Life on a Board!

RITA PIRES is a professional athlete who dedicates her career competing and promoting wave sports. Rita is a big fan of the Sea and loves to be in contact with the Ocean. Her passion for Bodyboarding began at the tender age of 10, on the beach of Costa de Caparica, Portugal. With 13 National Champion Titles and 6 European Champion Titles, Rita is the most awarded athlete in Europe.

In  2009,  RITA PIRES  launched  a pioneer project called ‘A ONDA DA RITA’ which was a TV Show about her lifestyle as an athlete, competitor and traveler. Sharing the experience with other athletes encouraged Rita to start surfing with shortboard, longboard and paddleboard, becoming one of the few girls in the world with such amazing skills.

During the intensive career as a professional athlete Rita faced several and serious injuries due to the sports practice. In order to heal her wounds and become a stronger and fearless athlete Rita started to practice Yoga in 1998, in a period that only few people practiced Yoga in Portugal.  Yoga encouraged and inspired Rita in different aspects of her life, it changed the way she faced challenges, the way she related with the others and the way she moved in all aspects of her life.

At the beginning of 2014 Rita moved to Bali, in order to develop her abilities as a wave sports athlete and pursue the desire to become a professional yoga guide.  Nowadays Rita runs her own business of SUP Yoga in the beautiful area of Canggu, bringing together, in one single practice, two big passions: the Yoga and the Stand Up Paddleboarding.