Mambucaba is 3 hours away from Rio de janeiro, next to nuclear plant of Angra. Mambucaba is a rivermouth break, don´t forget it. The mambucaba river divides Angra dos Reis and Paraty. Perfects lefts and rights on each side of the sand bank formed on the river´s exit. Locals are not very friendly. Breaks few times an year. Needs to be over 1,5m to do it. Winds do not affect the performance because of the islands around that protect.
Overview
Atmosphere
Historical village, many attractions beside the surf. Drinking water available near the camping.
General
Needs to be over 2m in Rio de Janeiro to start breaking.
Souvenirs from the Seventies
I used to surf this place thirty years ago. It´s a small rivermouth near an old colonial little village at the bottom of a bay. It works well only when there´s a south swell big enough to penetrate the bay and through an island right in front of the spot. Then the lefthander works like a pointbreak with very long 4 to 6 feet perfect walls. The righthander is shorter, but more hollow and intense. The water is always cold, cause of the river, and the wind is very weak, because of the sorrounding hills covered with green forests. It´s a very beautiful place. But usually the surfs is good only when the weather is rainy and overcast, cause the south sweels bring cold and bad weather from the south pole with it. But who cares if you can ride world class waves? The colonial village nearby, a hidden port used by smugglers to trade gold, silver and slaves away from the tax collectors, is very quiet. I used to feel like I was in some time capsule in those days in the seventies, everything seemed to be stand still, but the waves. There was never a crowd there, just a few surfers from Rio who knew the place and the right time to be there. It changed in the late seventies, when the government erected a huge atomic plant and built huge villages for the employes nearby. Now there are many local surfers and even localism. The place is not so quiet and magic as it used to be, but you can still enjoy it early in the morning of a good day, before the crowd arrives.
comment by Anonymous, 2007-11-30 21:28:45
i´t inside of a bay. plus, there´s an island facing the peak, like 200 yards offshore.
so, it needs a REALLY strong swell, from SW-S-SE, to break decently
but when it does....
comment by anonymous, 2006-01-25 01:18:57
Perfct left
At the other side of the river,at the outside,there's a sand bank that provide us perfect barrels that local use to name it california due to its perfection when the swell comes in in more than 3ft size...but at these days crownd is constant that you must be very carefull for not to go home hurt or hurt anybody...
comment by Anonymous, 2007-12-23 13:59:54