ISA Star: Juninho Urcia

Age: 12

Hometown: Huanchaco, Perú

Surfing goals: In the future I want to be a professional surfer and also continue with my studies. That’s my dream. Also I want to be part of the National Team, travel to other countries and compete on the best beaches.

Name of his school: Colegio José Olaya Balandra 

Juninho Urcia is a quiet, humble kid who loves surfing. He’s also a person very connected to the sea; his father is a fisherman as was his grand father. Juninho comes from Huanchaco in the North Peruvian coast, little Urcia is a direct descendent of the Mochicas, millenarian culture that conquered the sea with the Totora Horses –Caballitos de totora-; the first surfers of the world according to various sources.

Early this year, Juninho received the important news that he was selected as one of the five winners of the ISA Individual Scholarship. This gave him massive support to keep ahead in his short and successful career as a surfer and student.

One month ago he was crowned Peruvian Surfing Champion in the Under 12 division.  Last year he was runner up in this division and in 2005, he was crowned Champion in the Under 10. With his young age, the kid shows clean lines and strong maneuvers in his surfing. He is, without any doubt, one of the biggest promises for Latin American Surfing.

His older brother, John Urcia, one of the best surfers from the North of Peru in the last few years, who’s working with Juninho since he started surfing, said the following about his little brother: “He’s just a child and the only thing he tries is to play and have fun with the waves, and he tries to keep with life in a different way than we all do.
If he has to do strong moves, he does them, if he has to make an aerial, he does it too, he’s a person that concentrates on what he does, but overall he just enjoys it.”

The Tour Manager of the Latin American Surfing Association, ALAS, and of the Peruvian Surfing Federation, FEPTA, Nino Lauro, who has seen Juninho grow in his career as a competitor, commented the following about the little surfer: "Juninho is a quiet, tranquil and well educated boy.

He comes from a family of fishermen and is very connected to the sea. He has two older brothers, John and Giancarlos, who are both good competitors.

We could see the potential of this boy since he won the Under 10 division in 2005. But this year we have noticed significant growth in Juninho in both a physical and competitive sense. Since Juninho has gained weight and stature his maneuvers are stronger and he manages ‘to spray water’ with each one.

With the support of the ISA, he has been able to test better boards, different types of fins and to travel with greater ease to national events. All these aspects have helped the fluidity of his surfing and the stability of his maneuvers.

Peru, like many Latin American countries, is tremendously centralist and perhaps this is the reason they have never had an Open National Champion in the Peruvian provinces. Maybe Juninho will be the one to break this trend."

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