Team News

Tiago Talks: Pires Blogs on the Start of the Year

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 23 February, 2009 : - - Sydney -- At 27-years-old, Tiago Pires (Ericeira, PRT) a.k.a Sacca is a national hero in Portugal since he became the first Portuguese surfer ever to qualify for the ASP World Tour in 2008. Pires, who ended his rookie season outside the requalifying squad despite some stellar performances throughout the year, still managed to regain his ticket for the elite division thanks to an ASP World Qualifying Series (WQS) campaign and will be in the starting blocks when the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast starts next week.

He is the third man of the unprecedent 7-European team on tour to give us pieces of life since we left him in Hawaii after he pulled out from the Billabong Pipeline Masters. After a deserved winter break and tough training sessions, Portugal’s undisputed surf leader sends some news from Sydney...

"This winter was divided in two for me! The first two or three weeks I went on a vacation away from the ocean, to visit some nice cities like Oslo and Moscow! I could not surf so it was being a bit frustrating to stay at home and watch perfect pits going by. The second part of my winter was pretty much an intense recovery program, in which I had to spend a lot of time in physiotherapy before I started to train at the Gym.

I an now part of a new training group led by the Portuguese Rugby Team Coach and the result of this new partnership is that I have never been so stoked and so motivated to improve my fitness! Apart from that, I also enjoyed spending time at home with my family and friends... It was weird to spend two months at home actually, I started to feel like a normal person!

Since I pulled out from the Billabong Pipeline Masters last December, I have only been surfing for a week and I think I have almost recovered 100% from my injury in Hawaii. I still feel a bit of pain on my neck/back but it’s much more a residual pain now, something that does not scare me like before. Some doctors told me that neck injuries can last six months so I am not expecting anything better in the near future.

For now I am in Sydney in Australia and spending time with my shaper Chilli from Chilli surfboards. We have been working a lot on my new quiver for the first event on the Gold Coast. The waves there are fast and demanding so I need to make sure I am taking the right weapons. I will be at the Superbank around the 23rd, just five days before the waiting period kicks off.

With all the experience gained last year on tour, all the different moments I went through in 2008 from serious doubts to amazing heats like in Tahiti and Fiji or my semifinal in Bali, I feel a lot more mature than last year at the start of the tour. I think I will be able to let the pressure go and show more of my potential.

However, I feel a little anxious about the first event. I know that I will not be 100% ready for it, but I am really hungry to put that competition rashguard on and start the year again. We will see how I can present myself to the world in 2009. What is sure is that I won’t feel the rookie butterflies in my stomach anymore!

I must say that whatever happens, Europe is witnessing some great moments of its short surfing history and the seven guys on the 2009 ASP World Tour are all excellent surfers capable of causing some serious damage. So I am really curious about how things will go this year. We have power surfers like Marlon (Lipke) and Michel (Bourez), very smart competitors like Tim (Boal) and Aritz (Aranburu), and of course Miky (Picon) and Jeremy (Flores) that already proved themselves amongst the very best."

For more on Tiago Pires, check out his ASP WORLD TOUR PROFILE

www.aspeurope.com
www.aspworldtour.com

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