June 22nd, 2008

Somewhere in Nicaragua

The first surfing shot of the day we got Norwin “El Chulin” Estrella taking off on a bombing peak. The waves were great for the contest, just big enough to where the competitors could try any maneuver without any consequence from the waves. This is the recipe for action packed heats.

Cesar “Boquita Roncador” Amador was surfing really well today winning all of his heats until he reached the final. Here he is in perfect control with a pretty sick off the lip.

Lance Moss from Surfari Charters was out there shredding and doing pretty good in the contest. He was doing these front side snaps all weekend which carried him to the final.

Mario “El Danino” was out there, as you can see, doing his thing on another barreling right. Mario has never been ranked number one, and having this contest at his home break was his opportunity to get that ranking. Only if “La Baloy” wasn’t there….

This is Samir “Peluchito”, from Popoyo, taking off on one of the best waves of the day. You know that beast is about to just unload! He made it to the semifinals in both National and International, but he just couldn’t make it to the finals.

This is the first time that we had an Air Show at the contest and it went really well. A lot of the guys were going real big with some sick airs. No one was able to go as big and controlled as Rex “La Bestia” Calderon who took win in the Air Show.

The big scandal of the day was a disputed interference call on this wave of the women’s final heat. Here is San Juan resident Ashley “La Cenicienta” pulling a Lance Burckhart on the deciding wave of the heat by dropping in on Popoyo’s Ebo Erin. It appears the judges didn’t want a penalty call to decide the heat so no call was made and Ashley went on to take first.

Jeff “El Borracho” Crego pretty wild Saturday night and was feeling heavy in the morning, but he still managed to be one of the top surfers in all of his heats. Here he is sneaking through a sweet section during the final International heat.

Rex “La Bestia” was down in the final and really needed one more good wave to keep his title. So in the last few minutes of the final he takes off on this nugget to win. He knew he had to do something really impressive, so here is “La Bestia” going big off the top!

This is Luis “La Baloy” Chamarro in the final heat of the Open National. He took the wave all the way to the sand doing about six maneuvers scoring him the best wave of the heat. Here he is only about half way through the wave.

Here we got a shot of Rodolfo “Tablon” Villareal getting out of the water after the final for the National heat. Yeah, that’s right! “Tablon” was surfing super hard today and muscled his way to the final by beating surfers like Roque, Oliver, and Augusto. It was his first time making it to the final and we are really proud of him. Nice work today!

There was some fierce competition in the Womens rounds for sure. There could only be one winner and that goes to Ashley “La Cenicienta” Blaylock from Texas. Second place goes to Erin “Ebo”, third place goes to Kristen Moss, and then fourth goes to Rosa “La Chupito” Mora who it from Limon. Good job ladies!

Now for the International division. This was the most competitive of all the divisions because it included not only all of the best Nicaraguan surfers, but also all of the gringos. The winner is Jeff “El Borracho” Crego from Jacksonville Florida! Luis “La Baloy Chamorro came in second place, Lance Moss was in third, then for fourth place we have Mike “La Cerita” Dennison.

These are the winners from the Junior division. Rex “La Bestia” from San Juan del Sur takes the cake! He was dominating all of his heats. Congratulations! Second place went to Junior “Juliana” Martinez, who is from Limon, third place was Julio “El Panson” Mairena from Limon, and fourth place goes to Cesar “Boquita Roncador” from Popoyo. It was a strong fight and all these guys were surfing really well.

The Open National Champion goes to none other than Luis “La Baloy” Chamarro from San Jaun del Sur. A close second was Rex “La Bestia” Calderon, third place was Marion “El Danino” Martinez from Limon, and last but not least was our own Rodolfo “Tablon” Villareal from San Juan del Sur.

Today we had a raffle for a brand new surfboard. The only condition to win it was you had to be present when they called your name. They called out nine other numbers before they called a number with someone present. This is Teodoro “EL Mamon” who is stoked out of his gourds to win this thing!

On our way home from the contest we saw a terrible accident. A motorcyclist was driving, his friend and himself, after a few too many drinks and ran into the side of this semi! He was lucky he only broke his legs because it could have been a lot worse. It is pretty dangerous driving at night time so if you are going to do it, please drive responsibly. That’s all we got for today. We should be getting some fun waves this week so check back!