Vasco Ribeiro is a 17-year-old pro surfer from Lisbon, Portugal who has been turning heads around Europe since the ripe old age of 13 when he started making finals in the open division. Today, he’s widely tipped as the next big Euro thing…

Photo: Ricardo Bravo

Ribeiro on…

The perfect day: Wake up early go for a surf with my coach, score some good waves and do some training, back home to relax and have lunch with the family, go see my friends and go for a little surf with them in the afternoon. Go for a run at my home break that has some beautiful views so you really enjoy the run, and then back home for a little bit of Facebook and Twitter, go have dinner with my best friends and go have some fun.

Being the next big thing: I’m turning 18 in November and I kind of feel old with so many young kids that already are incredible surfers and get such good results. I’m starting to do the WQS this year to get a ranking to do the primes and of course my goal is to qualify as soon as possible. Whether I get there or not I don’t know, but I’ll give it my best shot.

The land Down Under: The waves are great, the weather is always good, the water is warm, the girls are beautiful and the food is amazing. The only bad part is that it’s so far from Portugal that you need to take a couple of flights.

An alternative lifestyle: If I wasn’t a pro surfer I think I would be a normal kid that goes to school every day and parties Friday and Saturday…

A celebrity surf trip: Cristiano Ronaldo, Roger Federer, Adriana Lima, Tiger Woods and Kelly Slater.

Being stuck in a lift: I hate elevators and I always choose the stairs.

Influences: I’m always looking to guys like Medina and Kolohe that already qualified at such a young age, because they are really complete surfers, they can do everything and along with a few others are taking it to the next level.

Saca: I was staying with Tiago on the Gold Coast during the WCT and he gave me so much advice on my surfing and how to go about putting more power in my turns technically, and also a lot of advice about competitions, so thank you very much for all the tips Tiago…

An actor to play Ribeiro in a film: I don’t really know many names of actors but I’m here next to Carlos Pinto and he told me to write Brad Pitt haha I think he likes him…

Ear worms: I like all kinds of music, but before my heat I like to listen to tunes that I know the lyrics to, so I go in to the heat singing. On flights I just put the iPod on shuffle like everyone else.

A wave pool set up: One that you can choose the size of waves you want. The wave would start with a barrel and then turn into a nice wall to lay some power turns and finish with an air section.

The best thing seen lately: Girls.