Silvana Lima: The Little Borboleta, words from winter issue #21 of Curl Magazine

Silvana comes from humble beginnings, has spectacularly evolved and definitely attracts attention when she surfs. Her body is colorfully adorned, she spends most of her time traveling the world and is more than capable of inflicting damage on her fellow competitors in the water. This is Silvana Lima - the little boroleta...

Growing up in Paracuru, Ceara, Northern Brazil, where money was not readily available for luxuries such as surfboards, Silvana learned to surf at the age of 7, on a square piece of wood the size of a coffee table. Silvana was 14-years-old when she got her first real surfboard.

In 2005 she picked up sponsorship with Billabong, VonZipper, Kustom and Udo Bastos (her board shaper), by the end of that same year Silvana had secured herself a spot on the World Championship Tour of Surfing placing her amongst the top 17 in the world.

Since 2006 Silvana has slowly climbed up the world rankings by demonstrating some of the most innovative surfing on tour. With her radical surfing style, Silvana hopes to help change the view of women's surfing. Aware that many of the girls struggle with aerial manoeuvres she believes this has more to do with fear and lack of confidence than any physiological difference between men and women. "I tore my ligament dropping down a floater and my back leg slipped off and I tore my ligament, the same as Mick Fanning did."

In March of 2009, Silvana won her first CT contest the Rip Curl Bells event, claiming her second CT event win at the Beachley Classic. 2009 was Silvana's best competition year to date finishing #2 in the World.

She continues the year chasing her dream to win a World Title with a vengeance. Watch her chase it in 2010.