Diogo Aguiar had almost no kayaking experience when he began his 8,200km paddle along the entire coastline of Brazil last year. The former bus and truck driver grew up in the Brazilian interior and had little experience on the water. But he had ambitions.
“The idea, since I was young, has been to travel a lot, to see the world,” he told Diário do Vale. “My dream has also become to make a living from traveling.”
He was working in the beachside town of Ubatuba, just south of Rio de Janeiro, when he saw some rental kayaks and wondered how far he could go in one of them. He later discovered that 10 years earlier, a fellow Brazilian, Adelson Carneiro, had paddled the coast from north to south. Aguiar decided to do the route from south to north, against the prevailing northeasterly winds.
“People would tell me: ‘You’re crazy, you’re going to end up dying,’ he recalled. “I would say: ‘No, I’m not going to die.'”
However, dying was a possibility, since he went off with an inadequate craft — a fishing kayak — and very little preparation. A poor man with big dreams, he also had barely a dollar to his name. The local paddlers in southern Brazil wondered how long he’d survive.
When he first launched from Barro do Chui, Brazil’s southernmost point, his kayak flipped in the rough water. He had to wait until the sea calmed, but he had no money for lodging. Some of the public, hearing about his dream, sent him a few reals. It gave him the faith to continue.
Photo: Diogo Aguiar
A mentor appears
And then he happened to meet Adelson Carneiro, the coastal paddler who had first inspired his journey. Carneiro gave him some vital advice: On a particularly exposed section of the southern coast, he should detour through the interior lagoons rather than face the open ocean.
Eventually, the initially skeptical paddling community began to help him with advice and equipment. The first sponsors began to trickle in. He now has a more suitable kayak.
Veteran paddler Adelson Carneiro, right, stepped in to help the inexperienced Aguiar. Photo: Diogo Aguiar
Surf’s up, and Aguiar gets ready to launch. Photo: Diogo Aguiar/Instagram
He paddled from June 2, 2025, until the beginning of December. Then he had to take a break to earn money. He returned to Ubatuba and sold ice cream and popsicles on the beach. Then, in mid-February 2026, he resumed paddling. Incredibly, Aguiar has now covered 2,000km and reached Ubatuba.
Aguiar had to take a break from his expedition to earn money by selling ice cream and popsicles. Photo: Diogo Aguiar
The need to earn some money to continue his dream means this will always be an intermittent expedition. Of the 15 months since he began, he has paddled just 80 days, averaging 30 to 40kpd, depending on conditions. He plans to reach Oiapoque, the northern point of Brazil on the border with French Guiana, in 2028. He figures he will need 300 paddling days to do the complete journey.
Aguiar is now a different adventurer from the green kid with a dream who began back in June, 2025. His is not just a physical endeavor, either. He tries to meet people, learn about the communities he passes through, and tries to experience “Brazil in its essence.”
The Brazilian adventurer now has a more suitable sea kayak. Photo: Diogo Aguiar
Photo: Diogo Aguiar
