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Brazil's first internationally ranked world tour pro surfer; a finalist in the 1976 Pipeline Masters, and winner of the 1976 Waimea 5000, held in Rio de Janeiro.

Pedro Paulo "Pepe" Lopes was born (1957) and raised in Rio, began surfing at age eight at Ipanema Beach, and quickly developed into an accomplished rider in nearly all types of waves. He was also a top-ranked equestrian before an injury riding injury convinced him to focus entirely on surfing.

Lopes was 18 when he won the Waimea 5000, in Rio, thus becoming the first Brazilian to take out a WCT (World Championship Tour) event. Daniel Friedman, another Rio goofyfooter, also made the finals; the following year, Friedman and Lopes, in that order, finished at the top two slots of the Waimea 5000.

Lopes' invitation to the 1976 Pipeline Masters was also a Brazilian milestone, and he surfed his way to the finals, taking 6th place. This was the first year in which pro surfers received an international ranking, and Lopes finished the season ranked #18, between James Jones and Reno Abellira, both of Hawaii. Already a star in Brazil, Lopes was among the first of the mid-'70s pros—possibly 

 first—to have a sponsorship deal with a company outside of the sport, inking a deal with Journal do Brazil.

In 1978, while still surfing professionally, Lopes began to hang glide, and just three years later, at age 24, he won the World Hang Gliding Championships, held in Beppu, Japan. In 1984, after crashing at high speed into a tree stump, Lopes lost his spleen and a kidney and was hospitalized for six weeks.

Because surfing and hang gliding combined did not earn Lopes a living wage, in 1979 he founded what would become a successful chain of beachfront sandwich stands, called Barraca do Pepe.

From 1988 to 1990, Lopes produced and directed the Alternativa International, a world tour event. "He was a vibrant and energetic person," Brazilian surf writer Reinaldo Andraus later recalled, "and I remember him hooting loudly from the scaffolding when surfers did something special during the heats in Rio."

in 1991, age 33, Lopes finished runner-up in the World Hang Gliding Championships, held in Brazil. Shortly thereafter, while competing in Japan, Lopes died after a gust of wind blew his glider into a hillside. Two years later, the United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association created the Pepe Lopes Medal, awarded for "outstanding contributions to sportsmanship or international understanding in the sport of hang gliding."

Praia do Pepe (Pepe's beach), named after Lopes, is located five miles southwest of Ipanema Beach.

Lopes, Pepe

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