The waiting period for the 2026 WSL VIVO Rio Pro opened on June 19, and by Saturday the 20th Saquarema's Praia de Itaúna had given the Championship Tour its call. The waves at Itaúna — the powerful beachbreak 100 kilometres east of Rio de Janeiro that the WSL has returned to for more than a decade — were running with enough quality and consistency for the opening rounds to proceed.
Stop 6 of 12 on the 2026 Championship Tour. The season's midpoint. For riders building rankings momentum, for those defending positions earned in the first five events, and for the CT leader trying to extend a lead far enough that the remaining half of the season becomes protection rather than pursuit, Saquarema is always one of the year's pivotal events.
The Home Narrative: Chianca at Itaúna
João Chianca — Joãozinho to everyone who follows professional surfing — grew up in Maricá, roughly 30 kilometres west of Saquarema along the Região dos Lagos coast of Rio de Janeiro state. Itaúna is not technically his home beach, but it is his home break in the way that matters most competitively: he has surfed it since childhood, knows the sandbank patterns across seasons and tide cycles, and reads the powerful rights that define the break's best conditions with a precision that visiting surfers cannot replicate.
That familiarity produces a competitive advantage at this event specifically. At Itaúna, wave selection is as important as surfing ability. Knowing where the better sets will break, which sections will hold through a full ride, when to pull into the barrel and when to avoid a section that closes fast — these are the decisions that separate advancing heats from early exits, and local knowledge informs all of them.
The crowd's energy when a Brazilian surfer competes at a Brazilian venue during the VIVO Rio Pro amplifies everything. The Itaúna beach fills with flag-waving, horn-blowing Brazilian surf culture in its most concentrated form during competition, and Chianca entering the water in these conditions carries momentum that riders from other coasts simply cannot access.
Fitzgibbons Sets the Standard
In the women's draw, Sally Fitzgibbons opened the event with a 14.50 in Round 1 — a score that positioned her among the heat leaders from the first rotation. For context: WSL heat totals combine a surfer's two best waves in a heat with a maximum combined score of 20 points. A 14.50 in opening-round surf at Itaúna reflects either two consistently solid waves or a strong ride and a backup, and it sets a standard that the rest of the draw will need to reach or surpass to advance.
Fitzgibbons, representing Australia and now into her mid-career on the Championship Tour, has demonstrated the ability to build on strong opening performances — using Round 1 momentum to establish heat strategies before the competition deepens in the elimination rounds.
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Join ZealZagFollow us on InstagramThe Rankings Stakes: Ferreira at Home in Brazil
Ítalo Ferreira enters Saquarema leading the 2026 Championship Tour standings. The timing of that positioning — CT leader arriving at the event that functions as effectively a home stop for all Brazilian surfers — makes the VIVO Rio Pro a different kind of pressure event than a cold-water European stop.
Ferreira is from Baía Formosa, Rio Grande do Norte, in Brazil's northeast — not Saquarema — but the national identity of the Rio Pro creates support that extends beyond home town. Brazilian crowds back Brazilian surfers at this event regardless of where they're from, and the energy that generates can serve a points leader as fuel or as expectation depending on the day and the conditions.
What Saquarema represents for Ferreira is the opportunity to build a gap large enough in the second half of the season that closing the title becomes a mathematical challenge rather than a realistic pursuit for the field chasing him.
Why Itaúna Is Different
Praia de Itaúna is a beachbreak — meaning waves break over shifting sandbars rather than a fixed reef, and their quality varies with swell direction, size, and the bank shapes that form and reform through the season. In June and July, the Southern Ocean ground swell that drives the Brazilian winter surf season arrives from the south-southwest, hitting Itaúna at an angle that produces the right-handers the break is known for: pitching, powerful, with enough length on the better sets for surfers to generate speed, link turns, and find barrel sections.
When those rights are running in optimal form — hollow tube over a section that holds long enough to be ridden — Itaúna belongs in the same conversation as Bells Beach or Supertubos for what professional surfing looks like at its most engaged with consequence. When the swell is inconsistent or the wind swings onshore, the event produces a different version of itself: smaller surf, tactical scoring, patience rewarded over athleticism. The first days of the opening window will show which version the 2026 Rio Pro is delivering.
For a destination guide to Saquarema and Praia de Itaúna — how to get there from Rio, where to surf, and what the town offers outside the competition window — see our Saquarema and Itaúna destination guide.
