Source: Carlos Brenes – Costa Rican Surfing Federation - www.surfingcr.net
Press release issued on January 31, 2010 

This was the first time ever that Costa Rican athletes participated in the proving grounds for world surfing: Hawaii. January 30th, 2010 marked the end of Carlos Muñoz and Ronald Brown’s participation in the Volcom Pipeline Pro, an event that monopolizes the time of surfing fans around the world since it takes place at the world-famous wave – Pipeline – on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii.

This contest is the fourth annual stop of the World Qualifying Series (WQS) and the 7-meter-high waves proved to be more than Brown and Muñoz could handle as they were eliminated from the “Pipe” in the first rounds and were out of the competition after surrendering in heats 8 (round 1) and 12 (round 2) respectively.

The first Costa Rican to get into the water was Gilbert Brown’s brother, Ronald, which in epic conditions during the first day of competition confronted Rico Jimenez (4.17), Kaupeua Miranda (7.13) and the winner of the series, Reef McIntosh (17.00), all from Hawaii.  Brown, with a 3.24 combination, said good-bye after two good attempts in the first minutes of the heat.

Ronald Brown’s performance will not be forgotten though.  After he tried to get into the set’s biggest waves, he could not find an exit out of one of the greatest barrels of the competition.

Nevertheless, the contest announcers gave positive remarks to the Caribbean wave rider.

The athlete from Puerto Viejo de Limón broke his board with 5 minutes left in the 25 minute heat, in an impressive attempt to get away from a huge wave that fell on him when returning after his last ride.  This would cost him his last attempt to qualify, his board and seven stitches above his right knee after he hit the reef.

On the sixth day of the waiting period, Muñoz faced USA´s Andrew Bennett (5.40), David Giddings (8.06) and local Alex Smith (4.60) in reduced size conditions, where the Costa Rican with his 3.36 combination, did not qualify either.

Press release issued on January 24, 2010

In the first event of the most important tour in Latin America, the ALAS Latin Tour, Costa Rican Jason Torres, the defending runner up, surfed hard to win the 6-Star Mar del Plata Reef Classic, where he added his first 6,000 points to the ranking, and collected 4,400 dollars.

Watched by hundreds of spectators, Jason showed once again his power to dominate in conditions greatly affected by the wind, and won the final against Venezuelan Jesus Chacón, who reached his first Open final in this Tour.  Torres, in a man-to-man heat, outdid the Venezuelan with a combination of 11.33 against Chacon’s 9.20.