Prainha Beach

This guide to Prainha Beach in Rio opens with a 1989 blueprint that planned a hotel lobby and eight apartment towers right on this cove, and the surfer, Carlos Eduardo Cardoso, known as Grande, who spotted the model in a builder's office while trying to sell his motorcycle. You'll hear how he and other surfers organized, rallied neighbors and enlisted a city councilman and a rising state legislator to fight the development. The guide follows their campaign toward a decision that would settle whether this cove stayed open sand or became concrete.