Karol Ribeiro

Brazilian Karol Ribeiro, is one of our newest signings and we’re very pleased to have her on board with us. Karol fits in perfectly with our ‘Water Life and Living’ mantra, a life that she truly lives to the fullest. A rising surfing star on the global stage, Karol is already a surfing star and known water athlete in her native Brazil. Karol will be competing and representing Mistral and we shall keep you informed of her performances.

Karol began surfing in 2005 at the age of 6 in a small school in Praia do Forte situated in Cabo Frio and in 2006 she participated in her first Championship the Municipal of Cabo Frio. Today Karol competes in the Senior Championships in Brazil and around the World in addition to being part of the Brazilian Junior Surfing Team for five years (2012-2016).

In 2009, she became Brazilian Vice-Champion of the Petrobras Women’s Surf Circuit in the category up to 12 years old. In 2011 she won her first State Title, becoming Champion of the State Circuit of Rio de Janeiro U-14 after winning all four disputed stages. In addition, Karol won the 1st Stage of the State Circuit U-18, becoming the youngest athlete to contest this stage since its creation. Due to this performance, she participated in the Brazilian Stage of the Pro Jr. World Circuit, held at Arpoador-RJ Beach as guest of the Surf Federation of the State of Rio de Janeiro.

In 2012 at the age of 13, Karol was crowned Brazilian champion of the Rip Curl Grom Search Circuit in the U-16 women’s category, representing Brazil in the World Final of the Circuit held in Australia in 2013. She was then invited by the Brazilian Surf Confederation to join the Brazilian Team, for the Amateur Surfing World Championship in Panama where she contributed to winning the bronze medal competing in the under-18 women’s category. In this year she also won the State Title in the Under-18 category, becoming the youngest Champion in the history of the Circuit. She was then selected by the Surf Federation of the State of Rio de Janeiro to be part of the Rio Surf Team to represent her state in the Brazilian Circuit of Amateur Surfing, where she competed in the Female Jr. (under-18) and Female Open categories (without age limit), finishing 5th in both.

In 2013, she was again selected by the Brazilian Surf Confederation to represent Brazil at the Amateur Surfing World Championship in Nicaragua, winning the State Championship in the Under-18 category and participating for the first time on the World Professional Circuit WQS in Peru. In 2014, Karol became Brazilian Champion of the Brazilian Professional Surfing Association (ABRASP) in the under-16 category and runner-up in the under-18 and was selected for the 3rd time for the Brazilian Surf team to represent Brazil at the Junior World Championship in Ecuador. In addition, Karol began the transition to a professional career competing in three stages of the World Professional Circuit WQS held in South America, ending the year in 81st place in the ASP world ranking, 7th in the South American Professional Ranking.

In 2015, Karol won the title of Brazilian Champion in the Open category (no age limit) and was runner-up in Junior in the Brazilian Amateur Surfing Circuit, promoted by the Brazilian Surfing Confederation (CBS) ). With these results, she secured a fourth invitation to the Junior World Cup held in California (USA) in October. Continuing the transition to professional, she participated in three stages of the Professional World Circuit, two in Australia, one in Chile, the Pichilemu Woman’s Pro, ending the year in 110th place in the WSL World Ranking, 5th place in the WSL South America Professional Ranking.

In 2016, Karol participated in a greater number of professional WSL events (6 events) seeking to improve her ranking with the aim of finishing 2016 among the 100 best surfers in the world. Due to a lack of resources she was unable to participate in the last five events of this season, falling from 89th place to 115th but still ended the year as the 3rd best placed Brazilian in the ranking. She then participated for the fifth consecutive time in the Mundial Junior Titles of the International Surfing Association (ISA), which annually brings together the best under-18 surfers in the world, finishing in 13th place among the 60 junior athletes of the event. The lack of resources also hindered the conquest of the second Brazilian Championship, unable to compete in the last stage of the circuit in which she was in 2nd place in the ranking. The competition year ended with the winning of Rio de Janeiro’s third State Championship in the under-18 category.

In 2017, the athlete became professional and in her first year, finished with the 5th place in the Brazilian Professional Surfing Championship of ABRASP, winning the Rio de Janeiro Summer Games and participating in some stages of the WSQ WQS Circuit finishing 9th in the South American Professional Circuit and 129th in the World Circuit. In addition, she was part of the Brazilian Surfing Team, which won the Silver Medal for Teams at the Pan American Surfing Championship held in Peru. In 2018, she won the Championship of the Latin American Professional Surfing Circuit qualifying for the Pan American Games Lima 2019, where she was the only representative of women’s surfing in Brazil. She finished 3rd place in the Professional Brazilian Circuit.