Italo Ferreira Opens Door To JOB And An Embarrassment Of Riches Awaits

If Italo Ferreira is not your favorite surfer by now you’ve got ice in your briefs. 

Happy, humble and highly motivated, Italo Ferreira’s story is the stuff Hollywood thirsts for: Poor kid with no future finds his calling and becomes the people’s champion.

And while it’s his abilities in the water that have taken him to the top, Italo’s humanness is what’s endeared him to surf fans around the planet. In this day and age, where a lot of the top surfers on tour define themselves as “athletes” (yes, we’re looking at you Gabriel Medina and Kanoa Igarashi), Italo is all surfer. 

Shit, Johnny Boy Gomes has virtually adopted him as a son. That speaks volumes … so long as you’re old enough to know who Johnny Boy is. 

Johnny Boy was also a formative figure in the development of a young Jamie O’Brien. And because it’s a small sandbox in which we play, recently JOB spent some time down in Italo’s world sussing out what makes our 2019 world champ tick, where he came from, and more importantly, where he’s going.

Italo talks about how his inspiration for working harder and pushing further comes from his desire to lift up his friends and family. He explains how he learned to surf on a cooler lid and what being a world champion today means.

All of surfing’s world champions have had to make tremendous sacrifices and put in the time to win their titles, but nobody, except for maybe Adriano de Souza, has done it like Italo. It’s a full rags to riches story, and he wants you to come along for the ride with him. When Italo wins, we all win.