Will he be able to raise his home country’s flag without his first-choice quiver? Photo: ASP|Kirstin
Is penny-pinching pride worth it? Well, the recent results would offer a resounding “no.” After having his entire first-choice quiver confiscated at his homeland’s customs checkpoint yesterday, mere hours before the start of the competition, Brazil’s very own Adriano de Souza surfed his first heat of the Billabong Rio Pro on backup boards — and in doing so lost to Portuguese charger Tiago Pires. If he’s to fall similarly to Ireland’s Glenn Hall in Round 2, the country’s most famous surfer and last year’s runner-up is out.
Ranked sixth in the world, de Souza came away from baggage claim at Galeão International Airport empty-handed after he refused to pay taxes on his seven competition boards. Why? Well, no one really knows. The assumption would be pride or more accurately principle, right? He failed to elaborate when reached out to for comment by Bloomberg, who first reported the story, simply responding by text: “I’ve lost my boards.”
There is no word on if he has paid the taxes now that he’s had time to sit on the loss, but does it even matter? It’s not like the boards he surfed on are sh*t sticks he grabbed from a rental shop around the corner. These are backup boards, implying that they’re within the realm of what he has surfed before and is likely somewhat comfortable with. And he made the conscious decision to leave the airport without them — meaning he must have known he wouldn’t be surfing on them come his first heat. That being said, he has been training with his competition quiver, and they’re undoubtedly fine-tuned to perfection. And surely the whole ordeal had a mental affect on the Brazilian. What do you think? How much did this affect his Round 1 performance? It obviously had some effect, but did it directly and unequivocally lead to the underwhelming showing against Pires?
While Brazil limits imports at $500 to avoid black market shipments, the nation has regulations in place that allow athletes to bring equipment into the country for 30 days. However, the quiver was brought by one of de Souza’s team. After being withheld to determine how much they would be taxed — customs official stated that they are wary of third-party couriers as many claimed to be representing athletes and celebrities when transferring illegal cargo — the pro surfer refused to pay. Was there more to the story than simple bureaucratic inefficiencies?
This isn’t the first time de Souza has had trouble with taxes. Back in 2012, he had the Billabong Pro J-Bay trophy seized for over four months.
