Diana Christina : photo Daniel Smorigo/ASP South America

Rio Surf Pro International
Presented by Oakley

ASP Men’s WQS 6 Star event
ASP Women's WQS 4 Star event
ASP South America Surf Series 2008
Praia do Arpoador, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
06 - 12 october 2008

Live Coverage  |  Results/Photos/Videos etc

Oakley presents Rio Surf Pro International define women´s semifinals in Tuesday    >  Portuguese 

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 7 October, 2008 : - - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - Bigger swell forecasted at Arpoador Beach for Wednesday or Thursday. The second day was WQS, girls only. Two rounds went through with 1 to 2 feet waves well shaped but rarely breaking. The first vacancy in the great final will be decided between New Zealander Paige Hareb and Hawaiian Coco Ho while second semifinal will be 100% Brazillian with Diana Cristina against Krisna de Souza.  

Men’s six stars WQS will be called Wednesday at 7:30am at Arpoador for its first heat. The 2.500 points on the table at the Oakley presents Rio Surf Pro International can change many positions on men’s rating. But the 1.500 of the female 4 star WQS event didn’t change anything on the fight for the six places available in the WCT.  

The possible upgrade in Brazil would be reached by Bethany Hamilton (HAW) and Claire Bevilacqua (AUS) but they failed Tuesday and are still rated as 11th in the WQS rating. Only Paige Hareb out of four in the semifinals is on the list of six going into the surfer’s elite and could go up from 5th to 3th place at the rating if she wins at the Rio Surf Pro International.  

The beautiful 18 years old surfer from New Zealand won two of two heats she was in at Arpoador. Even in weak waves she overtook North American Kyla Langen in the first battle for the first vacancy in the semifinals of the 13th and last WQS event before WQS 2008 final contest in Hawaii. 

“In the first heat, the waves were weaker but then got better. I’m not really thinking about WCT anyway. I’m only 18 years old and my goal was to get there only in 2009 or 2010. But things went this way and I’m kind of surprised to be rated in 5th  , so I just want to win heats one by one and to say the truth I was not thinking about myself  in the CT next year, lets see what happens”, explained Paige Hareb who competed last week at Costao do Santinho. 

On the other hand, her opponent in the semifinal, came to Brazil exclusively to compete in the Rio Surf Pro International. Coco Ho is Michael Ho’s daughter. His father used to compete in Rio during the 70’s World Championship Contests held at Arpoador. “The waves are small but you can show some moves as my dad told me before I came here. But I wish the waves get a little bigger in order to improve our surf”, wishes the young 17 years old Hawaiian.  

The new brazillian surfers generation will be represented by 18 years old Diana Cristina. She dimissed Hawaiian Alana Blanchard in the quarter-finals. “I’m really doing well and taking advantage of those WQS here in Brazil and my goal for next year is to put myself into the WCT so I’ll compete not only here but in the main events out there too. The heat was tough because there were few waves and you could make no mistakes. The sets are slow to come but I surfed two nice ones to win”, said Diana Cristina. 

Krisna de Souza, Brazilian, 23 years old, is the most experienced of the four girls in the Oakley presents Rio Surf Pro International semifinals. She won the last heat of the day against Suelen Naraisa. “Cristina is my best friend and it will be a good fight. She’s very skillful and I wish the waves get better so we can show our surf in a different way because it was pretty hard to compete with only a few sets coming in”, told Krisna.   

Eyes are shining with expectation for the Men’s division 6 stars Oakley presents Rio Surf Pro International that would begin Wednesday at Arpoador if the waves start to pump up. Right on the first heat we will have one of the new WCT star who got here on time from Spain. Heitor Alves will surf against Alejo Muniz and Marcelo Trekinho. Only 20 heats can be run per day and the Tahitian WCT former champion Bruno Santos would compete on Wednesday’s last heat.  

The Oakley presents Rio Surf Pro International is sponsored by Oakley, Ministério do Turismo, of Secretaria de Esportes, Turismo e Lazer do Estado do Rio de Janeiro and Metro Rio, organized by Adding Produções e Eventos. The event is homologated by the Association of Surfing Professionals - ASP South America. 

Check the Live Coverage   

RIO SURF PRO INTERNATIONAL – SEMIFINAIS FEMININAS:
1.a: Paige Hareb (NZL) x Coco Ho (HAV)
2.a: Diana Cristina (BRA-PB) x Krisna de Souza (BRA-RN)

QUARTAS-DE-FINAL FEMININAS – 5.o lugar (US$ 975 e 915 pts):
1.a: Paige Hareb (NZL) 10.20 X 6.10 Kyla Langen (EUA)
2.a: Coco Ho (HAV) 14.20 x 11.50 Claire Bevilacqua (AUS)
3.a: Diana Cristina (BRA-PB) 13.07 x 11.34 Alana Blanchard (HAV)
4.a: Krisna de Souza (BRA-RN) 10.24 x 8.34 Suelen Naraisa (BRA-SP)

SEGUNDA FASE FEMININA – 3.a=9.o lugar (US$ 900 e 750 pts) / 4.a=13.o ($ 800 e 675 pts):
1.a: 1-Paige Hareb (NZL), 2-Coco Ho (HAV), 3-Anastasia Ashley (HAV), 4-Natali Paola (BRA-SP)
2.a: 1-Claire Bevilacqua (AUS), 2-Kyla Langen (EUA), 3-Gabriela Leite (SC), 4-Bethany Hamilton (HAV)
3.a: 1-Alana Blanchard (HAV), 2-Suelen Naraisa (SP), 3-Tita Tavares (CE), 4-Lee Ann Curren (FRA)
4.a: 1-Krisna de Souza (RN) 2-Diana Cristina (PB), 3-Monik Santos (PE), 4-Bruna Schmitz (PR)

PRIMEIRA FASE MASCULINA – 20 primeiras baterias:
01: Marcelo Trekinho (RJ), Michel Roque (CE), Alejo Muniz (SC), Heitor Alves (CE)
02: Jano Belo (PB), Peterson Rosa (PR), Stanley Cieslik (RJ), Alexandre Almeida (RJ)
03: Justin McBride (EUA), Shey Yates (EUA), Jole Leandro (SP), Guilermo Satt (CHI)
04: Joan Duru (FRA), Marcos Pastro (SC), Halley Batista (PE), Caio Ibelli (SP)
05: Gilmar Silva (SP), Denis Tihara (BA), Tanio Barreto (AL), Daniel Hardman (RJ)
06: Adilton Mariano (CE), Jesse Heilman (EUA), Luel Felipe (PE), Marcelo Bispo (RJ)
07: Alex Gray (EUA), Thiago de Souza (CE), Icaro Ronchi (SC), Igor Morais (RJ)
08: Federico Pilurzu (CRI), Beto Fernandes (SP), Patrick Tamberg (FN), Eric de Souza (RJ)
09: Mason Ho (HAV), Diego Santos (SP), Diogo Leão (ES), Luiz Walther (RJ)
10: Milton Morbeck (RJ), Márcio Farney (CE), Anselmo Correia (RJ), Gabriel Pastori (RJ)
11: Heitor Pereira (SP), Wilson Nora (BA), Felipe Ximenes (SC), Guilherme Sodré (RJ)
12: Bernardo Lopes (BA), Tommy O´Brien (EUA), Itim Silva (CE), Pedro Scooby (RJ)
13: Alex Chacon (AUS), Felipe Martins (CE), Bruno Galini (BA)
14: Chad Compton (AUS), Darrell Goodrum (EUA), Hugo Bittencourt (RJ), Saulo Junior (SP)
15: Messias Felix (CE), Charlie Carroll (HAV), Pedro Norberto (SC), André Pastori (RJ)
16: Fábio Gouveia (PB), Alandreson Martins (BA), Bruno Moreira (SP), Ítalo Ferreira (RJ)
17: Diego Rosa (SC), Fabrício Junior (RN), Bruno Rodrigues (PE)
18: Victor Ribas (RJ), Thiago Camarão (SP), Alon Campestrini (SC), Túlio Moulin (ES)
19: Kiron Jabour (HAV), Ricardo Ferreira (SP), Jerônimo Vargas (RJ), Ian Cosenza (RJ)
20: Bruno Santos (RJ), João Gutemberg (RJ), John Max (RN), Rafael Padilha (RJ)

www.oakley.com
http://waves.terra.com.br
www.aspsouthamerica.com.br

Previous reports:
# 1 : Women open the Rio Surf Pro International at Arpoado 
# 2 : Coming soon
# 3 : Coming soon
# 4 : Coming soon  

About ASP
The Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) is the governing body of professional surfing. Crowning surfing’s undisputed world champions since 1976, the ASP sanctions the following tours: the Foster’s ASP World Tour, the ASP Women’s World Tour, the World Qualifying Series (WQS) and the World Longboarding, Junior and Masters Championships. The ASP is dedicated to showcasing the world's best surfing talent in a variety of progressive formats and has revolutionized the way the world watches surfing via their webcasts. The organization is divided into seven different regions: Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, Hawaii, North America, and South America.

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João Carvalho / ASP South America
joaocarvalho@matrix.com.br

Photos – Daniel Smorigo
Translator – Edinho Leite

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