May 24th, 2009

Somewhere in Nicaragua

We got this shot of the crowd to show you the amount of supporters that made it out to Astillero today. This beach is really out of the way and not very accessible. It was great to see how many people are passionate about making this Nicaraguan National Surf Circuit a reality.

The first wave of the day goes out o Mario “Danino” Martinez! He is the BIG winner for the Open international division! He progressed through all of heats by selecting the best waves and shredding them apart. Here he is, locked and loaded, about to fire through a heat winning wave!  With the third and final contest being held at his home break Playa Santana later this year, Mario has a real chance to be National Champion.  Watch out Rex!

Here we got Lance Moss from Surfari Charters with a nice backside cutty! Lance is just a really smooth surfer with a lot of style. Here he is progressing to the final because of those two factors!

The long board division was small, but the three competitors that participated were scrapping for the ranking. Here is the previous, and still reigning long board champ, Jose “Corage” Hernandez!

The womens division had an excellent showing with surfers from all parts of the world to compete. Maite was still dominating even with all of the fierce competition. Here she is dropping in a powerful right.

One of our youngest competitors, Joel “Capullo” Chavez, is one of the most notable surfers out there. He is only 12 years old and bumping heads with the very best Nicaragua has to offer. “Capullo” placed 2nd in the junior division to the reigning champ Rex!  Many people are saying he is much better than Rex was at this age.  This kid is going to be unstoppable if he keeps it up.

Here is the champ for the junior division, Rex “La Bestia” Calderon, doing his thing. When he lands maneuvers like this with no effort at all he is untouchable! Winning the juniors is a great accomplishment, but everyone was shocked when Rex didn’t make it to the finals in the open division. It just goes to show that wave selection is a huge part of being successful in contest surfing.

Here are all of the finalists before their last heat. Everyone was stoked and building each other up. It was pretty cool to see such encouragement amongst all the participants!

Here are the results for the girls final!1st- Maite De La Torre2nd- Rim Kepiche3rd- Erin O’kon4th- Carmen HeimgartnerNice job Ladies!

The young Juniors!1st- Rex “La Bestia” Calderon2nd- Joel “Capullo” Chavez3rd- Edwin Chavez4th- Pedro “El Cacaste” FloresGrow some mustaches boys!

Alright, now for the big one!1st- Mario “Danino” Martinez2nd- Luis “La Baloy” Chamorro3rd- Drex “Chop Hopper” Harrington4th- Lance “Surfari” MossLance, you look like a man among boys up there!

We had another free board raffle at the end of the contest. This time the winner, Cesar, was out in the water surfing and scrambled in like a bunch of eggs on a frying pan! We would like to thank “The Surf Sanctuary” for donating the board!

Here is a compellation of the winners with their supporters. The first one is all the boys from Limon who were stoking on Mario’s victory. The next one is the San Juan Del Sur crew who were all amping on Rex, Luis, and Pedro! Then we got love birds- Kristen and Maite! Lets keep it platonic! Finally we got the Astillero crowd! They were all so stoked about their “Capullo” who has been doing so well in all of the contests!

Last shot of the day we got Edwin Chavez hacking into this right! Alright, we’re tired, sun burnt, and ready for sleep. We hope you all enjoyed the reporting of the contest. We would like to give a big thanks to Sobe Adrenline for all of their support! Also, we want to blow up the president of the Nicaraguan Surfing Circuit- Javier Baldovinos and Tony from The Surf Sanctuary for making the contest happen! Peace!