His grandfather was, at one point, the oldest firefighter still active in the Azores. But in addition to being at the service of people and being able to help in times of distress, Marco Medeiros is also passionate about the sea.

He also inherited it from his family, particularly from his maternal grandfather, who was a fisherman and with whom he learned to 'read' the sea and measure how far human strength can go in its unequal duel with nature.

In addition to coordinating the local Lifeguard Association, Marco Medeiros is currently a big wave surfer. But it is as a "guardian angel" for surfers, a security operator riding his jet ski, that he is best known. 

Certified by the Big Wave Risk Assessment Group, Marco Medeiros has guaranteed the safety of several big wave events in the Azores but, above all, in the Portuguese mainland, highlighting the famous 'cannon' of Nazaré, one of the best places in the world to surf gigantic waves.

With a high level of preparation for rescues at sea, Marco Medeiros has also been very useful to the Voluntary Firefighters of Ribeira Grande, where he is deputy chief. Participating frequently in rescues at sea, on February 13, 2020, Medeiros rescued two Spanish surfers in the area of Santa Bárbara Beach, a rescue of great courage, at night and under very difficult sea conditions.

In an interview with Açoriano Oriental, Marco Medeiros recalls his first rescue as a firefighter, which happened during a flood in the city of Ribeira Grande. He had not even completed his training in order to join the staff, when “I saved a lady who was being dragged along the river, at the back of her house”.

Marco Medeiros also recalls that despite having been surfing for leisure for several years, his serious entry into this world as a security operator came about by the hand of surfer João de Macedo, the great driver behind big wave surfing in Portugal. Macedo invited him to be head of security for an initiative under EDP Mar Sem Fim Project organized in São Miguel.

It was also João de Macedo who encouraged Marco Medeiros to put his feet on the board of big waves and to experience the adrenaline of surfing the giant walls of the sea, which can reach more than 10 meters high and which, in São Miguel, are formed in better conditions in Ribeira Grande, namely in Baixa de Santana (Areal de Santa Bárbara) and Baixa da Viola, in the parish of Maia.

The secret to a successful rescue at sea, in the case of Marco Medeiros, comes from “the many hours I spent with my grandfather, who was a fisherman and who made me aware of weather and sea conditions, not from the internet and weather websites. With my grandfather, I learned to see the clouds, to feel the wind and to know the effects of the moon, to understand the conditions of the sea. I accompanied my grandfather at sea for many hours and it was there that I developed this passion for the ocean". However, despite the knowledge he has acquired over the years, Marco Medeiros guarantees that “you cannot play with the ocean”!

And although he has not registered them, Marco Medeiros has already made dozens of rescues at sea, today being a well requested security operator by several big wave events taking place in Portugal and even abroad, namely in Spain.

Marco Medeiros was once the guardian angel of practically all the well-known big wave surfers in the world, including the one who is perhaps the most famous of them all, the American Garrett McNamara.
And if Marco Medeiros learned a lot from the big wave surfer João de Macedo, it was also with him, in the difficult sea of Nazaré, that he lived his most difficult moment, when the rescuer almost had to be rescued himself. Marco recalls “that this happened the first time I went to Nazaré. I took the jet ski I used in São Miguel, but it did not have the horsepower necessary to face the monstrous waves of that place.  During a storm, I was with João de Macedo and, as he catches a wave and is jumping for the sled (board attached to the jet skis that surfers cling to), another wave breaks just behind us. The jet ski was almost 'swallowed' by the surf, not having enough power to escape”.

What saved Marco Medeiros was his skills in riding the jet ski, always managing to keep his balance and never losing it until breaking free from the surf.  “At the time, I still lacked a little reading of the sea in Nazaré, which is very difficult to understand, because it is unpredictable, with waves forming sometimes on the right, others on the left. It is therefore necessary to have great insight of the sea of Nazaré”.

Just recently, at Santa Bárbara Beach, which he knows so well, Marco Medeiros went through another difficult situation, in which he admitted to having “crossed safety limits” in order to save two Spanish surfers who were dragged out to sea at the end of the day. They ended up being rescued, already at night, a kilometer from the coast.

Marco Medeiros went to the sea on his jet ski with his colleague Hélder Raposo, who is being trained by him for rescues at sea. When the night fell, Marco Medeiros had not yet seen the Spanish surfers. He decided to communicate with the staff on land and ask them to turn on the ambulance emergency lights, which would serve as a reference point on land. It was also at that point that he made full use of the ancestral knowledge he learned from his grandfather.

Marco Medeiros practically only saw a meter ahead of him when he turned back, to the point where, supposedly, the surfers began to be dragged. He was left to drift so as to “read” the ocean and understand where to it dragged the surfers. Marco moved up to about a kilometer from the coast. “I was feeling the waves crashing and I had no visibility, but as I know that beach like the back of my hand, even with my eyes closed, I knew where I was,” he recalls.

And it is then that the two Spanish surfers were found, in a last attempt and already after Marco Medeiros asked to finish the searches and return to land.  As he recalls, “after putting the radio aside, I looked up to the sky and asked our patron saint, Senhora da Estrela, and my guardian angel, my father, to give me a light so I could find them, because I was not accepting the idea of going ashore knowing there were two lives in danger at sea... And when I was already coming back to land, the jetski deviated a little to the right and that is when I came across the two exhausted surfers”.

For this reason, and due to his great experience at sea, Marco Medeiros warns surfers, especially continental or foreigners, who do not know the sea of Ribeira Grande: "talk to the locals, try to understand the currents, respect the time of dusk, and check your material, because sometimes the chop (the cable that holds the surfer’s foot to the board) breaks and you will just panic and ask for help”.
Marco Medeiros concludes, remembering that training apnea (breathing suspension) is essential for a surfer: when taken by a wave, remaining calm and being able to hold your breath long enough to return to the surface safely is essential to prevent an accident at sea.