Guarda do Embaú

Brazil's celebrated rivermouth left and its first World Surfing Reserve, where long, sand-bottom walls peel off the mouth of the Rio da Madre beside a rocky headland inside the Serra do Tabuleiro protected area. On its best autumn-to-winter S/SE swells with W–NW offshores it runs long and hollow — a former WCS/WQS competition venue — while smaller days offer forgiving peaks. You reach the peak by wading across the river, and from May to July the rivermouth closes to surfing for the tainha (mullet) fishing run, sending surfers to nearby Prainha.