reddy Camacho is known as the Voice of Surf here in Costa Rica. That’s because he is an announcer at many of the surf competitions that take place in this country. While he had a career competing on the Circuito Nacional de Surf when younger, he seems to be making a real mark as a veteran surfer. Just last month, at the Triple Corona Masters & SUP & Longboard finals in Playa Avellanas, he completed the 3-month tournament as the national champion in the Masters for surfers older than 35.

 

“I won the Triple Crown, which is a dream realized after fighting hard,” said Camacho. “The truth is this makes me very happy primarily because today I won with the support of my family and sponsors.”

 

At very same finals, SUP surfing once again proved to be as exciting as the more traditional surfing.  In Avellanas, the SUP category featured just wave surfing, which is a bit of a shame, because the racing aspect of this sport can be very exciting and takes a lot of strength and endurance.

 

And, it’s also very important to highlight Ismael Araya, the surf instructor from Costa Rica’s Caribbean side who was paralyzed in a motorcycle accident years ago. His impediment did not keep him out of the water, and with specially designed surfboards he has been riding waves again. At the Triple Corona this year, an Adaptive Surfing category was added, and Araya became the national champion.  He has already competed on behalf of Costa Rica in the International Surf Association (ISA) World Adaptive Championship last year.

 

The 9 national champions are:

 

SUP Surfing: Marcel Oliveira (Jaco)

Longboard: Dorian Torres (Tamarindo)

Adaptive Surfing: Ismael Araya (Puerto Viejo)

Masters (Older than 35): Freddy Camacho (Jaco)

Grand Masters (Older than 40): Cassio Carvalho (Jaco)

Kahuna (Older than 45): Cassio Carvalho (Jaco)

 

In total, 90 different competitors—the largest combined total of surfers in this contest since the launch of this circuit—began this journey in February where they surfed Nosara. The next stop was Santa Teresa, and Avellanas concluded the year.

 

 

For his part, Carvalho, who is the coach for the Costa Rica national junior surf team, made an excellent showing with 2 divisions, while Camacho, Araya, Oliveira and Torres all made the national podium for the first time ever.

 

Here are the results of only the Avellanas date of the Triple Corona Masters & SUP & Longboard:

 

 

Masters

  1. Trey Brownell (Avellanas)
  2. Freddy Camacho (Jaco)
  3. Christopher Jimenez (Puntarenas)
  4. Cristian Boss (Tamarindo)

 

Grand Masters

  1. Cassio Carvalho (Jaco)
  2. Trey Brownell (Avellanas)
  3. Adolfo Chávez (Samara)
  4. Cristopher Jimenez (Puntarenas)

 

Kahuna

  1. Cassio Carvalho (Jaco)
  2. Roger Jaggli
  3. Tequila Schieber (Puerto Viejo)
  4. Roberto Miranda (San José)

 

Longboard

  1. Anthonny Flores (Jaco)
  2. Dorian Torres
  3. Alex Gómez (Sámara)
  4. Marcel Oliveira (jaco)

 

SUP Surfing

  1. Marcel Oliveira (Jaco)
  2. José Ruiz
  3. Mario Peter de Léon
  4. Oscar Díaz
  5. Nicolás Chtepenko

 

Adaptive Surfing

  1. Ismael Araya (Puerto Viejo)
  2. John Barrantes
  3. Axel Zúñiga
  4. Juan Manuel Camacho
  5. Ronald Faerron

 

Before heading to some European dates of the World Surf League (WSL) Qualifying Series (QS),  Noe Mar McGonagle (Pavones) stopped in the Volkswagen SA Open of Surfing in Durbin last month. Although he passed his seeded Round 3, the run ended with a 3rd place spot in the next go-around. Still, he is at #30 on the QS rankings.

Tamarindo’s Tomas King was also in South Africa, and placed 4th in his seeded Round 2 heat.  He is not ranked yet.

 

Meanwhile, at Los Cabos Open de Surf in Zippers, Mexico last month, Ticos participated in two contests taking place there: Womens QS6000, which would reward very high points to the winning ladies, and Juniors events for both boys and girls.

 

Coral Wiggins (Avellanas) was able to enter the professional QS because she seeded  because of her quarterfinals win at the Costa Rica Pro QS3000 last year. In Mexico, Round 1, she came in 3rd . The more experienced Leilani McGonagle (Pavones) who was seeded in Round 2, didn’t fare much better with her 4th place finish.

Participating in their respective Juniors contests were Tamarindo’s Malakai Martinez (1st place in Round 1, 3rd Place in Round 2); Playa Grande’s Serena Neva (4th in Round 1); Jaco’s Emily Gussoni (4th in seeded Round 2); Wiggins (3rd in seeded Round 2); and McGonagle (passed her seeded Round 1 and fell to 3rd in the next one).

 

While Martinez has yet to rank on the North American junior chart for the Men’s, the Women’s rankings show McGonagle at #4, Wiggins at #16, and Gussoni at #29 in the Womens.

Freddy Camacho becomes Costa Rica's national Masters surf championg

Freddy Camacho becomes Costa Rica’s national Masters surf champion