dedicated to travel and the world circuit.

There was no shortage of social photos in which some famous person always appeared with the magazine in hand, hugging him and doing a shaka.

“I get satisfaction from doing what I like, having met almost all of my surfing idols, seeing Kelly Slater when he won the world championship in Praia da Vila, Brazil, having a beer with Andy Iros at an after contest, meeting Mark Richards, Felipe Pomar, Bushman, Tom Curren, Tom Carroll, Wayne Lynch, Daniel Gil, Tano Antifora, Fred Hemmings, Eduardo Barrera and many more. And what I remember with the greatest joy was the first contest I went to cover for Surfista magazine, the Hang Loose Pro Contest in 1986,” he added in the aforementioned interview.

Incredibly, Freddy ended up being the president of the most successful Argentine surfing federation in history, which achieved at least three ISA world titles: Gundesen in the 2017 junior world championship, Usuna in 2016 and Muñiz in 2018.

________

This article is dedicated to the great Óscar Tramontana Figallo, may he rest in peace.

An example that it is impossible to do good surfing journalism without education, passion, culture and professionalism.

His notes in Olas Perú will never be forgotten and his advice, his phrases, his conversations, will always be remembered.

Thank you Oscar, this little micro-world misses and needs you. Genius.