Surfland Brasil’s Operations Manager Giovanni Mancuso began surfing in the late 1970s and competed professionally in the 1980s before moving into leadership roles in Brazil’s fledgling surf industry during the 1990s. From the salted days of Flavio Padaratz and Fabio Gouveia, Giovanni saw a bright future in wave pool surfing. His career later included representing FlowRider systems in Brazil and partnering with Global Wave Parks, before serving as president of the newly formed Brazilian Surfparks Association. In the process, he carved out a path for future wave pool stoke mongers. You can find him today helping clients have the best possible experience at Surfland Brasil.
Give us a little history about yourself. You are the president of the Brazilian Surfparks Association and a competitive champion.
Yes, I achieved several podium finishes in surfing. I collected many trophies and cherish great memories. Those were very fun times. As for the Brazilian Surfparks Association, I was president from its founding in 2020 until 2023, until I needed to dedicate myself 100% to Surfland!
How did you get the job at Surfland?
I had been working with artificial waves since 2007, dreaming of surf parks and trying to sell FlowRiders all over Brazil. In 2015, I was invited to work at Global Wave Parks, a Brazilian company dedicated to building surf park projects. In 2017, out of the blue, my phone rang and it was André and Douglas, Surfland founders, calling to talk about their project. We had lunch together, and I left with the promise that I would be with them when it happened. And it did!
What is your official job title at Surfland?
I’m the operations manager.
What are your job duties?
I am responsible for ensuring that the customer experience is the best possible, from check-in, during surfing in the pool, and finally, at check-out. I need to ensure that the entire team is taking care of our customers in the best way possible. In addition, since we have a timeshare business model, some customers are “owners.” Therefore, we need to be ready to help them with all kinds of questions and problems. I also assist in strategic decisions, such as the creation of wave schedules, promotions, prices, packages, etc.
How do you put someone at ease when they’re in the pool and obviously nervous?
We don’t deal with many nervous clients, but they do get very anxious! I’ve found that to reduce this anxiety, we need to start a calm conversation with them, pointing to the pool, explaining the currents and how they can take advantage of them to reduce their effort in the water, and how this technique will help them catch more waves. It usually works!
Tell us about the area where the wave pool is. A lot of people only know about Sao Paolo 13 hours to the northeast.
Garopaba is located in southern Brazil, just 20 km from Imbituba, which was once a WCT (World Championship Tour) stop. It’s a surfing destination in Brazil, with many perfect waves – probably one of the best and most consistent surfing areas in the country. Therefore, it was a natural choice to build a surf resort in this city!
How does pricing work at Surfland Brazil?
Since we don’t have another surf park open to the public in Brazil, it’s a big challenge to set the right price. Since we opened in November 2023, we’ve had different prices per session and we’re still trying to understand customer response, as we’ve only had a few seasons. In any case, we have 4 price ranges: Reef and Bay for the general public and for owners, with the latter paying significantly less.
What are you most proud of here at Surfland Brasil?
There’s something I’m very proud of: when we opened almost 3 years ago, besides a brief training session with Wave Garden, my team and I had to create all the processes from scratch. Wave Garden showed us how things worked at The Wave, Alaia Bay, and Urbnsurf. And that certainly helped a lot. But after the opening, in the day-to-day operations, we realized that Brazilian culture, so different from British, Swiss, and Australian cultures, demanded a different approach. We had to be very creative and literally change the tire while the car was running. It was very difficult, but today I can say that we’ve changed all the tires and we’re doing well!
Editor’s Note: This post is made possible in cooperation with WavePoolJobs and ShorelineJobs – the industry’s dedicated wave pool and surf park job center.
