By Mateo Castells - Cover photo by William Zimmerman - Interview presented by Capi Bar 

As a child, he didn't like football and says he was bad at it. Either he saved or he didn't play. At the age of eight, he stood on a surfboard for the first time and from that moment on, it was all love. Today, at 35, he is ranked 60th in the South American regional QS of the World Surf League (WSL), he is a father, he is interested in meditation, sometimes he writes and he doesn't mince words when talking about what he doesn't like.

In the centre of Ferrugem people parade with chairs and umbrellas on their way to the beach, slathered in sunscreen as the first swell of the year pumps a good amount of waves into the coasts of southern Brazil. Marco Giorgi had been surfing the left of Guarda do Embaú that morning, with Indonesian conditions and a lot of crowds in the water.

We meet at a café on the main street, just next to the trendy Pitaya Beach Club, as Bob Dylan’s Blowing in the Wind plays over the speakers. We shake hands and sit under a parasol as the afternoon sun scorches the cobbled street.

Behind his sun- and salt-water-tanned face is a kid who grew up in La Paloma, free on the streets and without the worries that modernity brings. As a child, he didn't like football and was the kid who was chosen last in the school games because his skills with the ball were non-existent.

Even before he ever got into the water with a board, he had a connection with the sea and surfing: His father and brother were surfers, but he never felt pressured to go looking for a wave. He tells us with a hint of nostalgia that the first time he stood on a board was in Corumbá, with a bodyboard for children, one of those with drawings printed on a nylon flap and made of plastic foam. Then, at eight years old, with a yellowed Raglan 5'11 with the edges painted green, which belonged to his brother, he went to the sea in search of his first rides.

What do you remember from your childhood?
When I was a kid, it was terrible. I remember that my friends and I would climb giant pine trees and tie wires from one tree to another, so that it was taut, and we would put a PVC tube on it and slide down it like a zip line. But the PVC wore out over time and we knew that someone was going to die. We would spend the whole day jumping until the tube broke, and that always resulted in broken arms, sprains, and bumps on the face. There was always a story.

When all his friends started riding bikes, he didn't pay much attention to it: "I ran everywhere," he says, laughing, and explains that, back then, the houses in the resort didn't have fences or walls and he always ran through his neighbors' yards, so everyone knew him as the kid who spent all day running.

At the age of 11 he went to live in Garopaba, Brazil and until he was 16 he returned to La Paloma every summer.

What did you take away from Uruguay?
From Uruguay I still have memories of my childhood, friends, people I knew, anecdotes of growing up in freedom. I still have a love for one time that I met again 10 years later.

Nowadays, surfing is your job. How do you manage to keep finding the charm in it and not become monotonous?
Surfing is my job and I have to prepare myself and be professional, train and always be working on new boards, filming content and maintaining a linearity in the work, to maintain a certain level of performance.

While he is talking about the technicalities of the profession, a boy with a board under his arm, his face painted white and wearing green lycra, greets him from a distance with admiration and Marco returns the kindness. After the meeting, he stops talking and thinks. I ask him if this is a situation that happens in his daily life, to which he answers yes. I pick up the thread of our conversation again.

Love is about trying to refine certain things, there are always things to refine and learn. It's not like you've been surfing for more than 20 years and you've learned to surf and that's it. There's always something you're left with. I think I'd like to improve my backside aerial, or I'd like to do something better than I can now. That's the charm, because that's the path that never ends. And the craziest thing about surfing is that it's a very competitive sport and increasingly more serious. To be with the best surfers you have to have that physical preparation. And that step, that preparation, gives you that opportunity to reach that technical step, to be able to polish every detail.

"Love is about trying to refine certain things, there are always things to refine and learn. It's not like you've been surfing for more than 20 years and you've learned to surf and that's it. There's always something left. I think I'd like to improve my backside aerial."

To explain his idea, he draws imaginary lines with his hands and makes gestures to affirm that his search for perfection lies in small grains of sand, imperceptible and subtle to the eye of others. His search is in the details that only he perceives and feels, but that bring him closer to his goal every day, not so much aiming at the batteries and the scores that the judges give to his waves, but at the satisfaction he gets from being able to nail the edge better in a can or from coming out of a green room in style. “You have to be very self-critical,” he concludes.

What makes you convinced of what you do?
Sometimes I think about friends who have regular 12-hour jobs, with very different experiences than mine. They are stressed, 30 years old, have terrible bellies and are bald. Then I realize that I am lucky to be able to live and be in the water, doing a sport that is quite healthy and gives you that connection. Salt water has that energy. You are one person before you get in the water and when you get out you are a totally different person. This happens even if you take a dip in the water. And it not only washes away the smell of your armpit, it washes away your energy, it leaves you lighter.

"Sometimes I think about friends who have regular 12-hour jobs, with very different experiences than mine. They are stressed, 30 years old, have terrible bellies and are bald. Then I realize that I am lucky to be able to live and be in the water."

As he recounts the daily life of many who watch him through a screen going down water ramps with his hand clinging to the rail of his board, seeking shade in the most famous waves in the world, he smiles and reaffirms the joy he has of “working as a surfer.”

Have you ever felt that routine was pushing you towards boredom and habituation?
It's very difficult because I have a training routine, with certain schedules to follow, but at the same time, every day is different because I always ride with different boards and face ever-changing conditions, and that gives you the opportunity to train different aspects. If there's a northeast wind, I can train a frontside aerial, if there's a south wind, I can train a backside maneuver and change boards. There are always ways to change.

So where is the key to staying motivated?
I think there are more square minds that last less time in the world of surfing precisely because of this. The click is there. There are people who are very focused on the batteries and the competitions and that love goes away. And this is an aspect that I have always been very careful with, because there really is that monotony if you look for it, if you don't know how to handle it, but there is also the other side. There are endless boards to try and ride, many waves and trips that pose different challenges.

What else do you like to do?
I like to read and I like to write. I write down ideas and thoughts, things that I need to get down to earth. I used to have a blog, and I also wrote for a magazine in Brazil. Nowadays I would like to write more, but I find it hard to get started.

Where do you find the charm of life?
The charm of life is in love. Whether it's vibration or compassion, everything that is within that circle is the meaning of life for everything in general. Not only for the surfer, this is for everyone. If you focus on money and start to go crazy, your hair will fall out and you will live stressed. You will not have a good relationship with your wife and your children, so you have to be aware of that. Now I am also a father. Having my daughter meant an explosion of love, it gave me several meanings in life and led me to understand many things.

When she talks about her daughter she smiles and I point this out to her. She nods.

Would you like your daughter to be a surfer?
I would like to, yes. More than anything to share the know-how I have acquired during my life, and it is also a sport that opens many doors in the sense that it allows you to meet many people and to socialize through surfing. It also takes you out of that comfort zone that school and work provide, away from the same old crowd and have other stimuli with people who are in the sea. Surfing is not just about racing and competing, it has a whole social side behind it that forges a lifestyle.

What was the last surfing session you enjoyed as a little kid?
Those moments are becoming increasingly rare. I remember a sea in Fiji, 10 years ago, when we went on a trip to Cloudbreak that was very powerful at the time, which happened just when we were there and we got some great tubes. I do keep those days and treasure them. But in general I have a lot of those moments, of friends, waves, sunsets in incredible places.

And why are those moments becoming increasingly rare?
Because one always creates expectations, and expectations never come true. That's why you should always avoid them. I often have fun. Although, for example, yesterday I went into the water and I had trained the day before, my whole body hurt and I suffered in the water, I broke my board and I didn't come out of the water happy, but these things happen. Today I went into Guarda and it was full of people, everyone stealing waves and I had fun anyway. It's good to share, the social side of surfing is the most important thing in all of this.

It's a bit trite to talk about the philosophy of surfing, what do you think about it?
Philosophy is the lifestyle that sport gives you. When you start surfing as a child, you learn to respect nature, respect the elderly, respect women. When you get into this sport, you realize what your place is in the sea. Whether it's in terms of spirituality or at the level of each person. The philosophy of surfing is the connection with the sea and the lifestyle, which is a simple, carefree lifestyle. If you give 10 surfers the choice between changing their car or taking a trip to the Mentawai, 9 will say they want to take the trip. Because surfing takes you out of that crazy, materialistic world. Surfing makes you go in search of experiences and connections. There is a distinction between materialism and spirituality.

"The philosophy of surfing is the connection with the sea and the lifestyle, which is a simple, carefree lifestyle. If you give 10 surfers the choice between changing their car or taking a trip to the Mentawai, 9 will say they want to take the trip."

Tell me about your scariest moment in the water.
I had moments of fear in Hawaii. Once in Chile I was surfing and I fell off a wave that was going very fast and I entered a cave at the bottom of the rocks. Without realizing it, when I tried to get to the surface, I hit my shoulder against one of the walls and realized that there was no way out, I was trapped in a cave. In desperation I felt the walls with my hand and there was no way out. Until I found a piece of rock that was loose, I moved it and was able to get out. But there was a moment when I said: “Shit, I'm in here and I'm not getting out anymore.” This was in Arica, seven years ago.

What was the moment in your career when you felt like you were at the top?
The Volcom Pipe was a great time, competing against Kelly and Bruce, it was a time when I felt like I was on equal terms with them. I wasn't intimidated by names or titles. I was motivated to beat them. During that championship I felt really good. Those guys have a bigger connection with Pipe and those special waves.

Tell me about the QS you won in Taiwan. 
It was a strange championship. I arrived with only three boards and at that time I had no sponsorship and no money. I bought a ticket to Indonesia with miles and from there I bought a ticket to Taiwan. I was in a bad position in the rankings and had a lot of things against me. I had never been to Taiwan, I didn't know where to stay and I ended up staying in a neighborhood that didn't have a market, there was only a small restaurant where a lady made me some dishes every day.

The first day I started with my favorite board, the one that worked best for the conditions there. I couldn't believe it, I only had two boards left. I started trying out the other options and little by little I got used to it. But it turned out that I was staying in a hostel and I shared a room with an older man who snored a lot and didn't let me sleep a wink. I spent a whole week without sleeping, very stressed. I went to the restaurant in town and bought chewing gum that they sold at the counter, so I could roll it into a ball and throw it at him in the middle of the night and make him shut up.

"It turns out that I was staying in a hostel and I shared a room with an older man who snored a lot and didn't let me get a wink of sleep. I spent a whole week without sleeping, very stressed."

But Marco continued to sleep badly and two days before the championship, already exhausted, he began to have back pain and felt stiff. Despite the setbacks, he kept his batteries going. In the man-to-man quarter-finals and semi-finals he beat his rivals and reached the final.

Stressed, sleep deprived and with a sore back, he spent the whole battery down. He says that there was a strong current and the wind was difficult. Towards the end, a wave fell on him that was meant for him, he had priority and he took it. He tried an aerial when the section allowed him, turned the battery around, was crowned champion in Taiwan and thus ended his odyssey.

Who were your role models?
When I started, my role models were those close to me. I didn't admire or idolize professional surfers, I didn't consume that. When I was already in the field, I did have those references. Ricardo Dos Santos was one of them, along with other surfer friends I made along the way, who served as inspiration for me.

My brother and my father were my role models in sports, at a time when professional surfing in Uruguay did not exist, there was only Luisma who was at another level and competed, but beyond that there was nothing else.

My brother gave me the idea of ​​looking for evolution. He is 5 years older than me and I wanted to reach his level. That pushed me a lot to improve myself and grow technically.

How do you evaluate your life?
I think that winning championships, competing and getting results is temporary. It's good and it's my career, so I have to take it in a very professional way, but I have to understand that I can't hold on to that forever, there are more important things, like love, family and being mentally well. There are many people who seem to be doing well and in reality they are depressed and end up committing suicide. I have a friend who killed himself, who looked good, you always saw him well, he was recognized and famous, but he took his own life. At the end of the day what matters is what I tell you, the rest you can work on.

"I think that winning championships, competing and getting results is temporary. It's good and it's my career, so I have to take it in a very professional way, but I have to understand that I can't hold on to that forever, there are more important things."

How did that hit you?
It was shocking. I have already lost three very close friends. It is difficult because losing very young and talented people is hard. The good memories and the moments lived remain, but you have to move on. I have a little piece of them in me, because I learned a lot from them, but life goes on.

How do you see yourself in 20 years?
I want to be physically fit. I want to keep surfing, because it's a lifestyle and I do it for pleasure. There will always be things to improve: tube techniques, types of boards, there are always new things to look for and that search is never-ending.

I see myself traveling a bit more, with my family and friends, traveling to look for waves… I have several places I would like to go to and I have pending. I would also like to start my own business, I don't know if in the field of surfing, but to have something of my own, that I manage myself. Life is very long and there is a lot to do.

The conversation ends, we shake hands and Marco greets someone who recognizes him again and celebrates with his hand raised. He walks away calmly, without rushing or worries. The swell continues to pump big in Santa Catarina and I take advantage of the late afternoon to go look for water ramps.