Costa Rica Surfers Dominate Reef Classic Latin Pro

Costa Rican Surfers Dominate Reef Classic Latin Pro

Written by Claire

Costa Rica Surf — Jairo Wins Open Category in Reef Classic

Costa Rican surfers continued to shine this past weekend when they took all but one of the major divisions at the Reef Classic Latin Pro ALAS Finals in Jaco Beach. Even though Brazilian Ernest Nunes won the Latin American Surf Association (ALAS) Latin & Caribbean Open title for his performance throughout the year-long Tour, he was beaten on Sunday by 17-year-old Jaco native Jairo Pérez in the 9th and final event.

Another Jaco native, Jason Torres, actually beat Pérez, who participated in two categories, to win the Pro Juniors competition. Pérez came in second above 3rd place Venezuelan Francisco Bellorian and 4th place Chilean Manuel Selman, who won the Pro Juniors ALAS Latin Tour for the 3rd time.

Jaco’s new resident 14-year-old Nataly Bernold, who recently moved there from Tamarindo, beat out her mentor and 2-time Central American Women’s Champion Lisbeth Vindas to take the Women’s division. The only non-Tico winner was Venezuelan Ronald Reyes in the Longboard category.

In Women’s, Vindas followed Bernold with a 2nd place finish, while Peruvian Valeria Solé came in 3rd, which still gave her enough points to win the Women’s title overall in the ALAS Tour.

For his first ever international Open win, Jairo Pérez received a check for $4,000 and a giant trophy. “When the contest started on Friday, I realized there were a lot of good surfers; I didn’t think I was good enough, but as the contest went on and especially, when it came to competing with our national champion Diego [Naranjo], and then Diego Cadena, I got nervous,” he said. “Thank God he gave me the waves and the money because he knows how much I needed both of those things today.”

Pérez pulled 8.73 points, the highest in the event, in the final round of the weekend when he was paired up with fellow Jaco-native Luis Vindas, who earned the second best average score for the event. Both of them topped Diego Cadena who is ranked #13 in the world by the International Surfing Association.

The Longboard Champion for the entire competition was Martin Perez. The awards ceremony for the 2007 Tour winners will be held at the first stop on the ALAS Tour 2008.

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