Keshia is Under 18's regional champion

This weekend was the last last of the Samadi Regional Championships, which took place in Costa da Caparica.
The forecast was not looking too promising as the swell was increasing considerably from Saturday morning.
The check-in was at 08:00 and when we got there, it looked tiny....hmmmmm is this right?
Contests was on the way at 9am and so was the swell.
By the time Keshia entered her first heat, the waves were around 1.5m and building.
It was a great event and the contest director decided to finish on Saturday due to the ever increasing swell. Keshias final was held in easy 2 meter waves but she managed to drop the biggest waves and pull some strong maneuvers on them, solidifying her scores and making it 4 out of 4 wins and therefor becoming Under 18's Regional Champion for 2011.

One more tittle wrapped up for the year, one more to come on November 20th.

Thans for everything as always and we will keep posting updated :)

Keshia preparing for her heat :)

Increasing swell

Contest podium

Regional title podium

Newcastle Pro Junior

Last weekend, Luis ventured out to the East side.... to compete in the Newcastle Pro Junior and Open event.

Friday was an amazing day and totally unexpected as the waves were shoulder high with good offshore winds. Perfect a frames were forming on the outside.....

Uauuuu one contest with amazing waves, was that going to be possible ? As it was the first time there for Luis, it was all new and exciting. Well, as everything, it did not last long. Two great surfs on friday and he was ready for the event to run Saturday and Sunday. It was not meant to be, Saturday started off nice with clean waves and shoulder high, the organizers run as much as possible so to finish the event in 1 day.....

That was a mission...two categories in one day and all the way to the final in both :) For sure got his moneys worth in heats surfed.

Anyway, at least the end result was what he went there for. 1 win in the Pro Junior and 3rd in the Open :)

Still waiting for the rankings to be updated. One more contest might be confirmed by the end of the year and then it will be the end of the season :)

Will update you soon! Thanks for your support as always.

2 days and 2 podiums for Keshia

The Circus is coming to Peniche for the last leg of the European tour so what better way to get everyone up to speed with everything than throw in the guinea pigs and check judges, sound, score boards etc etc.

Keshia had two events in two day. The first one was the final Pro Junior event, for girls under 21 years of age. This one was due to take place in July, when Keshia was away competing in San Sebastian so, she had not entered it. The organization said that she had to be there early to be the first alternate and try and get a spot. Well, the gods were with her and she was in. The waves were pretty small and not easy for girls to surf as it was fast and closing out but Keshia fought all the way to the final, scoring the highest of all the heats in her semi, with a total combination of 9.50. The final was a fight for first and second all the way to the end, Keshia did not manage to find the wave she needed and came out claiming second spot, which means, Keshia is Pro Junior Vice Champion for 2011 :)

The following day saw the best 16's and under in Europe, compete for the title of Rip Curld European Champ. Keshia, once again was away for one of the comps in Portugal and ended up getting her entry ticket for the event, in the UK. There were girls from Spain, Portugal, UK and France. The semi final was almost a disaster for Keshia, waves were hard to get and scores were low, meaning that anyone could have taken those two spots to advance to the final but keshia proved to everyone that she wanted it more than the rest, going for pretty much every wave that came her way. It paid off at the end and the final was next.

One girl from each country made the final but only Keshia and Leticia ( from Spain ) were in the hunt for the title, exchanging places all the way till the countdown. Once again, Keshia came out with 2nd spot.

Two vice champion titles in two days, more trophies and some great experiences and lessons learnt.

Thanks to everyone that was there, and all of you who support her.

A very nice write up on the ripcurl site, shows that she is one to watch :)

Grom Search European Final 2011

2000 miles, 3 comps, 2 podiums and 1 cancelled event

For the past 10 days. Luis has been traveling around the UK to take part in the UK Pro Surf Tour.

The first event was due to take place in Scarborough but due to no swell, the event was cancelled and points had to be split.

From there, it was a long drive up to Scotland for the Thurso Open event, but after looking at the forecast, it all seems worth as the waves were going to be close to perfection.

Luis made the semis, knocking out the leader of the ranking at that point, Russell Winter. He also got to try some of Scotland finest foods, without knowing...or actually liking but guess that..when in Rome.....haha
Anyway, don't think that Haggis will be on his top food list when traveling again.

Leaving the cold in Scotland, it was time for more cold and this time in Porthcawl, Wales. The waves were not great but for sure contestable.

The event went really well for Luis finishing 2nd in the Open and 3rd in the Pro Junior.

Next and , at the moment, final stop, will be Newcastle, on the 22nd and 23rd of October. Exciting times and more news to come soon.

UPDATE

Sorry for not updating the blog for a while but so many things have been happening and everyone is so busy in the summer that, days are just not long enough.

So here is a quick update on all 3 airs, contests, results etc.

Luis and Keshia have now both finished the ASP European Pro Junior and QS season. Good results along the way for them and a pretty decent final qualification overall.
Luis finished 49th in the QS events and 28th in the PJ's
Keshia qualified in the top 14th for the QS and 21st for the Juniors.
Meaning that both will be top seeds for next year :)

Closer to home, things have been going great as well.

Keshia has had one more National event, in Sines , Portugal, which she won, that means that she now has 3 wins with the big final taking place on November 5th and 6th, watch this place as, we hopefully have a big announcement to make after that day :)
She also entered the grom search events and, by winning two, she has qualified for the European final that will take place in Peniche on October 13th. Winner of the event, gets to go to Australia for the World Finals..... we have everything crossed for Keshia for that day :)

Klaus is top 10 in the Under 14th which is a great way to get in the seeding for next year.

Luis now just has the UK Pro Tour left to do and with 4 possible events left on the calendar, both Open and Pro Junior, there are still points up for grabs but, as he won the Night surf and it was the highest event of the season, he is a good position for the final end of the year in the Pro Juniors.

Coverage wise, Luis just got a double page in the latest ONFIRE magazine so, stoked for that!

So here you have it, a brief summary of whats been happening and a few photos to go with it.

Promisse to update the blog more often from now one, specially as we can have some very exciting news and results soon.

Keep supporting them as always, we all appreciate it !

Have a great week and thanks for being here.