World Junior Surfing Championship - Day 4 Peru

Thursday, May 26, 2011

ISAWJSC 2011 CONTEST DAY 4

ISAWJSC 2011 Contest Day 4 – May 25th

Wednesday’s schedule was entirely based on repercharges rounds for all 3 divisions. The start time was yet again set for 8am local time, though Ireland did not have anyone in the water until 10am. 

First up for Ireland on the main podium – Senoritas - was u18 surfer Conor Maguire in heat 7 of repercharges round 2 facing surfers from Australia, South Africa and Uruguay.  The early leader in the heat was the Australian; with Conor next to log a scoring wave followed by the South African and Uruguayan.  After the second set of waves the Australian reinforced his dominant position in the heat and the South African failed to pick up a scoring wave.  With only 2 minutes remaining in the heat Conor was in second place but under threat from the SA surfer who needed just a minimal score to overhaul him.  In the end the south African found a wave score comparable to the 2nd wave of the Australian surfer and thus overhauled Conor for the 2nd place in the heat eliminating him from the contest.
Conor’s 3rd place in the heat earned him a ranking of 65th in the division and 160 points for the team.

A quick run to the second competition podium - Caballeros - for the u16 boys division and heat 9 of repercharges round 2 featuring Gearoid McDaid. Gearoid was facing surfers from Ecuador, Australia and Argentina. He made a good start getting an initial reasonable score logged early in the heat to take the initial lead.  The Ecuadorian was then the first to get 2 wave scores logged to take over the lead followed by the argentine who slotted into 2nd and pushing Gearoid down to 3rd.  But another few wave exchanges the heat finished with the Argentine in first, and Gearoid in 2nd with less than half a point between them.  Gearoid thus progressed into repercharges. One of the 2 surfers eliminated by Gearoid was ASP World Tour Surfer Joel Parkinson’s nephew Mitchell. This was a major achievement and a huge upset in terms of expected results as Mitchell was the top seed going into the heat and #4 seed in the division as a whole.  Gearoid went into the event as 81st seed in the division.

3rd surfer into action for Ireland was again back on Podium Senoritas for the u18 boys heat 13 for Louis Martin.  Louis was up against surfers from Ecuador, Great Britain and Jamaica, both the British and Ecuadoran teams are seeded significantly higher than Ireland so would expect their surfers to place 1st and 2nd in this heat.  Early wave scores by the two higher seeds put them into the qualifying positions at the very start of the heat.  As the heat progressed the heat pretty much split into 2 battles, the british and Ecuadorian competitors battling for 1st/2nd while Louis and the Jamaican battled for the 3rd/4th place points.  With Louis failing to get a substantial second scoring wave he unfortunately was eliminated from the event with 4th place in his heat.  That placing leaves him ranked 81st in the u18 division and earned the team 128 points toward the overall tally.

Next for the team was a return to the Caballeros podium where Gearoid had done so well earlier.  This time it was the turn of the girls with Meadb McCloskey first up in heat 4 of the 2nd repercharges round facing surfers from Portugal, Britain and Argentina, all 3 countries ranked 10 or more places better than Ireland and their surfers seeded accordingly. In the end the greater experience of the other surfers led to better wave totals and pushed Meadb down to 4th place with contest elimination. She has finished ranked 61st earning 180 points for the team.


Final action of the day was for Emer McHugh in the heat immediately after Meadbs’, facing a pair of Japanese surfers and a Costa Rican. Whenever a team is lucky enough to have 2 surfers in one heat they very often apply serious team tactics where one of the surfers will try to disrupt the other surfers in the heat while her teammate has a free pass to pick & choose the best waves. This tends to continue as far as legally possible with the hassle tactics tending to focus on the opponent they think has the best chance of knocking one of them out of the contest.  Ireland has used this tactic in the past with some success to ensure the progression of at least one of the 2 surfers. Depending on conditions it is possible to apply the tactics in such a way to take turns in applying the “hassle” and thus ensure both teammates get a chance to pick up good scoring rides. Unfortunately for Emer the Japanese surfers managed to ensure they were the 2 to progress, eliminating the last of the irish girls from the contest.  The 3rd placing in the heat has earned Emer a 49th place ranking overall and 240 points for the team.

The only surfer now left in the contest for Ireland is Gearoid McDaid in the under 16 boys division.