Surfer Pilurzu Making Waves Internationally, on the Ocean and TV.

Costa Rican surfer, Federico Pilurzu, was disqualified today from the Rip Curl Boardmasters Surf Skate and Music Festival in his first round of competition. The Costa Rican native came in last place in heat 5 in the round of 96 competitors, falling behind Australia’s Drew Courtney, Portugal’s Ruben Gonzalez and Spain’s Eneko Acero.

The 5-star event, which began yesterday in Newquay, England, is a part of the Association of Surfing Professionals’ (ASP’s) World Qualifying Series (WQS). The WQS is the second most important surfing competition in the world with 45 events each year. It’s goal is to determine who will be invited to participate in the ASP World Tour, which unites the world’s best surfers.

Pilurzu is the only surfer who consistently represents Costa Rica in the WQS. After reaching a overall high ranking of 56th in the world, the surfer has started to lose grip. Prior to his journey to England for the Rip Curl event, Pilurzu competed in Huntington Beach, California where he started off strong with a first place win in heat 23 in the round of 192 competitors. However, he was disqualified in the next round after coming in last place in his heat, dropping his then current ranking of 85th in the world to 98th. The new ranking results will not be released until after the close of the Rip Curl event on Sunday.

Pilurzu originally hails from the popular surf town known as Tamarindo located in the northern western province of Guanacaste. Despite his recent fall in the rankings, the surfer continues to gain local and international fame as undoubtedly Costa Rica’s most internationally famous and recognizable surfer.

Pilurzu first opened a new chapter in Costa Rican surfing history when he won 16th place at the US Open in 2006, ranking higher than all other competitors who ever represented Central America. In addition to his participation in competitions around the world Pilurzu will soon be making a debut on International television.

Italy’s own Italian Radio Television (RAI) graced Costa Rica’s golden shores to film scenes with the accredited Costa Rican national surfer for their much anticipated “The Perfect Waves” television program. The program is set to air in Italy in November of this year to an estimated 10 million Italian viewers, bringing a great deal of publicity to Costa Rica beaches.

This past June four Italian actors from the RAI and three cameramen traveled all around Guanacaste’s Golden Coast filming some of the country’s most reputable surf spots including Playa Grande, Avellanas, Witch’s Rock, and the ever popular Tamarindo beach.
Pilurza acted as the Italian’s official tour guide offering up some of his favorite surf spots as well as inviting the crew to film and observe some of his voluntary community service work that he does with the Association of Culture Education and Psychology for Infants and Adolescents (CEPIA). The famed surfer gives free surf lessons to the children of Tamarindo who are less fortunate and at risk of becoming involved in crime. Pilurzu believes that the lessons and dedication to surf provides children the practice and discipline needed to succeed in life.

With support from all of Costa Rica and most of Central America it is hoped that Pilurzu will jump back into the top 100 at his next WQS event, the Sooruz Lacanau Pro in France, which begins on Aug. 12. Not only is it hoped that he will continue to climb in rankings to keep Costa Rica proud at the WQS it is also hoped that he will continue to be a positive role model for his adolescent fans as well as give back to his hometown community.

Photo courtesy of Fabian Sanchez.

This post's rating:

Related Stories

Filed under: Surf on August 6th, 2008