Keshia had come 2nd in both events held in Portugal and, for that she got invited to compete in the European final,
The first call was at 8am and the contest was in full swing by 9:00.
They started with the boys where we could see how high the standard was. The turn out was way bigger than we initially thought and that made Keshia a little bit nervous.
First heat she was in with one english, one french and one spanish girl so, a great mix of nationalities :)
The waves were pretty small at the start but the swell started to pick up and the tide to come in.
In her semi final, Keshia got the highest score of the day with a 6.17 on a set wave and bringing it all the way to the sand.
After a 1 hour break for lunch, the finals started.
A pretty good mix in the girls, two portuguese, one spanish and one french.
In the boys final there were 1 portuguese, one french, one spanish and one english.
Ana Morau from France was dominating the heat putting Keshia and Carina in combo.
With 10 minutes to go, Keshia found two great waves and she was first, and it stayed that way until 2 minutes to the end when, Carina, needing a 5.97, score a 6.04 and went into first.......
So close for Keshia....she was 2 minutes away from Australia as that is the prize for the winner of the event.
Carina deserved to win the event, its her second year winning and Keshia still has another 2 years.
It was good to see the level of the girls as it's not often you can have some many European girls in one spot, at the same time.
Thanks to Rip Curl and everyone involved in the event. See you next year...in OZ :)
http://www.surftotal.com/pt/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=2542:vasco-e-carina-vencem-gromsearch-europeu&Itemid=2
