Sao Conrado.

São Conrado, known locally as Pepino, is a heaving sand-bottom beachbreak on a beach also used as a landing zone for hang gliders, which circle overhead during sessions. Two takeoff zones work here, a hollow middle peak and a left off the rocky eastern point, both boiling in supershallow water that turns critical air-drop entries into square, wedging barrels with tight close-out sections. It needs a solid SE swell to come alive and a north wind to hold its shape, staying fast and short with faces rarely running past 50m. Paddle out straight off the beachfront road on any tide, though the wave sharpens as the tide pushes in. Parking sits in a fee carpark or free along the roadside, and car break-ins are a known problem here, so nothing valuable should stay in the car. The lineup is packed most sessions with bodyboarders from the neighborhood, and water quality drops fast after heavy rain runoff. Excellent when it fires, but crowded, hollow and unforgiving.