Lacanau Pro Junior

Lacanau was the last leg of the Euro Pro Juniors.

With consistent waves throughout the event, both Luis and Keshia had a good run, making it all the way to the semi finals.

Its sad to say its the last Junior event but there are still many more QS's, nationals, regionals etc and many titles still to take :)

Keshia finished top 20 in the girls and Luis claimed top 9 place in the boys.

A great summer for both with some excellent results.

Photo credit : Asp Europe

Wahrld Pro Junior in Galicia

Last weekend saw a new event and site for the tour i the beautiful area of Galicia.

Most of us had been around the area of Ferrol and Pantin for various comps but never at Playa del Razo where the event was help.

Starting on Thursday with the first round, it was a great surprise to everyone that turned up to watch. Good solid waves and beautiful blue skies )

Round 1 of boys went in and Girls.

Keshia was in on the first day, doing great in her heat and setting some good scores, which meant she advanced through to the next rounds.

Luis was only in on Friday with his Rd of 64 heat.  A great start of the event with a comfortable win and moving on to the rd of 32 which was held at the end of the day.

By that time, the beach showed us another side to it, which was the one that everyone expected to see, windy, cold and grey skies with big sets that closed out the whole bay.

Despite the difficult conditions, Luis made it through and guaranteed his return on Saturday for 1/4 finals.

Keshia although advanced to the quarters, she did not manage to make it to the much desired semi final.

Saturday was still with some size but less consistent. Luis did not manage to get the best waves and just fell short of a place in the semi finals, finishing 9th overall.

After some good spanish food, great location and amazing waves, its time to head up to Lacanau in France for the final and deciding event of the year.

Luis will also be doing the QS event so, will update you with details :)

Thanks you Galicia for another fantastic weekend. Thank you ASP for all the shots :)

Sooruz Royan Atlantique Pro Junior

What a fantastic start for Keshia and Luis on the Pro Junior Tour :)

It all started with a very early morning wake up call ( 4am ) to go to the airport and fly to Bordeaux. Royan is a new event on this years ASP Pro Junior calendar and everyone was excited to see what this spot had to offer.

A direct flight always helps and makes the trip hassle free, oh so we think.  Arriving in Bordeaux and going to Lacanau was plain sailing, leaving Lacanau 2 days later to go to the event, was not so easy. Keshia left with Team Oakley without any problems but Luis was almost considering walking as, the car that was meant to take him to Royan, broke down just before picking him up, there were no taxis and everyone he knew had already left that morning. Anyway, like anything, things work out for the best and eventually he was safe and sound at the O'Neill base :)

Thursday was the first day with smallish waves but pretty good conditions, sunny and little wind. They put the girls in all the way to the 1/4 finals and Keshia was a true champion fighting through every heat. In the 1/4 final unfortunately, she did not find the back up wave she needed to move up to the semis but overall an excellent 9th place qualifying.

So it was time for Keshia to relax and give her support to Luis.

Luis was in heat 10 of round 3 and as they stopped the contest, on Friday by heat 8, it meant it was another day for Luis to free surf, get used to the new location and be ready for a marathon run on Saturday and Sunday.

Condition were not the same ones as the ones we were greeted on the first day ( I think the locals just planned a nice welcome weather and waves for us on Thursday )

Windy, big and messy was what stayed with us for the final two days which made surfing harder for everyone and set everyone a nice challenge.

Luis scored high and sailed through his heats on Saturday all the way to semi finals, 3 heats , amazing high scores and lots of fun.

His semi final was, in his words, one of the best heats in his life. With 25 minutes gone in the heat and no scores, no one knew what they needed to advance, then they announced that Luis needed an 8 for 2nd......! Panic on the beach by Keshia, Luis seemed to have it under control and saving the best till last scoring in the last 5 minutes, a 7.5 and a 6.80 guaranteeing him a place in the semi final.

A good rest on Saturday night, warm bath and a some healthy food seemed to do the trip for Sunday morning, which again awoke with grey skies, rain and howling winds.

Semi final was another exciting heat with very close scores between 1st and 3rd but Luis made sure he was the one advancing to the big final :)

An amazing result for Luis getting 3 of the top 10 heat wave scores and 4 out of 10 best wave scores.

With that, Luis has moved up to be ranked nr 9 in the Pro Junior season.

Next event brings us down to a well known site to everyone, Sopelana, which will take place during the last weekend in July.

A good 10 days break for both of them but, no time to rest ( although I think Luis will need some sleep tonight after the celebrations that went down last night )

Tomorrow is another day, the event is over and its back to work !

Thanks everyone so much for all the support and its great to see that hard work pays off !

Until next one, here are some amazing shots from the event. Thanks ASP Europe, Royan Glisse and Xavier Renaudin for the shots and coverage.

Sooruz Royan Atlantique Pro Junior

Ericeira Surf Club contest

Its always good to finish a week with a podium :)

A crazy weekend for everyone in Ericeira with a Summer Fest running for 3 days with skate demos, music, DJ's etc but of course, some work had to be done and we also had the Ericeira Surf Club Contest. A very well attended event as you get the chance to surf one of the best waves with one 3 other people.

As Keshia won the girls last year, she was allowed to enter another age group so, much to the boys annoyance, she did the boys Under 16's.

Luis only entered OPEN as next categorie is Masters and he is not quite there.........:)

Perfect waves for Saturday put both Luis and Keshia in all 3 finals.
Luis killed it in his heat with scores ranging from 7's to 9's in almost every heat.

Sunday was slightly smaller but still pretty nice conditions and plenty of waves for everyone.

Luis didnt give anyone a chance in the final and won with a significant difference from the rest of the competitios. He also won all the prices as, the other finalists decided not to turn up on the podium so, all glory went to Luis :)

Keshia did well in the boys, getting set waves and bringing them in all the way to the inside and having a very close match with the boys.

Same in the girls between 1st and 2nd place with the heat finishing with only a 0.10 difference in their scores.

A great weekend for everyone, thanks to Ericeira Surf Club and all the sponsors.

Surftotal press release

Luis wins Marley Mood Pro Junior

Sometimes when you dont prepare for things, its when they go best.

Luis got the confirmation for a Pro Junior event inEngland, around 5 days before. So flights booked, accommodation, airport pick up, new boards ordered and he was on his way.

Arriving in Bristol, after leaving Lisbon with around 35 degrees and being greeted with 17 degrees and rain was....well I would say expected for England.

The contests was held at Fistral beach and started on Friday afternoon. Waves we re not too great and it was windy which made thing hard for everyone to be in position.

It went well anyway and Luis finished the day with a pass to the semi finals.

Saturday was a different story as waves were much better and clean and a pretty nice size.

The semi final could have easily been a final but Luis made it through that one and claimed his spot in the final.

He was not happy with how he had been surfing the whole weekend, despite always winning his heats and getting good scores so, I think the anger paid off and he went out fighting with full gloves and punch bag in his final heat. Scores just over 16.00 points combined and leaving the rest in combination.

Sometimes, its good to be angry :)

Anyway the final result was great and Luis took the title !
Another great event, thanks to everyone that made it possible. A short trip for Luis but worth every minute he was there.

Video releases

This week we have had some video releases.

Two profile ones of both Luis and Keshia and two contest events in Porto for the Open National and the Juniors in Aveiro.

Click on the links below to watch the videos.




Keshia win during the Aveiro Nationals :)

Luis' profile on Surftotal TV

Open Nationals in Porto

Keshia's profile on Surftotal TV

Open Nationals in Porto

After two events close to home, this one was all the way north of Portugal.

Sometimes its good to travel away from home and be able to surf waves we are not used to, it offers a bigger challenge to everyone and opens up the event :)

Porto is a beautiful city with lots to offer, from the obvious and the reason we went there, being the waves to the culture, food and the ever so popular river front.

The contest was run over 3 days but due to the small conditions, we had a few hours to become " tourist " so we took a trip to Porto and sampled the local delicacies :)

As for the event and results, both Luis and Keshia had a great performance. Both winning their first rounds heats convincingly with scores high in the double figures.

The last day was left for the 1/4 finals of the boys and finals of the girls.

Luis did not manage to get through to the semis, the waves were tricky and Luis was staying on the outside waiting for the set to come to get a good scoring wave, Marlon Lipke opted to stay on the inside where he managed to find some small wally waves. The scores were very close but Luis did not get the set wave he needed and ended up finishing his run in Porto with another good 1/4 final finish.

That means that in the general rankings, he is holding 13th place :)

Keshia was already in the finals on the last day but had strong opposition and although she did not need a high score to move up to 1st place, she also did not have Neptune on her side.

Rankings for Keshia are still high and staying put in 2nd place.

Thanks to everyone that follows the comps and results and we will keep you posted as usual :)