PLAYA DE RAZO, A Coruna, Galicia – Spain (Saturday, August 4, 2012) - Good 3-4Ft waves and favorable winds were on offer all-day at Playa de Razo for the third day of competition at WAHRLD Pro Junior. Once again conditions allowed the Top European surfers to display their best competitive surfing and the event ran through to the Semi-Finals of the Women’s and Men’s event.
Frederico Morais (PRT) 20, continued his Galician assault towards the event crowning today, surfing two other excellent heats and finding the waves with the best potential for high scores. Morais now owns the best three heat totals of the event’s statistics.
“I think I have no pressure at all here, not really fighting for anything in particular and I just want to have a good contest and have fun !” Morais confessed, coming in from his heat. “I’m relaxed, focused on my surfing and catching the right waves, and I think that’s key to get the scores.”
On the eve of the WAHRLD Pro Junior’s final day, Frederico Morais is a serious contender for the event final win. Originating from Cascais, the Portuguese powerhouse seemed unstoppable again today, and surfed the beachbreaks of Playa de Razo just like he’d been here on repeated occasions.
“Where I surf at home, just in front of my house is a windy beachbreak exactly like this with good waves, lefts and rights alike and I just feel at home out here it’s so good !”
Vasco Ribeiro (PRT) 17, came out the winner of a very tight heat in which lead changed hands many times before he was able to put the nail in the coffin with a critical aerial in the dying minutes of the exchange.
“Waves are a little smaller today but I think it’s actually better than yesterday, it was maybe a bit oversized and today’s just really fun. Now I’m going home, to relax, and try to re-energize to continue like this tomorrow !”
Kieran Bulard (REU) 20, was responsible for the biggest upset in the last quarter-final today, eliminating current European rankings leader Vicente Romero (ESP), and opening the way for Vasco Ribeiro to try to claim his maiden regional title by the end of this event.
“The tide was really high and the peak concentrated in one spot which made it a little hard for everyone to get the best waves” stated Bulard. “Everybody battled out there but there were a lot of waves surfed, I personally surfed a little safe because with those good rights and the perfect wind into it I knew the conditions were perfect for Vicente to fly, and also Dimitri who can do big airs as well. That was a big heat for me, and I concentrated on doing my thing, pushing on turns but without risking too much to ensure I had good scores..”
With Romero out of the event in the quarters, Vasco Ribeiro needs a third place result or higher to secure the European Junior Title in Galicia. Any other result will send the exciting 2012 Title race to the last event in Lacanau next week.
Leticia Canales Bilbao (EUK) 17, was in an incredible form today, and secured today’s best performance in the Women’s field, scoring an excellent 16.60 two-wave total in Quarter-Final number two, and advancing through to the Semis.
“I was very confident,” Canales said. “I feel good and I’m really focused on doing good turns and selecting the right waves, and I know when I surf my best I’m capable of winning, so I’m really happy. The waves are really fun, and I think I was lucky to find a really good left cause usually the right is much better.”
The young Basque rider whose twin has also qualified for the Semi-finals later in the following heat, confessed to have worked a lot on her backhand surfing this past winter, in preparation for a very special event in Australia.
“I have trained all winter on the righthanders because I was surfing in the International final of the Gromsearch event in Bell’s Beach, and I feel like my backhand surfing has improved a lot. I finished 4th so I guess the work paid off and I’m happy to surf good on my backside here again.”
Maud Le Car (FRA) 20, confirmed her position amongst the top European surfers today, qualifying for the semi-finals. Le Car surfed the opening heat of the Women’s quarter-finals and managed to exploit perfectly a couple of long running right-handers to score an 8.33 and a 7.57 out of 10.
“We didn’t have a lot of information because the tide was really low, and the speaker couldn’t really get through to us, but I had a lot of fun out there, the waves are excellent !” Le Car stated. “Because of that I simply focused on having fun and performing my best surfing; I also looked at what the other girls were doing and asked them if they knew the situation but to be honest I wasn’t really paying too much attention and was just having fun !”
The next Call is set to 11:30am tomorrow Sunday, August 5, for the last day of competition in which inaugural WAHRLD Pro Junior Champions will be decided. With only six heats to run tomorrow, organizers and event officials are looking to send the surfers in the best possible conditions on a rising tide early in the afternoon.
The 2012 Wahrld Pro Junior is scheduled from August 2-5 in A Coruna. For all results, photos, video highlights, press releases as well as webcast LIVE log on to http://wahrld.aspeurope.com
The Wahrld Pro Junior is made possible with the support of the following event partners: WAHRLD, Concello de Coruna, Wahr, Cabreiroa, Vazva amongst others.
UPCOMING WAHRLD PRO JUNIOR MEN’S SEMI-FINALS MATCHUPS:
Heat 1: Ugo Robin (FRA), Natxo Gonzales (EUK), Vasco Ribeiro (PRT), Ramzi Boukhiam (MAR) Heat 2: Frederico Morais (PRT), Tom Cloarec (FRA), Kieran Bulard (REU), Dimitri Ouvre (GLP)
UPCOMING WAHRLD PRO JUNIOR WOMEN’S SEMI-FINALS MATCHUPS:
Heat 1: Maud Le Car (FRA), Camille Davila (FRA), Leticia Canales Bilbao (EUK), Erika Franco (ESP) Heat 2: Cannelle Bulard (REU), Loiola Canales Bilbao (EUK), Tanika Hoffman (ZAF), Maria Abecasis (PRT)
