surf > ISA

QUIKSILVER ISA WORLD JUNIOR SURFING GAMES 2007

L'Australia Vince questa edizione dei Campionati del Mondo ISA Junior, a Caparica, Portogallo.

E l'Italia ottiene uno dei peggiori risultati a livello internazionale della sua storia, risultato che non rispecchia fedelmente lo stato attuale del surfing nostrano.

La Nazionale Italiana, ottiene soltanto il 23° posto su 28 partecipanti, dietro a nazioni quali: israele, irlanda, jamaica, barbados, venezuela etc. E' sicuramente tra le peggiori performance del nostro surf a livello internazionale, mentre il surf a casa nostra continua a crescere a livelli altissimi ed al di sopra di molte nazioni più in alto in classifica mondiale. Questo è dovuto al fatto che la nostra Nazionale non è frutto dei migliori atleti ed accompagnatori, designatori, allenatori disponibili nel Paese, ma una Nazionale formata, contro il volere della maggior parte dei surf club italiani, da una Federazione (la FISURF), che oramai non organizza più nulla nel Paese da 2 anni, che non ha club affiliati, e che non rappresenta più il surfing come sport nel nostro Paese. Ma continua, per puri interessi personali di pochissimi, a voler portare all'estero la nostra bandiera. Con questi risultati sotto gli occhi del mondo intero. Eppure in Italia il surf è in crescita!

Quindi, mentre in Italia il surfing negli ultimi 2 anni ha visto una crescita esponenziale a due cifre sia in per il numero di surf club affiliati (da 24 a 55 in un solo anno), sia degli eventi organizzati (da circa 7 gare del 2005 alle oltre 50 del 2007!) ma anche degli atleti tesserati e degli sponsor di settore coinvolti, nonchè delle Regioni rappresentate, nonostante tutto ciò, al livello internazionale l'importanza del nostro Paese è clamorosamente scesa a livello di nazioni molto più indietro di noi in questo sport.

In vista degli Europei, tutto il surf italiano si chiede: ma saranno gli stessi personaggi che hanno portato gli atleti al Mondiale a formare ed accompagnare gli Atleti italiani in quest'altra importante trasferta internazionale?

AUSTRALIA WINS BIG AT THE 2007 QUIKSILVER ISA WORLD JUNIOR SURFING CHAMPIONSHIPS
GARRETT PARKES, SALLY FITZGIBBONS, JADSON ANDRE AND TEAM AUSTRALIA CROWNED WORLD CHAMPIONS IN PORTUGAL

13 MAY 2007 -- In a thrilling day for junior surfing, team Australia and two of its young stars took home gold medals on the final day of the 2007 Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championships in Costa de Caparica, Portugal. 
Australia’s Sally Fitzgibbons and Garrett Parkes are the new Quiksilver ISA World Junior Champions in the Girls Under 18 division and the Boys Under 16’s respectively, while their squad blew away the competition to take a second consecutive Team World Championship.   Brazil’s Jadson André scored the gold in the Under 18 Boys and led his nation to a silver in the overall team race.
The final day offered solid 3-5 foot (1-1.5 meter) waves – the best surf of the 8 day event - and each final featured spectacular showdowns at this, the “Junior Olympics of Surfing”. 
For the first time in surfing’s history, the ISA judging panel included 8 judges.   During the final two days of competition, all 8 logged in scores  with the top and two lowest scores being dropped. The feedback for this innovation was entirely positive.
André, like all three individual winners, powered through the repechage rounds to make it to the final.  He took an early lead with huge turns in the powerful waves and outlasted fellow finalists Chris Friend (Australia), Charlie Brown (Brazil) and Cory Arrambide (USA).  André was in strong form throughout the event and his self assurance never wavered. “I’m very happy because when I traveled to Portugal I told my family I was going to win,” said Andre.   “This was not easy and the fact that I got put into the repechage did not affect my confidence.  I knew I couldn’t hesitate and everything went right.”
Parkes, an electrifying fair haired surfer that viewers online compared to Mick Fanning, was at his absolute best in the final of the Under 16 Boys.  He locked in the highest single wave score of all of the finals (9.6 out of 10) where he did a series of vertical turns followed by an aerial reverse in the shorebreak.
“I’m over the moon, just frothing,” said Parkes. Parkes’s father in Australia recently suffered a stroke and the win was an emotional one.  “I dedicate my win to my Dad who was watching my heats on the webcast.  He’s the man,” he said. 
Parkes finished ahead of silver medalist and fellow Mini Gun (of the Quiksilver’s upcoming DVD Young Guns 3) Tahitian Tamoroa McComb, while New Zealand’s Matt Hewitt and Australia’s Davey Cathels won bronze and copper.  
Fitzgibbons avenged her last second defeat at last year’s event in Maresias, Brazil (she got silver then), by dominating the final of the Under 18 Girls this time around.  The silky smooth surfer admitted that her disappointment in Brazil was a motivating factor in her win.  “Last year I was winning but then went down in the last 20 seconds of the event,” Fitzgibbons said.   “It was a devastating loss, but it made me focus on surfing to the best of my ability this year.  The level of girls surfing has been so high here and it made me lift my performance.”
Fitzgibbons finished ahead silver medalist and teammate, Laura Enever while Sage Erickson (USA) Paige Hareb (New Zealand) took the bronze and copper.
Australia saw five of its surfers make the finals today and the team ran away with the team title for the second consecutive year.  Australia’s coach and 1994 ISA world champ, Sasha Stocker, was proud of his young surfers.  “Our team has worked very hard for this and I’m very happy with with our victory because all of the teams surfed so well.”
Brazil won the team silver followed by Hawaii’s bronze and New Zealand’s copper.
Hawaii won the ISA Aloha Cup tag team contest followed by Australia, France and South África.
In addition to their gold medals, André and Fitzgibbons also received coveted spots in the trials for the 2007 Quiksilver Pro France, the 2008 Pro Australia and the 2007 Roxy Pro Hawaii and 2008 Roxy Pro Australia where they will have a chance to surf against the likes of Kelly Slater, Andy Irons, Chelsea Hedges and Stephanie Gilmore.  Parkes win earned him 2500 dollars in credit towards entry fees of ASP events.
The entire event was notable for its exuberance and vitality and the sentiment on the beach was that this was the best ever event in the history of junior surfing.  Each team enthusiastically waved their nations’ colorful flags on the beach for each heat and, by the end, many surfers were seen in the uniforms of other teams – evidence of the strong friendships forged here. 
Adding to the positive vibes, the host team of Portugal also donated a surfboard to a competitor from Morocco, Amine El Jaffy, who could not afford one, and came to Portugal without competition equipment.
ISA President Fernando Aguerre awarded the surfers their medals in the event’s closing ceremony.  He was ecstatic about the success of this international event where everyone involved shared the ISA spirit of working together for a better world.  
“Congratulations to all the competitors and teams for all their efforts in Portugal,” said Aguerre. 
“The participants and judges did an excellent job. I would also like to thank Quiksilver for its strong support of junior surfing and the Caparica Surfing Club for its help in hosting the event. With great pleasure I announce we will be back in Portugal in October 2008 for the ISA World Games.”
The location of the 2008 Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championships has not yet been chosen but Aguerre revealed locations in France, Costa Rica and Ecuador are all in the running, with the final decision to be announced by June 15, 2007.
See the full results of the event along with video and photo highlights at:
www.isasurf.org and www.quiksilver.com/isa

Country U18B U18B U18B U18B U16B U16B U16B U16B U18G U18G U18G U18G TOTAL Place
Australia 1000 475 450 413 1000 670 610 450 1000 860 583 360 6648 1
Brazil 1000 860 450 360 500 413 390 360 555 500 500 360 5168 2
USA 1000 390 330 240 555 360 330 330 710 413 390 330 4478 3
Hawaii 610 528 450 330 528 450 390 375 610 413 413 375 4392 4
N.Zealand 555 413 300 180 710 475 413 180 670 390 240 0 4166 5
France 583 413 360 300 583 450 330 300 450 450 450 375 4069 6
S.Africa 500 360 270 240 500 413 390 360 528 475 390 240 3826 7
Tahiti 375 300 270 144 860 330 330 270 360 330 270 240 3425 8
Japan 375 375 300 300 475 375 360 300 375 300 300 0 3235 9
Portugal 300 240 240 240 375 360 330 300 360 300 300 240 2805 10
UK 360 330 270 240 270 240 180 180 330 300 270 270 2550 11
Chile 475 360 240 180 300 270 144 0 475 240 0 0 2504 12
Peru 270 240 180 144 300 270 180 144 360 360 270 240 2430 13
Costa Rica 330 240 180 120 360 240 240 240 330 180 180 0 2280 14
Venezuela 500 330 330 240 270 0 0 0 330 240 180 0 2180 15
Israel 390 270 144 144 240 240 180 180 240 180 180 0 2064 16
Ecuador 270 240 180 0 270 180 120 0 270 240 180 0 1950 17
Spain 180 180 120 120 240 180 144 120 330 300 270 180 1944 18
Ireland 180 180 120 120 240 180 180 120 240 180 180 180 1680 19
Barbados 180 180 144 120 180 180 120 120 240 240 180 144 1644 20
Argentina 360 0 0 0 300 240 240 144 0 0 0 0 1140 21
Jamaica 144 144 120 0 240 144 0 0 180 0 0 0 972 22
Italy 240 144 144 144 144 144 144 144 0 0 0 0 960 23
Canada 144 120 120 120 144 144 0 0 0 0 0 0 672 24
Morocco 120 0 0 0 240 144 0 0 0 0 0 0 504 25
Germany 390 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 390 26
Mexico 180 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 180 27
Guatemala 144 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 144 28

Back to Revolt HOME

powered by REVOLT MAGAZINE