Costa Rican Surfer Pilurzu Ranked 28th in the World

Costa Rican Surfer Federico Pilurzu
Federico Pilurzu Ranked 28th Top Surfer in the World

Federico Pilurzu, a Tamarindo native, just moved up 18 spots in the 2008 World Qualifying Series (WQS) ranking, to become the top ranked surfer ever to come out of Mexico, Central America and South America (excluding Brazil).

Pilurzu is now ranked 28th in the world after his performance at the Hang Loose Pro tournament that ended yesterday in Fernando de Noronha, Brazil as well as two other events in Hawaii and Florida. The new results, released by the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP), place him among the top surfers in the world.

The top three spots in the WQS are held by Americans Patrick Gudauskas, Nathaniel Curran and Brett Simpson. Pilurzu shares the 28th position with Brazilian surfer Diego Rosa.

Pilurzu admitted that he didn’t do as well as he hoped in Brazil, but because of the fact that he was able to jump ahead to the round of 96 competitors thanks to his past performances and ranking, he was able to cover more ground and get a decent amount of points.

This is not only the best achievement by any surfer in the region, it also shows a huge jump in Pilurzu’s own standing, who was previously in spot 46 of the WQS. The high ranking will let him to continue starting out in favorable positions in upcoming tournaments and improves the reputation of Costa Rica in the region for the level of surfers that it puts out.

Pilurzu also won 1st place in the Central American Surf Competition two years in a row for the Open division, a title he will be defending next month at the 2008 event in Panama.

Despite all the international acclaim, Pilurzu showed that he did not forget where he comes from this weekend when he participated in a surf tournament with only 38 total competitors in Tamarindo. The tournament was part of an event organized by the community to initiate the process of regaining their Ecological Blue Flag status that was lost in November of last year.

Photo courtesy of Fabian Sanchez.

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