Tell us a bit about yourself.
I am María Meléndez, I am 18 years old and I was born in Caracas, Venezuela. My grandfather was Portuguese, so I have dual citizenship and have been here for 12 years. I finished high school and now I work and longboard.
My passion for the sea started at a very young age since I also lived on a Caribbean island called Curaçao and my parents had a boat where we would go for a walk around the island every weekend. We were always doing some activity at sea and that made me lose my fear since I was little. We didn't have anyone in my family who surfed, but we all enjoyed being at the beach.
How did surfing come into your life?
During my father's birthday, in August 2011, we went to visit Ericeira for the first time. We passed by the boardriders store, and that same day was the inauguration of the Tiago Pires school! My older brother and I tried a class and since then we went to surf school every weekend. After a year of shortboarding, I gave up because I started taking piano lessons and my focus changed. Only later, at the end of 2018, I wanted to surf again because it was something that I really liked and since I saw my brother do it, I wanted to join. One day I went shortboarding, but there were a lot of people longboarding and I haven't even surfed. I just looked at the guys having a lot of fun and that's when I decided to go back to surfing, but this time longboarding. In 2019 I competed for the first time in the national and got a fourth place without having my own table. In 2020, after my quarantine, I met Marco Tainha, a legend in the world of longboarding here in Portugal and he gave me the opportunity to have my first longboard, train and follow in his footsteps. Because of him they invited me to an event called Gliding Barnacles where they were the best long-lived in Portugal and it was an incredible experience. In May 2021 I was also invited to another longboard event which is Ferrolog where the best in Europe were and it was an opportunity to set my goals for the future.
What is your life goal right now?
My goal is to improve my surfing and my techniques to become a good longboarder. Now I have an event in France where the level will be quite high and I know that it will help me a lot since it will be a way to prepare myself to fulfill one of my biggest goals, which is to be invited to an event called Mexilog fest. and one of the largest, Duct Tape Invitational. Would be a dream!
How is a day in your life?
It varies with my job as I have rotating hours. I usually wake up and since I don't like coffee, I drink a Matcha Latte. I do a 20 minute workout right away, whether it's running in the park or something at home. I have a big breakfast, see how the sea is and go surfing.
If there are no waves, music is a big part of my life, so I try to practice and compose with piano, guitar, or ukulele. If I still have time, I'll go skateboarding. When I come back as always a vegetarian dish, because I am a vegetarian. My schedule has been in the afternoon now, so I'm going to work later. Around 6 in the afternoon on my break I always do vinyasa yoga. At 8 pm I have a light dinner and continue working. Before going to sleep I stretch to be well the next day. On my days off, I will train with Marco in Costa da Caparica. If the waves are not good, I go to look for waves at other beaches with my friends and try to spend the day longboarding.
What did you think of the first time you were deeply together?
I really liked it! Having the opportunity to surf with the best was an incredible experience. It was a bit intimidating for me at first, but everyone had a really good attitude in and out of the water, which made this experience even better. I think this idea of all of us getting together even though we have different modalities is very positive, and I hope there will be more.
