The Costa Rica National Surf Team Shows its National Pride in Panama.

Along with thousands of other Ticos that took to the beach this weekend to celebrate Semana Santa, the Costa Rican National Surf Team went to compete in the Central American Surf Championship 2008, south of the border in Playa Venao, Panama. The 15-member team won first place in the Championship for the third consecutive time in the 3-year history of the tournament, despite the absence their 2-year Open Champion Federico Pilurzu.

Filling the shoes of the internationally ranked Pilruzu was Jason Torres, a Jaco native, who took first place in the Open Category. Nataly Bernold topped her own mentor, Lisbeth Vindas, for the second time ever to take first place in the Women’s Category. Both Torres and Bernold had come in second place the last two years, but stepped it up with amazing performances to help bring the overall win for the Costa Ricans.

Ticos dominated the Open Category, leaving them as the only standing competitors in the final heat of the Open division, which included Torres, Matias Braun, and Luis Vindas. Braun, who had the best wave of the tournament scoring a perfect 10.0 on Saturday, came in second.

In the final heat of the Women’s Category, Bernold’s strong performance against a talented block of Panamanian surfers got her the win. Lisbeth Vindas never made it to the semifinals due to bad wave selection, giving up her title as Central American Women’s Champion.

The only other first place win by the Ticos was by female Bodyboarder Jimena Calvo, making it her first international title. In Juniors, Anderson Tascon took 4th, and Men’s Bodyboarder Joan Mojica came in with a second place finish.

“Although we did not win every single individual category, that was not my favorite thing, Jason is the Open Champion and Nataly the Women’s Champion, and we ARE the Central American Surf Champions and that is the reason we came!” José Ureña, the team’s Technical Director, said.

In the overall rankings, Panama came in second, Nicaragua third, El Salvador fourth and Guatemala in fifth.

Photo courtesy of Agustin Muñoz.

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Filed under: Surf on March 24th, 2008