Translator: Translate TED Reviewer: Denise R Quivu
Harder than surfing the pororoca is talking about it in 6 minutes.
But here we go.
The pororoca is a river wave phenomenon, and its name comes from "poro'rog",
which means "destroyer" "great roar",
in the indigenous native dialect of the Lower Amazon River.
It occurs at every full and new moon during the equinox,
when the Earth, Moon and Sun are aligned.
The tide rises above its normal levels
and creates a tidal wave, the so-called pororoca.
It's not the place where the river meets the ocean,
as everyone has learned in books and magazines.
Again, the pororoca is not this place.
Oh! Right?
Everybody must be thinking, but the pororoca is a tidal wave.
The tide enters rivers that have a large water flow
around the world.
Together with the right terrain,
this creates these waves,
which are very long, actually the longest in the world.
The pororoca surfing started in 1997.
I arrived a little after that.
I was part of the second team to explore the Araguari River in the state of Amapá.
It was a revolution in surf and for the river communities,
because we were challenging a myth.
Everybody's heard stories about the Big Bad Wolf and the bogeyman.
This is what the pororoca represents for locals living near the river.
It is a phenomenon that generates a lot of fear and respect in their view,
and that has already taken the lives of many people,
destroyed houses, riverbanks, caused erosion,
wrecked ships of ill-advised sailors.
We came to the Amazon
to challenge this myth
and tame the beast, the pororoca,
which is millions of cubic meters of water rushing in all at once
an Amazon tsunami, tons of water just coming our way
and we ride the wave, avoiding trunks and trees,
enjoying ourselves, and showing a different perspective of the phenomenon
to the entire local community.
Making a perfect expedition took years,
more than 10 years to find the right gear and leave no room for mistakes.
We've had great partners such as the environmental police of Amapá,
the environment battalion, air tactics group.
We catalyze information in these remote areas,
where everyone is afraid to go to.
The nearest city, Macapá, is 18 h away,
or 5 h on a speed boat to a small town known as Cotias do Araguari.
Our effort to promote the pororoca was nationwide and worldwide.
Teams from all over the world have already come here
to discover and shoot this phenomenon
and show the whole world how wonderful and incredible this natural phenomenon is.
We managed to make it a tourist attraction
so that people would be able to watch
and practice radical sports on the pororoca.
Adventure tourism appeared automatically and instantly
and fostered sustainable tourism in the region.
People make a living out
of this new economic activity.
Great media companies have already been here,
NHK, from Japan, CNN International, Discovery Channel, Globo.
All of those you can imagine have been here
to document the spectacular natural phenomenon
which creates new perspectives for future generations
of locals who will remain there
to reap the benefits of what we brought to them,
especially the new sport, surfing in the Amazon.
Children and adults are already learning today.
We teach them how to navigate the pororoca safely,
how to welcome tourists.
They have seen and faced all our challenges.
It wasn't easy to get to the point where we are today,
beating the world record in 2005,
and again in the following year.
I beat my own record.
I've broken the fifth lumbar vertebrae trying to get better.
I was lost for two days in the middle of the jungle,
I've had lots of ups and downs.
However, I overcame all my fears
and all the bad things that happen to me
to be able to reach these impressive numbers.
We generate R$ 1 million in spontaneous media every year
with the surfing activities in the jungle.
The pororoca wave lasts on average 2 hours a day,
during one of which we surf.
It's around 5 hours of surfing every full or new moon. Why 5?
The pororoca occurs at least for 5 days, and we get one wave a day.
It adds up to 10 hours of surf in a month,
4 months of good pororocas
which is during the winter: February, March, April, and May.
We get 40 hours of pororoca surfing.
At the beach, we would need a lot of time
because we ride about 10 sseconds on a wave at the beach
and one month, surfing 15 days non-stop,
12 good waves, 10 seconds, 120 seconds, 2 minutes,
30 minutes of surf a month, in 4 months 2 hours;
we do this in a little more than two days on the pororoca,
which would take 80 months and 40 hours surfing off the coast of Paraná,
where I come from.
It takes 6 years and 6 months to surf
what I surf in 4 months here in the jungle.
It's incredible.
This goes to show how intensive life and surf can be in the forest
the adrenalin, the adventure everyone should experience.
This is the most radical sport in the Amazon,
a new type of sport we've created here
and many believe we are crazy,
but we are not,
and we show that to people by surfing in a very safe way.
(Laughter)
Of course we have to live with the local fauna,
interact with the environment.
It's like opening the door to Wonderland!
Then you get in to the magical world of the pororoca.
Thank you for sharing this moment.
(Applause)
The dream, when dreamt collectively,
comes true.
This is the dream I spread to everyone:
each person's dream can come true.
May the long river waves come and long live the Amazon.
(Applause)