Taj Burrow, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Taj Burrow is a citizen of the world. Everywhere he goes, he immerses himself in the culture and always has a blast. So with the Billabong Pro, Rio De Janeiro having just completed its second lay-day for the men’s event, Taj has had a chance to explore and revel in Brazil’s treasures. Stab called the West-Australian to find out what he’s been up to.

Stab: You must be feverish for the event to start.
Taj Burrow: I was actually glad it was a lay day today, ’cause I got seven new boards and wasn’t sure which one to ride. I’m happy they ran the girls all day, ’cause I got to go down the beach and try out a bunch of boards, to pick out a good one. So I liked today being lay-day, but I’m keen to get into it now that I’ve picked out a little doozy 5’11”.

Have you been doing the touristy thing?
I’ve gone to a coupla weird little beaches that I’ve never been to and cruised through the city, but nothing too touristy yet. Tomorrow we’re having a tour guide take us up to the big Christ The Redeemer statue on the hill, so that’ll be fun. I’ve been really enjoying the food. It’s all great, they eat well over here. Lots of acai and coconut water. They eat and drink that stuff religiously. For main meals there’s lots of meat. They have places called churrascarias, they’re these mad meat houses where they come around with big carcasses and butchers knives, and just blast you off pieces of every kind of meat under the sun. We had that last night, it was the ultimate. But I don’t think you can do that every night, it’s pretty intense.

There’s a lot of talk about the Rio being sketchy – how’ve you found it?
It’s a lot more mellow now than when the contest was here years ago. Everyone feels pretty relaxed. It is a massive city, so of course things can get weird and go wrong, but so far so good. All the locals have been so hospitable and friendly. There’s lots of surfing fans, they’re pretty enthusiastic over here. There’s hundreds of kids swarming around the hotel, so it’s hard to get to the beach. It’s so cool though, that they’re all so psyched.

Wave-wise, Taj says they’ve had everything from two foot to 12 foot. But there’s one little section of the beach where the coastline bends and creates a perfect little wedge, which y’can see above. Taj’s been to Brazil multiple times (he’s won the Brazil WT event three times), and he knows the area’s intricacies better than most. Yesteday, when the above sequence was shot, the wind had chopped the wedge out a little by the time the gang arrived, but there was still plenty of barrels and ramps. The above roter was one of many torched during the session.

If y’wanna check out Ryan’s site for more of his work, go here.