The Story Behind Frederico Morais

In the one and a bit years that Frederico Morais has been on the World Tour he’s made a substantial impact. Ten point waves, a runner-up at J-Bay, and oh so very-nearly winning the Rookie of the Year title. 

For a young kid from Cascais whose first surfing experience consisted of flippers and an esky lid, he’s come along way. Of course, Kikas was endowed with natural talent atop a board – not to mention his heart fluttering facial structure – but he didn’t find himself on the CT without considerable effort.  

While we might be a tad late on the uptake of this ongoing series, ‘What’s up, Frederico’, a short delay would never avert us from promoting surfing and film of this standard. 

The first episode (sitting up top) details the development of Frederico and his surfing career. Everything from standing up on a bodyboard with floaties, upending the family to chase a dream, and pissing off his coach Richard ‘Dog’ Marsh upon their first encounter.  

He might have uprooted his family from their Portugal base – and somewhat overshadowed his poor sister’s desires – but he and his family believed he could make the CT.

The second episode (down below) covers the back half of 2016; the year which Frederico qualified for the CT after four years on the grind. By the time the Hawaiian competitive season arrived, Kikas was in 46th place and by no means a consideration for a 2017 qualification. 

Despite this, Frederico went to Hawaii with his father and coach, confident in his ability to make the crucial top-10 cut off. Relatively unknown outside of Europe at the time, Frederico stunned those who didn’t know him by coming second at Haleiwa – losing out to John John Florence – propelling him to 10th place on the rankings. And wrangled his way to another runner up placing at Sunset a week later, leaving Frederico at 3rd place at the end of the 2016 QS season.

While we could obviously divulge into the 18 months which have followed since then, we believe they’re best left told by Frederico, his family, and coach in this ongoing series. 

Oh, and if you’re not one for storytelling, then just click through to watch the highlights of Frederico’s winter around and away from home.