First ALAS in history to be held in Brazil
Interview with ALAS

On an exclusive interview for World Surfing News, the directors of the Latin American Surfing Association –ALAS-, Antonio Sotillo –President- and Karin Sierralta –Vicepresident-, talk about what happened in the first ALAS contest ever to be in Brazil.

The event took place at the beautiful beach of Prainha, Río de Janeiro, locals Ernesto Nunes and Krisna de Souza were the winners.

Which is the final feedback about the contest in Brazil?
It´s a great step to reach the Brazilian market. Brazil is a dominant country in terms of our sport and has a great surfing contest culture. It was a pleasure, technically speaking, to have an ALAS event there.

Also, now with Brazil being part of the tour we will have a higher surfing level in each competition. They have a lot of surfers with a great level that are very interested in surfing the Latin Pro Tour.

How do you think the Brazilians feel about the ALAS Latin Tour?
I think they liked the “Latin vibe”, our goals and the way we work. Lots of them asked what they should do to organize more ALAS events in Brazil and the surfers asked us about how to compete on the tour.

Of the eight top placed in the contest, seven of them were Brazilian and only one was Hispanic American –Lolo Bellorin- What can you tell us about this?
The Brazilians worked as a team, and they had their own strategy to make the foreigners respect the local surfers, that was the main factor.

The secondary reason were the waves. The conditions are way different of what we have on the Pacific Ocean. Venezuelans have similar waves and surfed very well, but anyway, it was a tough contest for all the Hispanic Americans.

Which are the next steps for the tour in short and long term?
Our intention is to integrate all the countries, including more islands of the Caribbean. At least hold four Latin Girls and four Latin Pro Junior events.

Also, we want to a permanent web cast, raise the prize money, have prime surf spots, TV shows, a new image, a new webpage and more surprises.

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