Tatiana Weston-Webb on leading the charge for Brazilian female surfers, Tahiti’s rough waves and her exotic food cravings
As the highest-ranked female surfer in Brazil, Weston-Webb has had to learn how to deal with pressure and embrace the unpredictability of the waves. Olympics.com spoke to the 27-year-old ahead of the 2023 ISA World Surfing Games to get a peek at the future of female surfing in the country.
Surfing
The female surfing revolution in Brazil has a name: Tatiana Weston-Webb.
Already qualified for her second Olympic Games at Paris 2024, the world No. 6 is closing the gap between men and women in one of the sport's dominant nations.
Led by her example, the future is looking promising for the next generation of female athletes from the country where male surfers have long been the main stars to watch.
_“_Brazil is a nation with the best surfers in the world. We have Gabriel (Medina), we have Ítalo (Ferreira), we have Filipe (Toledo) and now we have Joao (Chianca). There is Caio Ibelli, there is everyone, Yago Dora. All these guys rock,” Weston-Webb told Olympics.com.
“There are more men practising the sport. But nowadays there are more women too. And before, there was a lack of a base and a structure in Brazil for the (women's) championships, for people to start early to compete,” she added. “Now there is a base (of competitions). CBSurf (Brazilian Surfing Federation) is starting the surfing Dream Tour and it seems very, very competitive.”
Currently boasting five surfers in the World Surf League’s Top 10, Brazil has long stood out as a surfing powerhouse. But until recently most of the points were piling up on the men’s side. Now, thanks to Weston-Webb’s performances, female surfing in Brazil is coming into the spotlight as well.
The Tokyo 2020 Olympian won two stages of the 2022 World Championship Tour and has had three finishes among the Top 5 by the mid-season of 2023. In April, she secured her ticket to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games together with Costa Rica’s Brisa Hennessy, France’s Johanne Defay and Portugal’s Teresa Bonvalot.
The journey to the top has not been smooth, however, and Weston-Webb has had to learn to deal with added pressure, disappointing finishes and the unpredictability of the elements.
While more hurdles remain, the athlete is well on her way to raising the bar for Brazilian surfing.
Tatiana Weston-Webb: Multicultural roots
Weston-Webb was born in Porto Alegre, Brazil to a British father and a Brazilian mother who practised body surfing. She grew up in Kauai, Hawaii and hit the pro tour at the age of 18.
With a heritage that transcends national boundaries, Weston-Webb feels equally at home on the board whether she is surfing in the North Pacific or the South Atlantic Ocean.
And it is in those multicultural roots that she finds her fighting spirit.
“The most Hawaiian part [of me] is that I really like the big waves and the Brazilian part is the strength that I have,” she told Olympics.com. “[My] culture was quite different from that of my mom and dad.”
Originally representing Hawaii in competitions, Weston-Webb switched to Brazil in 2018 and was one of the four surfers on the Brazilian team at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games where she lost to eventual bronze medallist Amuro Tsuzuki of Japan.
Brazil female surfers: The next wave
While Weston-Webb is far ahead of the other Brazilian women in the world rankings, she is not the only one worth following.
The next generation of talent from Brazil is dazzling. It includes 19-year-old Luana Silva who has been surfing since she was three, as well as 18-year-old Sophia Medina, the younger sister of three-time world champion Gabriel Medina.
Increasing opportunities to compete and get paid for top results are motivating more Brazilian women to see surfing as a valid career path, Weston-Webb said. In comparison, in the past female surfers have had to overcome numerous obstacles to pursue their passion.
Sports veteran Silvana Lima is a prime example of the persistence and sacrifices that a surfing career once required. The 39-year-old athlete started surfing on second-hand boards and, at one point, had to sell her apartment and car and become a dog breeder in order to finance her way on the World Championship Tour.
While surfing still makes many demands on its devotees, the situation has improved, Weston-Webb said.
And that is good news for the future of Brazilian female surfers.
“There's the question of payment. I think it's the same (as for the men) and that's the key,” Weston-Webb said. “It was super important to encourage women to start a sport that they could really be successful at. And now it's happening and I'm seeing several girls coming up super strong and I can't wait for several women representing Brazil on our tour because surely the moment will come soon.”
Tatiana Weston-Webb: Preparing for the unpredictable
But when such success does come, there is often a downside.
With her status as Brazil’s best female surfer, Weston-Webb feels the extra attention and pressure whenever she takes position in a line-up. And when those surfing competitions end in defeat, the aftermath can be soul-crushing.
The Brazilian surfer went through a particularly difficult period in 2021 when she came second to USA’s Carissa Moore in the World Surf League final after coming unstuck from her board in the deciding manoeuvre.
That narrow defeat haunted Weston-Webb for months afterwards.
“That for me was an unfulfilled dream, because my dream was to win a world title,” she told Olympics.com. “It was a super sad feeling for me because, man, I did everything, scoping, everything. I trained a lot for it.
“After that it was super hard for me to accept that it wasn't my time. I had to struggle with that one more time after giving my 100 per cent, which is super difficult sometimes, because we travel all year round,” she added. “It took me about three, four months. I had to accept this defeat. And that's it. I moved on at that moment, but I think that in the end I became even stronger because I went through that moment and I now know how I felt at that moment, and for me that already says it all. I wanted it a lot with my whole heart so then I will definitely continue trying to fight for it.”
Tatiana Weston-Webb: 'I like to eat cow tongue'
Weston-Webb has turned to the help of psychologists, meditation and prayer to get through the harder moments. Sharing some doubts with her husband Jesse Mendes, a professional surfer representing Italy, also helped.
It is not only the top professional surfers who experience such mental blocks and need extra support, Weston-Webb emphasised. Whatever their level, any surfer can feel the anxiety of waiting for the perfect wave as the clock counts down.
Travelling to remote locations and spending most of the year on the road also takes a toll on well-being.
“There are so many ups and downs throughout the year, and we hardly stop. It's a very difficult thing. We're always out and about, out of the house, never seeing family, always under that weight of pressure, and it ends up weighing a lot on mental health,” Weston-Webb said. “I feel really sad sometimes because I'm not with my family and sometimes you have days that are really bad.
“This thing is a mental health issue. I think it's super important to talk about this, especially on our part, because it's not something you can control. The ocean isn't something you can control, and so you really have to take good care of (your mind).”
In addition to taking care of her mind, Weston-Webb pays great attention to her body’s needs as well – although she sometimes also strays from her typical healthy diet and gives in to unusual food cravings.
“I like to eat cow tongue because I think it is really good,” Weston-Webb said with a laugh. “Jesse does get weirded out, but I think it is really good.”
Tatiana Weston-Webb on the Tahiti wave: “You see it and you don't believe it's real”
One location where physical and mental strength will surely be indispensable is Teahupo’o Beach, the location of the next Olympic surfing competition.
In addition to the extra pressure of performing within a compressed time frame, surfers are bracing themselves for powerful waves and tough conditions.
“It's something out of the ordinary, there's no way to explain it,” Weston-Webb said about the wave at Teahupo’o. “It goes against gravity. Oh my God! You see it in person and you don't believe it's real. It's an amazing thing to see.
“This wave is dangerous even when it's small, so this wave has to have perfect conditions,” she added. “I think it's going to be super difficult for them to roll in that kind of sea at the Olympics, because, one, it's almost impossible to get there paddling in by rowing. And two, it's very dangerous. It has to have a lot of structure for safety so I think, to be safe, they will have you roll in some small waves, on small days, so you can paddle until you get on the wave.”
And Weston-Webb is already on the lookout for similarly big waves to train on.
The Brazilian surfer is especially eager to prove that she can take the pounding on Tahiti’s shores since she fell short of her expectations at Tokyo 2020, finishing in ninth place.
“I'm very excited for Paris, especially because I really feel like I didn't enjoy the moment there in Japan,” Weston-Webb told Olympics.com. “It passed so fast for me that I look back and I'm like, ‘Wow, too bad’. I didn't seize the moment as much as I could. I hope that this one, at the next Olympics, will be another story for me.”
