Source: Spanish Surfing Federation – www.fesurf.net 

The first women’s surfing championship, the Uribe Kosta Open, will be held on March 6th through the 7th at Arrietara Beach in Sopelana, , in which all surfers in the senior and junior divisions will be able to participate.

It is the first and only women’s championship held in the winter season on our coasts, and will be organized by the Community of Uribe Kosta to celebrate the International Women’s Day, commemorated this year on March 8th.  The surfers interested in participating can register through the FES (Spanish Surfing Federation, for its initials in Spanish).

The championship has the support of Billabong, Euskaltel, Kaiku and BBK. The main objective of this event is to encourage the participation of girls and women in different sports and in the different federated competitions.  With this in mind, the Uribe Kosta Community has programmed for Sunday, March 7th, numerous sporting contests for girls and women.

There will be, for example, a cycling as well as a walking march that will start from different municipalities in the region and will finish in Arrietara beach itself.  All participants can then attend a party during which the awards of the Uribe Kosta Surfing Open will be distributed.

Press note published on February 7, 2010

The Open Pro Junior Cantabria Infinita ended today at El Sardinero beach.  Results were as follows:

JUNIOR (UNDER-21)

1 Edouard Delpero FRA

2 Thomas La Fonta FRA

3 Marcelo Botin CNT

4 Mikel Zamakona EUK

JUNIOR (UNDER-21) WOMEN

1 Leticia Canales EUK

2 Lucia Martiño AST

3 Erika Franco GAL

4 Andrea de la Mora CNT

UNDER-18

1 Marc Audo FRA

2 Gary Landais FRA

3 Juan Diaz-Teran CNT

4 Daniel Van Gemert AST 

UNDER-16

1 Etienne Justes FRA

2 Diego Álvarez GAL

3 Leo Edmont FRA

4 Pierre Amouroux FRA

UNDER-14

1 God Aldric FRA

2 Julen Egiguren EUK

3Julen Laporte FRA

4 Javier Vidania CNT

Spain obtains excellent results at the Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championship, improving past scores, without a full team

Many days have passed since their return (they are still recovering from the jet lag, the exhausting competition and the long journey) and they had an experience that will take a long time to forget.

They are the future of our national surfing, some of them are in fact the present.  They played a spectacular role in the event celebrated in New Zealand.

Due to the difficulties that everyone knows, we could only send to the World Championship 7 competitors: Erika Franco, Kosme Fernandez, Marcelino Botin, Natxo González, Javier Ascanio, Lucia Mariño and Garatzi Sánchez.  The team was led by our head coach, prestigious and renowned surfer Pablo Solar, seconded by Lorenzo Chaves, responsible for communications and team leader.

The adventure began with a trip that took longer than expected.  The delays caused the trip to last more than 40 hours, which together with the jet lag, caused our team to be excessively tired during the first days.

After the ceremonies, with the Parade of Nations and Sands of the World Ceremony included, the championship started.  The great favorites, as usual, were the Australians, winners in the last four years, the United States with a great level and the countries with surfing tradition lying in wait.

Piha Beach, the venue for the championship, is a paradisiacal location, but the sea conditions made the good performance of our athletes difficult.  There were heavy onshore winds during the first days, which made it difficult to adapt to the wave. 

In these conditions, Pablo Solar did a great job. He needed to work his tactics and strategy, but he also had to work over-time to give psychological support to the young sportsmen and women.  Something he is used to providing in his school.

He wasn’t alone in his efforts as the team soon became a clan.  All supported each other, all encouraged each other, and as the heats went on and with them the size of the sea, the difficulties were ever-growing.

Everyone knows how it ended.  Australia won for the fifth consecutive year.  Spain placed itself in eleventh place, the best classification in a long time.  While reflecting this result, we concluded that we cannot stand by it alone.  Spain has a good reserve that begins to bear fruit.  Mariano, Kosme, Garazi, Javier, Erika, Lucia and many others who could not go, reassure a great future for national surfing. These youngsters are clear candidates to replace surfers like Aritz Aramburu, Hodei Collazo, Gony Zubizarreta, Extitxu Extremo, Adelina Taylor and others that, even with less resources (which is saying much) are bringing important prestige to Spanish surfing. 

The work carried out by the Technical Secretary is starting to bear fruit as well. The quality of championship events encourages better surfers to participate, confirming that this should be the path to take. The Surfing Super Cup project must be a launch platform for our future European Championship and members of the Dream Tour.

It only remains for us to thank the National Team for their work, aspirations and results, hoping this is the beginning of many achievements; and the families of our sportsmen and women for their support.