Guanabara Bay is one of the most scenic postcard settings in all of Brazil. There is the silhouette of Sugarloaf Mountain rising from the water, the statue of Christ the Redeemer watching over the city of Rio de Janeiro from above, and the iconic city itself spread out along the coastline.
My life has brought me to Rio countless times and I know this bay well—or at least I thought I did. What I realized this year is that as familiar as these views are, I had somehow never sailed upon those historic waters. Not once. For someone who spends as much time on the water as I do, that felt like a gap worth closing.
When a recent invitation came from my friend João Mello, I did not need much convincing to join him. João is the kind of guy who is always in a good mood. He began wing foiling less than a year ago, but one would never guess that from watching him on the water. He threw himself at this sport with such contagious enthusiasm that he mastered in a few months what takes most people years to achieve.
I left Búzios in the early afternoon and drove towards Rio, meeting João and the photographer couple who would be shooting the session—Giulia and Santiago—at the Iate Clube do Rio de Janeiro. The club itself is worth a mention as it is a place that breathes nautical culture from every corner, and captures the kind of setting where the smell of salt water and the history of sailing seem to live within the walls. Boats of all kinds line the docks, old trophies and photographs fill the rooms, and there is a sense that the sea is the center of life here. It was a fitting starting point for the afternoon.
The wind that day was doing what Rio wind often does in the late afternoon, showing up, but on its own terms. Gusty, shifting, somewhere between 10–15 knots, depending on the moment and the exact patch of water you happened to be on at the time. This is not the kind of forecast that gets you to drive three hours to get on the water, but this is also not your average wing spot. Rio holds its own magic.
I was happy that there was enough wind to make this session happen for us at all. I rigged my NeilPryde Firefly in 4.0, the wing I use in a very broad range of conditions, paired it with my JP Australia 44 litre S-Winger board and the Swift Style 650 foil. This is one of my favorite set ups at the moment.
João and I started on the inside of the bay closer to Flamengo beach, where the water was calm and more sheltered. This area of Guanabara has a very particular feel. It is a working bay, an urban bay, surrounded by a city of millions of people; and yet, once you are on the water, the scale of everything shifts. The noise of the city fades. You start to notice the quality of the light changing on the hills, and appreciating the way the afternoon sun hits the buildings on the shore, and how the outline of the mountains becomes sharper as golden hour approaches.
It always captures my attention in Rio when I witness how the presence of nature is so strong that it makes the big buildings of this huge city look small.
Then you look up and there it is: Cristo Redentor—Christ the Redeemer—so very recognizeable with arms wide open and visible from practically all parts of the city. Sugarloaf stands to the right, dramatic and unmistakable. Guanabara Bay opens up before you. Suddenly, you are not just wing foiling, you are wing foiling inside one of the most recognizable landscapes on the entire planet. This is the kind of moment that makes you lose the focus on your riding; it is a moment that makes you just want to contemplate this special space and your participation in it.
As the afternoon grew long, we shifted our position, following the wind towards the open water stretch between Ilha da Cotunduba and Praia Vermelha, an area of completely different character from inside the shelter of the bay. The swell was minimal but present nonetheless. The wind had a little more consistency out here, and the backdrop became even more dramatic. Praia Vermelha sits at the base of Sugarloaf, and from the water you get an angle on that rock formation that feels surreal, like someone designed it specifically to appear in the backdrop of photographs.
Now the light began to do extraordinary things. The sun dropped towards the horizon and painted the whole scene in shades of orange and pink, the kind of sunset that Rio does better than anyplace else. Sailing under that light within that view, with a wind just consistent enough to keep the foil flying, created one of those sessions that you file away not under "great wind" or "best waves", but simply under "moments." The conditions were far from perfect. The backdrop was, however, iconic.
I caught myself smiling even when pumping to stay on foil.
What also struck me that afternoon was seeing that there is a real wing foiling community growing in this area of Rio. We expected to be relatively alone out there, but there were other riders on the water, and the energy around the club before and after the session made it clear to us that this is not a scene that is just beginnning. It is one that is building momentum. Rio always has had its windsurfers and kitesurfers, and now the wing foiling chapter is being written here too, right in the shadow of one of the most famous bays in the world. Given the conditions that Guanabara and the surrounding waters offer, it makes complete sense.
Driving back to Búzios later that evening, I reflected on how strange it is that we often overlook what is right there in front of us. Guanabara Bay has been a part of the scenery every time I visited Rio, carrying one of the most spectacular sailing backdrops imaginable, but it took this recent invitation from a friend who has been riding for less than a year to finally get me out on the water there.
If the wind lines up and the afternoon is free, I know where I want to be. Firefly rigged, board under arm, Sugarloaf off to the right, and the whole bay opening up in front of me. Some sessions are about the conditions. Some are about the place. And every once in a while—if you are lucky—you find a session that reminds you why you started doing this in the first place.
Guanabara is that for me.
