Justin Mujica beats Eneco Acero to win the Goanna Pro

Goanna Pro

ASP 1 star WQS Mens event
Tapia, Asturias, Spain
8 - 10 April 2004

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Day 3: Justin Mujica in top form, wins Goanna Pro

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 10 April 2004: - - Conditions: dropping 1-2ft beach break, favouring lefts. Sunny with a light sea breeze. The contest was put on hold for some hours due to the combination of a higher tide and smaller surf.

The conditions were very difficult for the 1/4 final heats making the right wave choice essential but the waves got more consistent and improved for the 1/2 finals. Stand out of the day was Justin Mujica (Port-Venz) who scored a nearly perfect 9.6 point ride just after getting his interference in the first 1/2 final. Due to this year´s new interference rule ( with best waves counting the 2nd best waves counts half) he still took the lead for a while till Sam Carrier got his 2nd excellent right.

Justin Mujica : photo Dimulle/ASPEurope

The 25 min final started with some excelent rides but lacked again of waves for the last 10 minutes. Sam Carrier and Eneko Acero got some high scoring rides but could not match "magic" Justin´s perfect surf. Congratulations to Justin who seems to be very confident this year and definetly liked his new board that was originally shaped for Cory Lopez.

Official results:
1st:- Justin Mujica (Port)
2nd:- Eneco Acero (Euk)
3rd:- Pablo Gutierrez (Spa)
4th:- Sam Carrier (Fra)

Let´s hope we´ll get more waves next week for the 2 Star WQS in ST Gilles.

Heats/Results
Photos Day 1
Photos Day 2
Photos Day 3

Tim Boal : photo Dimulle/ASPEurope

Day 2: Big crowd and hot action on Day 2 at Goanna Pro WQS

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 09 April 2004: - - Conditions: Dropping swell, weak on-shore 2 ft for the first heats in the morning but improved with the dropping tide through the day. Cold with occasional showers but Tapia´s usual huge crowd showed up again and got rewarded with plenty of high quality surfing in the remaining 14 heats of the 2nd round.

Second round´s best surfers were Gonzalo Zubizarreta (Vigo,Spa) and Paplo Gutierrez (Santander, Spa) scoring excelent 9 pointers each. Other great surfing was shown by the the two french Tim Boal and Micky Picon.

Gony Zubizarreta : photo Dimulle/ASPEurope

The most interesting heat of the 2nd round however was heat 13 with a great left-hander of the yound french-basque Romain Laulhe in the first seconds of the heat and two beautiful areals of the also young canarian surfer Julian Cuello(Gran Canaria).

The 1/8 finals had an exciting first heat with a dominating Justin Mujica (Port) and Sam Carrier (Fra-Aus), Karlos Gomez(Euk) and Thomas Portet fighting for the 2nd qualifying place. The french Thomas Portet surfed really well but somehow managed to get 2 interferences in just 1 minute and was forced to leave the water before the end of is heat.

Now the fight began between a very improved Karlos Gomez and Sam Carrier. Karlos was in 2nd place just seconds before the final horn but then Sam managed to put some vertical turns on one of the few right handers and just made it through in the last seconds like in his first heat yesterday, still Karlos Gomez´s surfing was very promising...

Jose Gregorio : photo Dimulle/ASPEurope

The first major updset of the day was the loss of Iker Fuentes (Euk) last years European vice champion who was leading his heat for a long time but the Portuguese veteran Jose Gregorio claimed the first place with a 2nd high scoring wave and then Oier Illaramendi (EUK)got a really good one at the very end and confirmed yesterday´s very good performance.

Further stand outs were Nathan Hele(Fra) and the Australian Derek Bassed who made it through to the 1/4 finals even though he got an interference.(Only 1 and 1/2 waves count instead of the best 2)

Check-in tomorrow at 11.30am for the 1/4 finals.

Thomas Portet : photo Dimulle/ASPEurope

Day 1: Thomas Portet top scores Day 1 at Goanna Pro

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 08 April 2004: - - Conditions: 3ft beach break, favouring lefts with building on-shore winds in the afternoon. Sunny with occasional showers.

The Goanna Pro, each years first and oldest EPSA event, welcomed the European tour with good conditions for it´s 16th edition. A new face on the tour, Sebastien Estienne (Fra), delighted the beach crowd and judges in the first round. First round´s best wave scorer however was the Basque Norman Landa who earned a 9 pointer (out of possible 10) for linking a fast combination of top to bottom back-hand manoevers on a nice opening left-hander.

Another convincing basque surfer was Oier Illaramendi who largely dominated his heats in the first two rounds, leaving the top seeded portuguese surfers Jose Gregorio in 2nd place. Today´s best total heat score goes to the young french Thomas Portet who also dominated each of his heats today.

Check-in for the surfers tomorrow morning at 10.00a.m.

Pre-event: Goanna Pro set to kick off 2004 European WQS season

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 07 April 2004: - - The European season starts as usual at Tapia de Casariego in Asturias, Spain. The 1 star WQS that sees a conscentration of the top European surfers every year. Last year French surfer Eric Rebiere started the season winning this event and demostrated his good form. At the end of the year, Eric was qualified for the WCT tour.

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Jan Holzer (ASP Europe Tour Rep)

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