Marco Ulgheri was born in Rome in 1970 of an Italian father and a German mother.

He studied telecommunications and philosophy, but his passion, art, was the beginning of his professional life, which led him to travel constantly and get to know the largest art collections in almost all of Europe.

Specialized in ancient painting techniques (fresco, oil and tempera), he produced major pictorial works in Italy and Brazil, where he has lived since 1995: he decorated the official residence of the Prime Minister of Italy, and several bankers and big businessmen (Safra, Burmaian , Mansur, among others). He decorated churches and headquarters of several private institutions (Hospital Santa Catarina, A Hebraica, Church of Nossa Senhora das Dores, Chiesa di Santa Maria).

He also worked with contemporary art, photography and digital art, participating with his works in several exhibitions.

Marco Ulgheri is also a specialist in antiques and wind musical instruments, so he had several online stores in these sectors, and was the creator of the largest website in Brazil about the clarinet. At this time, he also dedicated himself to the composition of classical and electroacoustic music.

In 2013, while carrying out restoration work on a baroque church in Cabo Frio, Rio de Janeiro, he met Thelma Shuna and started surfing. Surfing changed his life.

He started to create surfboards, and later, surfskates. His ability to solve mechanical problems and understand the laws of physics, facilitated the production of a large number of inventions in this and other areas.

In 2017 he founded the OVNI brand, and has dedicated himself exclusively to it since then. All his energy is now dedicated to the continuous improvement and expansion of surfskating. 

Thelma Shuna was born in 1970, in the coastal city of Callao, Peru, from a Peruvian father and a Brazilian mother.

She moved to Brazil at the age of three, living in Brasilia, and later in Sao Paulo, the city where she discovered the arts.

With a humanist background, she moved through different artistic languages, becoming a multi-artist: dancer, performer, painter, draftsgirl, photographer and restorer, in 2020 she graduated in Art History.

In 2013, while carrying out a restoration work on a church in Rio de Janeiro, she started surfing and surfskating, and this was the beginning of his return to the sea.

In 2017, together with Marco Ulgheri, she founded the company OVNI, which she is dedicated to today. 

2015

The beginning of everything. STRONGBOARD was a surfboard brand with innovative outlines and materials.

2016

With the WATERSKATE brand, the first hybrid surfboards are born, which become skateboards, and vice-versa.

2017

The beginning of surfskate research. The first surfskates with the SURFESKATE brand are born, as well as research on innovative surf trucks.

2018

OVNI is born, a brand based on technological advancement and innovative design, which does not want to copy, imitate, or follow the tradition of any other brand.

The first OVNI products are launched on the market, and the first patent of invention is registered, the MAG-SYSTEM, a technology with which it is possible to create surf trucks that rotate 360 degrees without using mechanical springs or bushings.

2019

OVNI launches the world's first system and surfskate quiver on the market: for the first time, surfers have equipment to simulate surfing of different types of surfboards, to surf different types of waves, and for people of different skill levels.

2020

OVNI launches on the market the first and only surfskate in the world specially designed for children. Creates the aluminum pads. Develops the first surfskates with convex decks and a rocker curve, with a design exactly like surfboards.

2021

Researches are directed at different fronts: decks, technologies, components and configurations, the results of which are launched on the market in the next year. It is the first time in history that the surfskate stop being a mere skateboard adapted to surf, to become a veracious surfskate.

2022

The revolution of surfskate has began.