South Africa is the new Masters World Champion
Ashton, De la Rosa and Knutsen won the gold
ISA World Master Surfing Championships
January 28th, 2007
Rincón, Puerto Rico
The South African team is the new ISA Masters World Champion nation at the Porta del Sol ISA World Masters Surfing Championships, which finished today in excellent barrelling 10 to 15 feet faces, breaking at the beautiful Marías Beach, Rincón.
Juan Ashton from Puerto Rico, along with Magoo de la Rosa from Peru and Chris Knutsen from South Africa obtained gold medals in the Masters, Grand Masters and Kahunas divisions respectively.
As it was predicted, the powerful northwest swell arrived at Rincon’s coast with no mercy, making the last stages of the event to be carried out in big conditions, with the athletes choosing larger boards in order to get the best out of the waves.
The last two rounds of the repercharge and the event finals took place. Puerto Rico that was leading the nation’s ranking and had all its team in the competition, lost four athletes on the way to the final. But it still hung on to the battle, head-to-head against South Africa until the last heat of the day, which gave the Africans a favourable result.
The first final to be disputed was the Masters’. Juan Ashton was the leader of the heat from the beginning to the end. He chose his waves correctly and attacked them with good off the lips and cutbacks, to make 9.25 and 7.25 points in his best two. With that score, he beat Tahitian Heifara Tahutini –second-, Brazilian Wagner Pupo –third- and South African John McCarthy –fourth-.
Once he was out of the water, a happy Ashton declared: “It feels really great, to win in Puerto Rico and with big waves, I’m very happy. Today I tried to focus on two things: finding the waves and making vertical moves. In the heat that had got me into the repercharge round I panicked and surfed bad waves. Today I told myself to do otherwise and that gave me this result. Now I’m going to enjoy this title a lot in my country.”
On the other hand, in the Grand Masters division, the fight for the heat was tough and the results weren’t defined till the last 90 seconds of the heat. The final was lead by local Alberto Licha at first, but then Tahitian Heinere Paez placed himself in the first place combining 14.75 in his best two waves. Whereas Peruvian Magoo de la Rosa, who had remained half of the heat without taking any wave, started scoring a 7.10 after he completed an excellent floater in a wave with good size. After this he needed a 7.66 and when less than a minute and a half remained, De la Rosa found a right that he filled with good backside moves and got an 8.75 to obtain the first place.
The Peruvian surfer arrived at the shore without knowing the results and once his fellows told him, he was all smiles. De la Rosa said: “I was quite nervous, at first I got far away to get a big one and ensure myself a good scoring, but the conditions changed, it turned a bit stormy and it got very difficult for me to catch waves. Until I rode one that allowed me to obtain half of the points I needed. In the end, I didn’t know how much time I had but I got one wave in which I could do some moves.”
“No doubt one’s always a bit nervous. I think I’ve been surfing great throughout all the event and I had to close this.” Magoo thrilled sighed and looked up at the sky, and ended up saying: “Thank God, thank to the Virgin that, sent me that wave!”
The second place, in the Grand Masters division was for Paez from Tahiti, the third place for Licha from Puerto Rico, and the fourth was for David Malherbe from South Africa.
The last heat of the day, the Kahunas’ final, was the key heat for the definition of the team’s positions. Because, the Puerto Ricans would get the first place on the nation’s competition, unless one of the two South African athletes, that were leading the division, won the heat. Chris Knutsen and Rudi Plamboom confronted Javier Huarcaya from Peru and Gilles Asenjo from France. The first one honoured his country, finding the best waves and making large, stylish carves to win the gold, giving to South Africa the victory on the team’s competition. The second place was for Huarcaya, third was Asenjo and Plamboom fourth.
A thrilled Knutsen, once the event was over, said: “It was a long way to the final, in the last few days the waves went really down and we were all worried about that. But today the Great Lord of the Ocean made a good job for us and we could see an excellent surfing level. I’m really happy that I won the last heat, for me and my country.”
Regarding the fundamental victory he obtained for the position of his country, Knutsen said: “I didn´t know that, I´m just very happy to come back home as a winning country. My team was very supportive the whole time we were here, we trained hard for this event, especially me, because I´m the old one it paid off for me. I just thank my family for supporting me through my training and allowing me to spend the money to come here, the work is done for me.”
The World Masters Surfing Championships has come to an end perfectly, in good conditions to guarantee a fair competition and a great Sport show. The President of the International Surfing Association, Fernando Aguerre, said: “From California in the name of the ISA I send my warmest regards to all competitors, staff of the event and public around the world. I have watched this event from California, since health reasons did not allow me to personally attend the competition as I had planed.
This great ISA World Masters Surfing Championship has finished today in Puerto Rico, the heart of the Caribbean.
This is only the first step in this new era for Master surfers around the world, competing in their National Surfing Teams.
Thank you Ricardo Lucke, and the staff of the Federacion de Surfing de Puerto Rico. Thank you to all the Puerto Rican people for treating us with such warmth.
Thank you to all delegations, for competing in the event. Thank you to all the Federations for sending their National Teams.
This show of camaraderie and friendship amongst Master surfers from around the world is a great example of peaceful coexistence in this world in so much need of peace.”
ISA Porta del Sol World Masters Surfing Championship were possible thanks to the support of the Tourism Company of Puerto Rico, Heineken, Villa Cofresi, Ricoh, Entertainments and Sports Department, El Nuevo Día, Nido companies, Sprite, 103.7 FM, One Link Communications, Choice Cable TV, Liberty Internet, rad!, The Room and Rincon of the Seas. It is organized by the Puerto Rico Surf Federation and supervised by the International Surfing Association.
About International Surfing Association (ISA)
The International Surfing Association (ISA) is recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the World Governing Authority for surfing, bodyboarding and surfriding. It was originally founded as the International Surfing Federation in 1964 and has been running World Championships since 1964 and the Junior World Championships since 1980.
ISA membership includes the surfing National Governing Bodies (NGBs) of over 50 countries on six continents. Its headquarters are located in San Diego, California. It is presided by Fernando Aguerre, first elected in 1994 in Rio, and re-elected five times since. The ISA's four Vice Presidents are Robin de Kock (South Africa), Alan Atkins (Australia), Maile Aguerre (Hawaii) and Mike Gerard (USA).
Pablo Zanocchi –on site at Puerto Rico-
ISA WMSC Media Manager
pablo@isasurf.org
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