July 13th, 2008

Somewhere in Nicaragua

Here is a shot of what was motivating everyone to surf so hard. The winners not only got a trophy, but bragging rights and more importantly, points to possibly be put on the Nicaragua National Team.

Alright, now for the surfing. Here we Junior Martinez with one of the best turns of the contest on this left. He was surfing super strong all day, going for power in all of his maneuvers. Was it good enough to bring you to finals? I don’t know, we’ll see…..

Here we have the previous contest winner, Luis “La Baloy” Chamorro, with a critical off the lip. He was really hungry to get another win, because if he does win then he gets to be ranked number one in Nicaragua.

But, if he doesn’t win, then the title of the number one surfer in Nicaragua stays with Rex “La Bestia” Calderon. “La Bestia” kept doing things like this all day, which made him one of the toughest competitors. These guys were surfing neck and neck all day, but sometimes the win goes to someone you don’t expect at all…

We don’t want to count out Augusto “La Gaviota” Chamorro who is arguably the fastest surfer out there. He was doing big maneuvers, like this big backside side snap, in every one of his heats all day long.

Here is Darwin “El Brujo” Jacamo, from Limon, with the only air of the contest. It was moves like this that helped him win this heat and to be a big surfer in the contest. “El Brujo” had a really busy day because he was surfing, not only in the Juniors, but in the Open and the International.

The boys from San Juan del Sur were representing our town for sure. Here is Larry “Carita de Venado” Davlia with a transitional turn setting up for something big  on the inside.

There was a pretty big party last night on the beach in Popoyo which took a lot of victims. A lot of people were suffering from over parting last night. So, consequently we had a big number of people on their backs at the beach today. See if you can pick out who was just relaxing and who had too much fun last night.

Not everyone was feeling the night before. Some people had enough energy to engage in some friendly chicken fights. Looks like “Chispero” is living up the meaning of his nickname- spark plug!

JJ Yemma was out there blowing our minds, like always, with maneuvers like this. I don’t know if you can tell but he pulls this thing around for 360 as easily as the average surfer can put on his leash.

Lance “Mr Sufari Charters” Moss was out there surfing pretty well. Here he is with a solid frontside snap. Surfari charters was very generous this event, because they donated a surf board for the raffle today.

This is Maite de La Torre, from Argentina, who was getting some good waves dominating the Womens division. Here she is with a nice backside off the lip.

This is the other Argentinean, Manuel “El Torro”. He is the guy who likes to surf the outer reef by himself. Today is stayed on the inside to show everyone he can surf big and small waves equally as well. Here he is on a small wave letting it feel his power.

Now for the winners. The winner o the Womens goes to Maite de La Torre who is in red. Second place goes to Kristen Wilson in white. Third place goes to Kristen Moss who is in blue. The girls had some tough competition, but they all managed to have fun.

The winner of the International division goes to no other than Manuel “El Torro”. Second place goes to JJ Yemma, white. Third place goes to Darwin “El Brujo” Jacamo, and then fourth goes to Andrew in black, who is from The Surf Sanctuary. This division was cool because had the biggest range of competition with Nicaraguans from the Juniors to older gringos.

The winner of the Juniors goes to Rex “La Bestia” Calderon who is in white. Second place goes to Norwin “Chulin” Estrella (red), second place goesto Larry “Carita de Venado” (blue), and for fourth we have Darwin “El Brujo” Jacamo. All boys from San Juan del Sur except “El Brujo!”

Now for the big event, the Open National. This division takes all Nicaraguan surfers no matter the age. This was the division that determines the number one surfer in Nicaragua. In first place, the reigning champ and number one surfer in Nicaragua goes to Rex “La Bestia” Calderon (white). Second place was super close, but the victor was Luis “La Baloy” Chamorro (red), then with close third we have his brother Augusto “La Gaviota” Chamorro (blue), then for fourth we have the previous years champ, Zamir Duarte. It was a super exciting and close tournament and all the surfers surfed really well.

The winner of the surf board raffle goes to this stoked out Popoyo grom. Thanks a lot Surfari Charters for all your help and for the board.

The last shot of the day we got some scrappy Popoyo kids going at it. Come on guys, love and peace! We would like to say congratulations to all the surfers and say thanks to everyone that helped with the contest. We should be getting some fun waves this week, then maybe a reef swell next weekend. So, we might be back up here with some serious surf. Keep your fingers crossed and check back tomorrow. Lucha and Pledge out!