Alavaro Solano prepares to be Costa Rican Champ again

Seventh Date 2004-05 CNS

2004-05 Circuito Nacional de Surf (CNS) 
Playa Hermosa< Costa Rica
16 - 17 April 2005

ALAVARO SOLANO’S PREPARES TO AGAIN BE THE 2004-05 CIRCUITO NACIONAL DE SURF CHAMPION

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica-April 17, 2005-Alvaro Solano of Jaco captured a win Sunday April 17th for the Open category in the seventh and next to the last date of the 2004-05 Circuito Nacional de Surf (CNS) in Playa Hermosa. Lisbeth Vindas took the Women’s category with first place and Isac Vega of Tamarindo won for Juniors in the weekend’s 4-star point valued contest.  Solano, along with more than 125 other determined surfers from all over Costa Rica, now head into the 6-star CNS Grand Final Tournament to be in Playa Hermosa Friday and Saturday May 27th and 28th which will complete the 7 tournament, 8 month national surf circuit for the season.  Each surfer will bring to the Grand Finals their individually earned CNS points to date where the best five out of seven tournament scores will be tallied together in order to determine the national rankings for Costa Rica’s top surfers.

Coming into the weekend, Solano held first place in the CNS national rankings with 6440 points in the Open category with Luis “Coco” Hernandez trailing in second place with 4200 and fourteen year-old Jairo Perez right behind with 3670 points.  Solano ‘s first place will add another 1500 points to his total earnings leaving him in a secure place to again be the CNS Champion for his second year in a row.

The interesting fight in next month’s CNS Grand Finals will be for second, third and fourth place in the Open Category as the ranking points were close when the tournament began Saturday April 16th between second place Luis Hernandez, who did not pass to the 1/4 finals this last weekend, and third ranked Jairo Perez, who also did not pass to the semi-finals on Sunday April 17th.  Close behind are experienced international competitors Diego Naranjo, who took second this weekend, and Puerto Viejo’s Nino Myrie.  Other nationals such as Juan Carlo Naranjo, Marcelo Herrero, Mauricio Umana, Freddy Camacho, and brothers Bryan Vega and Isac Vega are all not far behind with only a 500-point spread between them all. 

The Women’s race for the 2004-05 CNS national champion also proves to be interesting between Jaco’s reigning CNS 2003-04 champion Lisbeth Vindas and Laura Pecoraro from Pavones.  Percoraro held first place in the rankings for this year coming into the weekend with 5775 points compared to Lisbeth Vindas’s 5550 which was largely due to Vindas missing the Dominical CNS contest in order to compete in the Latin Pro internationally.  Vindas was awarded an additional 1500 points for her win on Sunday April 17th as compared to Pecoraro’s 1290.  Vindas feels the CNS contest procedure of only including the best five contest scores in the final tabulation will leave her in good standing to again be Costa Rica’s CNS champion.

Vindas said of next month’s Grand Finals, “Well one thing is, there will be money for this one, so of course I will fight for that too.”

Tamarindo’s Isac Vega took second in the Junior category for this seventh date of the CNS annual circuit.  Vega admitted that he had grown tired of being in second place for much of the season and this fact helped make the difference in his performance for the weekend.  The battle for Costa Rica’s Junior CNS champion at the Grand Finals will mainly be between Jaco’s Juan Carlo Naranjo, Jairo Perez and Vega and will also prove to be close as all are strong surfers with high points to date for the season, respectively 5225, 5190, and 4515.

According to event organizer, event sponsor, and owner of Jass Surf Shop Jose Urena conditions at the beach break in front of Hotel Restaurant Backyard in Play Hermosa were challenging for competitors due to waves growing from 6 to 8 feet on throughout the two day competition which only proved to make the current stronger.  Urena explained that with larger waves, the surfer must focus more on the tube, which in turn earns higher points with the judges. The weekend’s competitors were not able to make as radical maneuvers as is possible in smaller waves and were forced be more tactical with wave selection as it was difficult to paddle back out after a ride. 

Jose Urena noted the crucial point in the weekend’s conditions.

“The main thing was that the surfers could only take 3-5 waves per heat as opposed to a possible 12, so the judges had less waves to score and then when averaging them together each wave became more critical.  For this reason, tactic was everything.”

Tabulation of points within a heat is calculated by the scores made by three judges on every wave taken for each competitor within the heat.  Then the scores for the best two waves are averaged together in order to determine the placing within a heat. The top two competitors from each heat pass to the next heat in order to compete in the next round. Urena pointed out that some surfers are better in smaller waves and others in larger waves, but experienced surfers such as Alvaro Solano, Diego Naranjo, and Lisbeth Vindas manage the larger waves better than others merely because they are accustomed to competing no matter what the wave is-big or small.

Antonio Pilurzu, head of the Federacion de Tico Surf, also announced in Hermosa that Giancarlo Loria of Jaco’s Academia de Surfing Costa Rica will be the new administrator for the Federacion de Tico Surf’s annual CNS.  Pilurzu said of the addition, “We feel happy that the Circuito continues to grow and even more grateful to have such a solid, experienced professional as Giancarlo on board with us.” This year Loria also founded and produced the first season of the San Jose Circuito de Surfing Chepeno.  Eight years ago Loria managed CNS’s first national team sent to international competition in Puerto Rico.

Loria said of his hopes for the year.  “I plan to continue the Circuito’s main idea which has always been to provide support for the kids so they can develop their surfing careers through a high level of national and international competition.”

Christophe “Kiki” Commarieu, Publication Director of SURFOS Magazine, and one of the Circuito's primary national sponsors, explained that CNS organizers and Federacion de Tico Surf members do not stop working once the eight months of the CNS is over.  Kiki explained that now the group begins fundraising in order to send the best selected Costa Rican surf team to both the Pan American Games in Peru in November 2005 (where Costa Rica previously took 3rd out of 25 teams in Ecuador for 2003) as well as the World Junior Surfing Championships in Huntington Beach, California in October 2005.  Kiki outlined the goals of the Federacion de Tico Surf.

“The CNS was only the first step for the Federacion.  The second goal was to sufficiently fundraise in order to pay our national team’s way to relevant annual international surfing competitions of which we have accomplished for the last two years. I don’t know of any other country that is doing this.  We know it is ambitious and difficult, but we feel it is our duty. The third is where we are now, which is to organize surfing in Costa Rica under one officially recognized institution which will set standards for judging, require all Costa Rican surf contests to submit to the guidelines outlined by the International Surfing Association (ISA) and the Association Surfing Professionals (ASP) and also hopefully encourage schools of a high caliber.”

Hermosa’s Restaurant/Bar Backyard hosted the celebratory bash for competitors and their guests Saturday April 17th, 2005 at 9 p.m. where DJ Woody spun hip-hop, rap, and house music until well past 2 a.m.  Local hotels such as Las Olas in Hermosa, Mango Mar, Tropical Gardens, and Backyard supported the event with accommodations for event organizers and food for the staff was generously provided by Jammin’ Surf Camp and Backyard.  DVD Center in Jaco also supplied CNS with printing of advertisement materials.

Other Circuito sponsors include:  91.1 La Radio, Quiksilver, Jammin' Surf Camp, Carton, Banzaii, Mango Surf & Skate, Roxy, Cala Luna Hotel & Villas, Tamarindo Vista Villas, Mohs, Dakine, Fischer Bros., Shifi Surf Shots, Bevy Media, Jass, Surfos, and Red Bull.

Results Seventh Date 2004-05 CNS
April 16th and 17

Open:
1-Alvaro Solano-Jaco
2- Diego Naranjo-Jaco
3-Ronald Reyes-Venezuela
4-Durby Castillo-Pavonnes

Women’s:
1 Lisbeth Vindas-Jaco
2 Laura Pecoraro-Hermosa
3 Jessica Priddle-San Jose
4 Jessenia Alfaro-Nosara

Juniors:
1 Isac Vegas-Tamarindo
2 Matt Chellini-Playa Grande
3 Ronald Brown-Puerto Viejo
4 Juan Carlo Naranjo-Jaco

Boys:
1 Jairo Perez-Jaco
2 Juan Calderon-Jaco
3 Nicolas Ruhlow-Playa Carillo
3 Anthony Flores

Grommet:
1 Carlos Munoz-Esterillos
2 Derek Guiterrez-Quepos
3 Danny Bishko-Esterillos
4 Ariel Aguero-Jaco

Mini-Grommet:
1 Carlos Munoz-Esterillos
2 Anthony Segura-Esterillos
3 Manuel Mesen-Jaco

Longboard:
1 Ronald Reyes-Venezuela
2 Brennan Clark
3 Rick Thonsley

Boogie Board:
1 Marlon Sandoval
2 Walter Gatgens
3 Ivan Castillo
4 Alexander Jimenez

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Laura Sibley

CNS Contests - Surfersvillage