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.