The 2007 PWA Freestyle World Champion, Marcilio 'Brawzinho' Browne (Fanatic, North, MFC), has retired from the discipline of freestyle and will instead put 100% effort into the side of the sport he loves the most in order to gain a PWA wave title.

Fanatic explain:

"Over the last 4 years there have only been a handful of sailors to beat Jose 'Gollito' Estredo (Fanatic, North) in the PWA Freestyle Tour. Brawzinho being one of them.

He's also been developing his already impressive wave skills year by year, to the point where he's been able to challenge for podium positions in both disciplines. Alongside this, he's been at the forefront of pushing new manoeuvres in the waves, taking some freestyle moves over into the big waves of Hawaii, whilst at the same time raising the level of freestyle with some very technical and inspiring performances.

After 4 seasons of successfully competing in both disciplines, Brawzinho has decided to fulfil his long term ambition of focusing on his favourite discipline, wave sailing. An unfortunate injury in Cape Town in January this year put a break to his Freestyle training and preparation, which was not ideal considering the current level in the PWA and the fact that Brawzinho is one of the only riders competing and training for both disciplines. After some discussions with his sponsors, friends, and family, Brawzinho reached the decision to focus 100% on the wave discipline for 2010, an idea he had actually already planned for 2011 onwards."

Brawzinho commented:

"Over the past couple of years I've been focusing a lot on freestyle because where I live there was nothing more than strong winds and flat water. I'm really happy with what I've achieved in freestyle, and to have also competed in 2 disciplines at the same time. However, during the last couple of years I've just been really motivated to sail in waves, and haven't had as much time as I wanted to, due to always traveling and training for freestyle. Right now I really feel that I want to spend more time sailing on port tack, searching for good waves and improving my skills. I'll work as hard as I can to improve my results and keep having fun doing it, my long term goal is definitely to win the PWA Wave Title in the future."

Craig Gertenbach, Fanatic Brand Manager, commented:

"Having spent a couple of weeks sailing and living with Brawzinho in Cape Town in January this year, I can truly say he is the most motivated rider I've ever met. We knew sooner or later that this decision would come. He already has excellent skills in the waves on Starboard tack, shown by his impressive 4th place last year in Cabo Verde. His port tack sailing is improving leaps and bounds on a daily basis, which was very clear in the challenging Cape Town conditions we experienced. Having team mates like Klaas Voget (Fanatic, Simmer, MFC) and Victor Fernandez (Fanatic, North, MFC) doesn't hurt, and Brawzinho certainly has a bright future in our team.

We look forward to watching his progress in the wave discipline and are sure that his talent and motivation which saw him win his first PWA Freestyle title at the age of 18 is only a sign of greater things to come. We have given Brawzinho our full support and re-signed him until the end of 2011 already. And I'm sure this is just the first few years of a long and successful partnership."