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.

Luis wins Nike 6.0 Night Surf

Night Surf ? What is that ? Only the best event on the UK PRo Tour.
Held at Fistral beach over a couple of days, the organizers out on an amazing show. Flood lit beach, BBQ, concert and of course, all the best surfers competing for the biggest prize money on Tour this year, at night :)

Luis had also been invited to enter into the prestigious and now world famous NIKE 6.0 CASH FOR TRICKS event. An aerial specialist event where, through a series of heats, tricks and trials, the surfers compete for, well.... cash for tricks :)

The weekend started with wind and rain, not making it perfect for airs but, the work had to be done. There were many heats for Luis to get through, for him to make it to the finals as he was competing not only in the Cash for Tricks and the Pro Junior event but also the Open.

Sailing through his heats and surfing at night, finishing at 01:00 and dealing with the " beautiful " English summer, made it all more interesting ( you have to have a positive outlook in events like this )

The only 4* event on tour, meant that the winner of the Pro Junior would get an easier passage to gain nr one in the rankings as they would bag 3000 points, instead of the usual 1000.

So Luis was not going to let that opportunity pass by and did just that. 1st place in the Nike 6.0 night surf, 3000 point and a massive cheque :)

The open also gave him something to smile about as he finished 5th overall.

Cash for tricks gave him, well just that, cash for his tricks :)

Amazing result for Luis and well on his way to claiming that much wished title for 2010.
Lets see what the next contests bring.
Looks like the next one will be in Scarborough in October. Will keep you informed as usual.

Thanks to everyone that took part in this event, organizers and sponsors.

Keshia wins Rip Curl Grom Search

Last weekend was the Rip Curl Grom search event, where the winners qualify for the European final.

The contest was held at Foz do Lizandro with 1/2 meter waves on the first day, making it challenging for everyone to catch the best waves and with 1 1/2 meter waves on the second day, making it hard to even get to the outside for some of the groms.

Keshia did it with style, she got out there, caught the best waves and scored the highest points. 13 combined in the final leaving the other 3 competitors almost needing a combination.

Another great weekend for Keshia.

Thanks to everyone that was there and the ones that support her :)

Keshia enters the Ericeira Surf Shop Pro as a Willcard and makes the final

Last week Keshia got a phone call from Ericeria Surf Club telling her she had received a wildcard to enter the Open Nationals in Ribeira D'Ilhas.

Obviously stoked about this opportunity but nervous to be competing in her fist open event.

The contest was held over a two day period and due to the very small swell at Ribeira, they moved to Foz, much to Keshia's disappointment of course. The girls did not go in on the first day and the call for Sunday was at 06am...and at Foz again. Driving from home we saw the lines coming in at Ribeira can could not work out why they had not moved it for the final day.
Arriving at Foz, made our question even more questionable........! There were no waves.... somehow the Gods heard our prayers and they stopped the contests just before Keshias heat went in....and moved it to Ribeira.
Now Keshia was smiling :)
The first heat went pretty well although nerves seem to play a little part in not catching the best waves and Keshia got through in second. She surfed amazing throughout the day and her semi was 100% local girls.....but Keshia had left all the nerves and emotions behind and went for the kill. She totally dominated the heat from start to finish and scored a combination of 13.00 points, the highest score combination so far of the event.

There was going to be a break between the girls semi and the finals with an expression session, giving the girls from the second semi, some time to rest but, they changed their minds and put them in straight away.
Keshia did not have time to rest and get some food and I think fatigue took the best out of her. She did not manage to find the best waves and although she still scored pretty high, she could not get a better back up waves.

She still finished 4th in the final getting an amazing result for her first Open event.

Now is time to prepare for the Grom Search next weekend, the inter clubs championships and then the European Pro Junior Series :)

Many contests and many more good results to come for sure. Thanks to everyone and will update again soon.

Ericeira Surf Shop Open Pro

Keshia wins Nationals in Aveiro

This weekend was the 3rd round of the Nationals in Aveiro.

Keshia had an amazing weekend, winning all her heats. On the first day, Keshia had the highest combined score of the day with a total of 14.00 points out of 20.

Second day she surfed two heats, and both both with scores around 9.00 combined.

The final was on Sunday and Keshia comboed the field with a total of 12.90.

A great weekend for Keshia. She leads the rankings in the Girls Under 18's having won two out of the 3 events so far.

Next one will be in August in Viana do Castelo.

Saltrock UK Pro Junior

Last weekend was the UK Saltrock Pro Junior.
Always a fun event but, not always fun waves.

The first day was not too bad with some small but consistent waves. Luis had entered the Pro Junior event and he had a couple of pretty good heats scoring some of the highest wave combinations of the event.

But the last day failed to deliver and the surfers even had a meeting to try and call off the contest and split the points. Well, somehow that did not happen and they had to surf the heats....well, wait and try !

Luis did not manage to get anything that you could call a wave and it was the two local guys that, used to those conditions, took 1st and 2nd. Luis took home 3rd spot.

It was all not too bad as, because of the final qualification, he has now guaranteed his spot in the Nike 6.0 night surf event which will take place on the 08th and 09th of July. Also the Cash for tricks will be on at the same time for which Luis has already got his invite :)

Lets hope for better waves for then.

A bit thank you to Phil Williams and everyone involved in the Christian Surfers organization :)