Storybook ending for Corona surfing at Middles

If you saw a Hollywood movie about a surf contest, the winner of the event would find a perfect barrel with thirty seconds left in the Final, travel for several meters behind the curtain and emerge with the highest score of the entire event. Today, in the real-life setting of Puerto Rico, that is exactly what happened to young Hawaiian Kekoa Bacalso.  With time running out, and only having a slim lead over his Floridian opponent Gabe Kling, Bacalso pulled into a beautiful six-foot wave and secured a score of 9.67, just short of a perfect 10.0. In addition to the drama, Bacalso’s heroic effort earned him a paycheck of $10,000, the largest ever awarded in the ten-year history of the APSPR (Asociacion de Profesional Surfing de Puerto Rico).

With the welcome addition of the Puerto Rico Tourism Company as a co-sponsor of pro surfing, the total prize purse eclipsed all previous events on the island. “This was, by far, the best event we have ever had”, said APSPR President Werner Vega. “We had the most competitors, the most prize money, as well as fantastic waves”. Ironically, this was the first event that did not see a local Puerto Rican surfer in the Men’s Final. While some local fans may have been disappointed, most insiders saw it as a breakthrough. “It shows the prestige that our Puerto Rican circuit has attained”, continued Vega. “While our top pros like Brian Toth and Dylan Graves have been traveling the international tour for years, now the best surfers from the Mainland, Hawaii and elsewhere are coming to compete on their shores”. Indeed, Toth, Graves, Bacalso and Kling are all currently ranked in the Top 100 of the ASP men’s World ratings.

The Puerto Rican surfers were still well represented, as Jobos veteran Wilfredo “Control” Deliz  advanced to the man-on-man semi-finals, only to fall to the eventual winner, Bacalso. For his part, Bacalso said that his victory meant more than a welcome paycheck. “This is my first trip to Puerto Rico”, said Kekoa. “I’m impressed by the surf as well as the friendliness of the people. This really is the Hawaii of the Atlantic”!

On the “Mujeres” side of the program, Amy Nicholl, from Florida won her second consecutive Corona Extra final, following her previous victory at Domes in March. Her heat was a close one over Liza Caban, of Aguadilla, who had been the in-form competitor of that division. Caban won the $1000 Coppertone “Best Performance” award for her score of 7.57 in the semi-finals, but could not find the right waves in the Final. Nicholl’s victory had some bittersweet emotion attached, as she is from New Smyrna Beach, Florida where a tragic surfing accident this past August claimed the life of a revered surfer who was well known to many Puerto Ricans. “Fico” Fernandez was the High School mathematics instructor of a generation of students, including Nicholl. His favorite surfing destination was Puerto Rico, where his ashes will be spread at Jobo’s Beach, according to his stated wishes. In equal third place in the Women’s division were Jasset Umbel, from the Mainland and Alexis Engstrom, from Hawaii.

The top placings at this year’s concluding event were:

Men:

1st: Kekoa Bacalso, Hawaii – $10,000

2nd: Gabe Kling, Florida – $4,500

=3rd: Wilfredo Deliz – Puerto Rico – $2,000

=3rd: Asher Nol;an – Florida – $2,000

Women:

1st; Amy Nicholl, Florida – $5,000

2nd: Liza Caban, Puerto Rico – $2,000

=3rd:Jasset Umbel, Florida – $1,000

=3rd: Alexis Engstrom, Hawaii – $1,000

The winners of the $1000 Coppertone “Best Performance” Awards were:

Kekoa Bacalso and Liza Caban

The 2011 Champions of the APSPR Corona Extra Cicuit are:

Brian Toth and Liselie Gonzales

Aloha from HASL,

The Minishaka Shakedown sponsored by Exile Skimboards was a success with awesome waves conditions.  This was also the last contest of the year which would determine league champions in each division including who takes home the HASL championship cup for the year for the Men’s Advanced.  The grand prize winner of the Exile coffin bag went to Cliff Wenger from Maui, awesome picture will get posted on the HASL facebook so check for updates.

Here are the results for the Minishaka Shakedown.

22 & Under – 1st Place Brenton Ogasawara /  2nd Place Jon China both from Oahu & Sandys locals.
23 & Up       -  1st Place Erik Covarrubias  / 2nd Kaeo Milles  /  3rd Place Irving Taba

Men’s Advanced – 1st Place Kyle “Little Man” Olson, Maui /  2nd Place Anthony “Ace” Conlon, Kauai  /  3rd Place David Sterman, Oahu  / 4th Jesse Solomon, Maui

The results from this contest were used to update the league points sheet and here are the results for the year.

Womens – Heather Graf, League Champion / 2nd Natalie Nakasone / 3rd Joleane Rico
22 & Under – Brenton Ogasawara, League Champion  /  2nd Colin Camp  /  3rd Jon China
23 & Up      -  Erik Covarrubias  /  2nd Irving Taba  /  3rd Kaeo Milles

Men’s Advanced – HASL League Champion for 2011 Jesse Solomon, Maui  /  2nd David Sterman, Oahu  / 3rd Anthony “Ace” Conlon, Kauai

Good job for all those involved and thanks for the support to those who showed up to all or most of the contests.  We’ll look forward to getting started next year at Sandys with the Dangerous Shorebreak contest scheduled around late February when it’s available on the park calendar.

Couldn’t have done it without Exile Skimboards, Dirty Dog Eyewear, Freak Traction, Maui Skimmers, Lulu’s Waikiki Bar & Restaurant, & Victoria Skimboards.

See you next year,  Mahalo!!

Erik  Covarrubias

Hawaii Amateur Skimboarding League HASL
Email:  info@hawaiiskimboardleague.com
Website: hawaiiskimboardleague.com
Phone: (808) 265-2112

Karina Petroni, 22, of Jacksonville, Florida will lead the strongest field of Mainland Women’s competitors ever into the competition at Middles Beach this weekend. Petroni will be in top form after winning the Seven Tiki Pro last weekend in her hometown of Jacksonville Beach. She is the highest ranked female surfer to ever compete on the APSPR circuit, having spent the 2008 season as part of the elite ASP Women’s World Tour. Petroni is also well known to Puerto Rican surf fans, having previously won the Corona Extra Pro at Domes as recently as 2009.

Also returning from Florida will be Amy Nicholl, 21, of New Smyrna Beach, who won this year’s event at Domes in March in a close Final over Liselie Gonzales. Gonzales, 23, of Canovanas is the current ratings leader for the title of 2011 APSPR Women’s Champion. She took the lead by winning the 2010 Middles event last September. Marie Del Mar Gonzalez, 26, of Aguadilla is also in contention for the Women’s 2011 crown, as she currently sits in third place on the rankings. Alltogether, a field of twenty-two women surfers will be competing at the famous Middles reef for an unprecedented $12,000 in prize money from Corona Extra and the Puerto Rico Tourism Company. “This is the most interesting field we have ever had”, said Werner Vega, APSPR President. “The spectators will witness how far the performance level of Women’s surfing has advanced in the 20 events we have held since 2002”.

In addition, Coppertone Skincare has also doubled their popular “Best Performance” awards to $1000 each, to one of the Women and one of the Men.  In March at Domes, Quincy Davis and Brian Toth each won the Coppertone “Best Performance” for their top heat scores.

Surfing fans who are unable to attend in person at Middles will once again have the opportunity to follow the action online with the popular “Heats on Demand” feature. At the completion of each day of competition they will have access to every scoring ride of the event.

The boys over at Alley oop did a great job putting this whole event together check it!… hmmm it seems vimeo code doesn’t want to work in my blog so click on this link to see the footage:

http://www.vimeo.com/29462323

A note from Erik Covarrubias director of the HASL

With help from Exile Skimboards HASL is ready to present the 3rd annual Minishaka Shakedown at Kaena Point State Park, Keawaula Bay on Saturday October 8th starting with check in at 9am.  Cash prize as always for the Men’s Advanced division, league champion awards to be awarded after & a grand prize raffle for a sweet Exile coffin bag.

This is the final HASL skim contest of the year which will feature the league points awards and the crowning of a new HASL Men’s Pro Advanced champion for 2011.   The previous champions from the past 2 years include Clark Camp (2009) & Kyle “Little Man” Olson (2010) who are planned to be entered.  Points leader Jesse Solomon from Maui will also go against David Sterman who is 165 points behind in 2nd and Ace Conlon from Kauai in 3rd at 672 points behind 1st.

On the women’s side points leader Heather Graff from Maui has a chance to make it as the league champion for 2011 but has to go against Natalie Nakasone 2nd from Oahu & Joleane Rico from Maui who is 3rd in league.

Mahalo again to Exile Skimboards for helping us out for a 3rd year now on the HASL finals.  Can’t  forget Dirty Dog Eyewear, Freak Traction, Maui Skimmers, Lulu’s Waikiki Bar & Restaurant, &  Victoria Skimboards for their help throughout the year.

Here are the sign up links for the Exile Minishaka Shakedown.

Men’s Advanced $50 entry fee – https://www.active.com/event_detail.cfm?event_id=1990356

HASL member $25 entry fee for those who paid the extra $25 fee at the beginning of the year – https://www.active.com/event_detail.cfm?event_id=1990357

One time $35 contest entry fee for those who did not pay the extra membership – https://www.active.com/event_detail.cfm?event_id=1990485

Mahalo again for the support

Erik  Covarrubias

Hawaii Amateur Skimboarding League HASL
Email:  info@hawaiiskimboardleague.com
Website: hawaiiskimboardleague.com
Phone: (808) 265-2112

Gabe Kling leads best field of Surfers ever into Corona Extra Pro

It is now only a week away from the commencement of the 2011 Corona Extra Pro at Middles Beach on the northwest coast of Puerto Rico. As a busy Caribbean storm season continues to send swells to the shores of the island, the local pros are bracing for the invasion of the strongest field of Mainland and overseas surfers that the APSPR circuit has ever seen.

“We have already confirmed the entries of top Mainland surfers Asher Nolan, Ben Bourgeois and Gabe Kling”, said APSPR President Werner Vega. “In addition, Magnum Martinez, the top-rated surfer ever from Venezuela, and Hawaiian Kekoa Bacalso will also be competing”

The appearance of Kling, 31, from St. Augustine, Florida will mark the first time that      an ASP (Association of Surfing Professionals) World Tour ranked surfer has entered a Corona Extra event. Kling is currently ranked number 35 in the race for the 2011 World Title with four events left to go. Only forty surfers travel the globe on that elite tour, so Kling usually spends his time competing against the likes of ten-time World Champ Kelly Slater. Puerto Rican surf fans that flocked to Middles last winter to see Slater clinch his tenth title at the Rip Curl Search event will remember watching Kling as well. Gabe advanced to round three of that event, where he lost to South African Jordy Smith. So far this season Kling has won $69,450 in prize money, so the $10,000 first prize offered by Corona Extra and the Puerto Rican Tourism Company would be a nice addition to his career earnings of $362,550

Kling recently spoke about his up and down year in 2010. “I had a several injuries and didn’t do that well until the Lowers 6.0 Pro, in California. I won that contest and from there everything started falling into place. The waves were really fun last year in France and Portugal and Puerto Rico”.

Another top surfer who will be returning to Puerto Rico, where he enjoyed previous success is Asher Nolan, 33, from Jacksonville, Florida. Nolan won the 2006 Domes event over Isabela local, Brian Toth. Most recently, Nolan earned a wildcard slot in the ASP New York Pro by winning the trials event there in September. That gave him a chance to compete against the eventual winner, Owen Wright, of Australia.

Ben Bourgeois, 33, of Wrightsville Beach, NC recently won the Outer Banks Pro in his home state. Bourgeois is the most successful surfer ever from North Carolina and also previously competed on the elite ASP World Tour.

“In the last few years there were three or four little series you could do in the U.S., but they’re all gone now. These circuits like the APSPR are giving some great surfers the opportunity to stay in surfing.”

Kekoa Bacalso, 26, from Hawaii is currently ranked # 103 on the World ratings and Magnum Martinez is the greatest surfer ever from Venezuela. Martinez recently placed second in the Open Men’s division of the 2011 ISA World Surfing Games, in Playa Venao, Panama. Magnum is a regular visitor to Puerto Rico where he likes to catch the big swells at Tres Palmas with his friend APSPR competitor Otto Flores.

All of these visiting pros know they will have their hands full competing with the top Puerto Ricans at the challenging reef at Middles, where local knowledge is a big advantage. The local who may have the most to prove is Dylan Graves. The last time that Graves, 25, competed in a heat at Middles was against current World Champion Kelly Slater, almost exactly a year ago. Graves had won the local Trials and a wildcard into the main event of the Rip Curl Search. With thousands of local surf fans on the beach and millions more watching online, Graves gave the Champ a big scare, losing by only 1.43 points, which was the closest that any opponent came to defeating Slater that week, as he charged to his record-setting tenth World Title.

The defending APSPR champ at Middles, Brian Toth has also confirmed his entry for next week’s event. Toth, 26, from Isabela is leading the current Corona Extra season rankings. However, the ranking points on offer for the upcoming event means that the title race is far from over. “Because Corona and the Puerto Rico Tourism Company have more than doubled the prize money for this event”, said Mr. Vega, “the APSPR will be awarding increased rating points of 150%. This means that the winners at Middles next month will receive 1500 rating points, rather than 1000. So, while Brian Toth holds a substantial lead over the Bursian brothers, Tommy and Leslie, going into the event, a victory by anyone in the top ten, coupled by a bad result from Toth, could leave the Title race wide open”.

In addition, Coppertone Skincare has also doubled their popular “Best Performance” awards to $1000 each, to one of the Men and one of the Women.  In March at Domes, Quincy Davis and Toth each won the Coppertone “Best Performance” for their top heat scores.

Surfing fans who are unable to attend in person at Middles will once again have the opportunity to follow the action online with the popular “Heats on Demand” feature. At the completion of each day of competition they will have access to every scoring ride of the event. On our website < www.apspr.net > you can scan the draw, and select which heat you would like to view and much more. Each scoring ride is shown, along with the points earned for that wave, through the technology of the Beach Byte computer scoring system. Each of the five judges enters their scores for each surfer’s rides into the computer, which tallies the points and decides the winners. All of that scoring information is then available on the APSPR website to anyone with access to a modem.

“Entries closed Saturday, October 1, 2011 at 4:00pm, announced APSPR Executive Director, Vivianee Vega. For more information visit our website <  www.apspr.net  >, or call: (787) 872-2490 between the hours of 10:AM and 5:PM, Tuesday through Sunday”.

In addition to both days of surfing competition, Corona Extra will feature nighttime entertainment at several locations throughout the host town of Isabela, ensuring that the fun will continue around the clock all weekend.

Media Information:

Visit the media center on www.apspr.net for images, surfer quotes, archived press releases and athlete profiles.  Downloadable audio clips and TV news feed are also available.

Our generous sponsors are: Corona Extra, Corona Light, Puerto Rico Tourism Company, Coppertone Sport, Wapa TV, Hang Loose Surf Shop, Werner Vega Surfboards, Alfa Rock, n-punto, Jose Cuervo, and El Nuevo Día