The Billabong Pro Junior, an Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Grade-2 Men and Women’s Pro Junior event, came to an end today at the beautiful beach of Ribeira d’Ilhas (PRT) and got the 2008 ASP European Junior Championship closer to its end as one two events remain in the women’s division and one only in the men’s before the champion is crowned.

Alizee Arnaud (FRA), 18, dominated the event until the final where she bested Justine Dupont (FRA), reigning ASP European Women’s Champion Lee-Anne Curren (FRA) and Canelle Bulard (REU) in the tricky two foot (0.5 meter) waves on offer at Ericeira. Arnaud, who won two events this summer already, came up with some great comitment and on-the-rail surfing to take her second consecutive win after the one in France a week ago.

"So stoked to win again," Arnaud said. "The waves were really too small but still contestable and it made the final very hard as all four of us wanted to get the better rides. I secured first place right at the beginning but it was very close all heat and it was not an easy one."

Arnaud, who had won her first ASP Pro Junior title at Ericeira three years ago, will once again have her name on the trophy and confirms her rise among Europe’s leading regional competitors.

"I am focused on the Top 2 finish to make it to the ASP World Junior Championships (WJC) in Narabeen," Arnaud said. "The ASP Europea title would be great off course but it is not really my main goal so I will stay focused on my surfing and training and see what happens."

The Billabong Pro Junior brought some of the most dramatic upsets of the year in the men’s division and Charles Martin (GLP) was the one to come out ahead of the four-day event where an amazing level was displayed by both international and regional surfers.´

New champions were crowned and old records were broken on the final day of the Oxbow Australian Longboard Titles today.
 
Held at North Haven beach in epic, two-metre conditions the action that transpired was awe inspiring, as competitors pushed the limits.

Having seen the best 180 surfers from around Australia converging on Port Macquarie a week ago, the Oxbow Australian Longboard Titles it was Josh Constable (Noosa, QLD) who walked away with his fourth Oxbow Australian Title; in the Open Men’s division.
 
Not only did Constable set a new record, for most Open Oxbow Australian Titles won, he also saved his best for last with masterful display.
 
“I can’t believe that I won,” Constable said after racking up an amazing total heat score of 18.75 (out of a possible 20).
 
“Four Australian titles is something that I never thought would happen,” he added.
 
“I remembering watching my heroes like Wayne Dean and Ray Gleeve winning Australian titles and always wanted to emulate them, but to surpass those legends is awesome,” he said after becoming the most winingest Open Longboard competitor.
 
Constable was unstoppable in the final, finishing above Harley Ingelby (Emerald Beach, NSW), Sam Dunton (Mt Martha, VIC) and Paul Scholten (Emerald Beach, NSW).
 
“I didn’t want to relax for a second,” Constable stated.

Chris Davidson (AUS), 31, won the prestigious ASP WQS 6-Star Prime Rip Curl Pro pres. by Sprite today in clean three foot (one meter) waves at Les Bourdaines, main venue of the 2008 edition. Davidson, who defeated an impressive Jihad Khodr (BRA) in the final where he posted the highest heat score of the week, secured his second ASP World Qualifying Series (WQS) win this season and confirms his No. 2 rank on the international ratings.

"I cannot believe it, it is more than I could ever hope for," Davidson said. "I felt like it was my day because these conditions usually fit my surfing so well and there was all the potential to surf at my best. I was so amped I got those two big scores straight away and just felt like I was free surfing with Jihad (Khodr)."

Davidson, who posted an impressive 19.27 point heat tally (out of a possible 20) to clinch the crown, has had an amazing year with several finals and two ASP WQS 6-Star wins, enough to make his ASP World Tour qualification dream get closer to reality.

"It has been a tough time for me since I got back on the WQS," Davidson said. "I was injured last year and with very few sponsorship so it has been a struggle but I am already looking forward to competing against the ASP Top 45 next year. So stoked, I cannot believe I have won it."

Davidson, who showed great surfing and radicality all week, was the only one to stop an outstanding Jihad Khodr (BRA), currently No. 42 on the ASP World Tour.

Khodr, who was seen as the potential champion after busting some of the most impressive airs and turns of the event this morning, missed the title not getting the better waves during the final battle.

"It was Davo’s day and there was not much I could do in the final," Khodr said. "I am stoked to get this second place and I had a great time in France, had a lot of fun competing in the good conditions today so it is all good for me."

For the 5th year running the KPWT Kitesurf Wave Masters World cup took place in Portugal, but this time it was not at the usual world renowned windy Guincho.

This year the KPWT joined forces with the Ocean Spirit Festival in Santa Cruz which is a huge festival of music and riding waves. This year it would also host the Kitesurf Wave Masters world cup as well as the surfing, skim boarding and kayaking championships!

Santa Cruz is a small surfing town North of Guincho and in between the famous surfing coastline of Ericeira and Peniche, slap bang in the middle of endless miles of long white sandy beaches blasted by the full throttle of Atlantic swell.

It’s not a short journey down to Portugal from Wales in my Animal van and as the wind and waves were a bit stingy for last years wave Masters in Guincho I decided that to make the drive worth it I was going to go early and track the wind and swell down all the way from Brittany where I would be stopping off for the annual Flexifoil gathering on the Queberon Peninsula.

With good timing, a bit of flexibility, and a regular up to date forecast we managed to move with the swell and wind all the way through France and Spain until we reached the west coast of Portugal. We scored a few of the classic surf spots on the way and discovered some new places in my faithful Animal van that made me not want to get on a plane again! When we didn’t have wind we had waves and when we didn’t have waves we had wind and when the wind was light we had a Flexifoil buggy and when the waves were small we had the stand up paddle board! Unfortunately we had to kiss good bye to the buggy in France as it was getting a bit too cosy in the van!

Ironically the wind decided to go to sleep during the week of the Wave Masters and only blew for half a day towards the end of the week which meant we were able to start but not finish the comp.

A Fleetwood kitesurfer feared he was going to drown as he was dragged beneath waves.

But today Mark Taylor was able to thank the RNLI for his life after a dramatic rescue more than half a mile off the port.

"I really thought I was going to drown at one point," said Mr Taylor, 32, of Queen's Terrace, who was unable to re-launch his kite because of a loss of wind.

He got into trouble while taking part in the popular activity on Saturday afternoon and was ready to abandon his gear and swim back to shore.

But he was unable to operate the quick-release mechanism on the leash attached to his board.

He said: "I couldn't get the kite to relaunch. The wind had dropped and there wasn't enough to get it out of the water and I was just being dragged along

"It was dragging me under every now and again. I had to turn round in the water and kick my legs just to stop being dragged under.

"It must have been about 20 minutes before I was rescued and I was absolutely exhausted.

"I realised I was going to have to stop trying to release all the gear so I didn't use all my energy."

Congratulations to Gisela Pulido and Aaron Hadlow for winning Fuerteventura Kiteboarding Grand Slam and to Charles Deleau and Fabienne D’Ortoli for winning the Course Racing event!

The Fuerteventura Kiteboarding Grand Slam 2008 draws to a conclusion with an exciting final day of competition under a perfect Fuerteventura weather. The temperature played between 28 to 30 degrees Celsius but the wind was back in greater force similar to the conditions two days ago. The wind packed a sustained speed of 22 to 36 knots with strong gusts which made it more difficult for some of the riders to land their moves. And if that wasn’t enough, the strong current also wrecked havoc on the racing buoys set on the course for the racing event. This prompted event director Olaf Van Tol to abandon the racing competition in the afternoon.

“We planned two races in the afternoon. In the first attempt to get a starting sequence, I saw one buoy was drifting so we had to reach for the buoy and fix it. So I went back to check for a second starting sequence then I noticed the buoy on the starting line was drifting also so that caused another delay. Looking at the time it needed to reset buoy #1, the second buoy would take much longer to reset and in much deeper water. The buoy probably lost its anchor so, given the time, we cancelled the games and called it a day. It was a bit disappointing but other than that, we had a great day,” said Van Tol.

The mandatory skippers meeting was held at 11:00am then the last ten heats of the freestyle double eliminations were held. After two hours, the freestyle wrapped up then a short one-hour break was held for lunch. After the series of technical difficulties on the racing course, the competition was called off at 3:30 pm.

Portimão Formula Windsurfing World Championships 2008 will concentrate the elite of worldwide windsurfing in Portugal, from the 8th to the 14th September. This ISAF [International Sailing Federation] event joins the best athletes from the 5 continents, to award the best of them the titles of World Champion both in the Men and Women leagues.
 
At present, the list of participants in these Championships shows the top sailors in the world. Names such as Steve Allen from Australia [World Formula Champion 2006], Ross Williams from UK [Europe Formula Champion], Wojtek Brzozowski from Poland [with several World Champion titles], Willhelm Schurmann from Brazil [Pan-American Champion and #2 of the world rankings], Gonzalo Costa Hoevel from Argentina [the winner of the last Grand Prix that took place in Portugal]... to mention just a few of the brightest stars of this sport's universe. In the women's league, the current World Champion - Australian Allison Shreeve - is already coming to Portimão, where besides defending her title, she will show the advantages of the new olympic project.
 
Also many of the most important Olympic sailors, in Qingdao, China, have already asked IWA [International Windsurfing Association] how to participate in these very special World Champions, where we can observe the performance of the new board - aspiring candidate to be the next 2012 official Olympic windsufing board. The event Portimão Formula Windsurfing World Championships 2008 will be the stage where all the attentions from the highest entities that regulate the Olympic sport will be focused, once that the Formula Windsurfing – One Design is the best project to integrate the next Olympic games.
 
With the excellence of this event, the Organizing Committee is leaded by Manuel da Luz [President of the City Hall of Portimão] and assisted by Luís Carito [President of Expoarade, EM], João Pedro Cascais [President of the CA of the Portuguese Sailing Federation], José Guimarães [President of Overpower Club] and Ceri Williams [President of the Class]... All of them are developing an exemplary work for the success of the event in Portugal.

The Terminator returns on judgment day: Bjorn Dunkerbeck sails to victory in race eleven, crowning him the event winner on the final day of competition in Alaçati. In the women’s fleet, Valerie Ghibaudo wrapped up the event with a second in race eleven, having already done enough to take the event title.

With tensions mounting on the final day of competition, the ensuing last race of the event would prove to be make or break for Bjorn Dunkerbeck (T1, North) and Antoine Albeau (Starboard, NeilPryde), who sat just 0.4 of a point apart at the top of the score sheet. For Albeau to rob Dunkerbeck of the event lead, he’d have to place in the top six, and beat Dunkerbeck in the final race. Likewise, for Dunkerbeck to take the event title, he’d have to place higher than Albeau.
 
In a warm up for the race final, Albeau and Dunkerbeck were pitched against each other in the semi finals. The resulting brawl saw Albeau gain a psychological boost when he crossed the line in second, two places above Dunkerbeck, however it was Finian Maynard (RRD, NeilPryde) that commanded the heat.
 
Coming down to the wire, the event title now hinged on the critical race final, with the winner quite literally taking all. As the green flag went up, Dunkerbeck seized the early advantage with a perfectly timed start. Off the pace, Albeau ran into problems when he caught a bag around his fin. The resulting drag left him towards the back of the pack, and stuck in dirty wind.
 
In contrast, Dunkerbeck, who seemed to be thriving under the pressure, screamed ahead of his nearest rival, Peter Volwater (F2, North) in second. By the fourth mark, Dunkerbeck was half a reach ahead, meaning the final straight was a mere formality en route to claiming the event title.
 
Crossing the finish line, the multiple world champion was greeted with wave upon wave of cheers and applause, as ecstatic fans congratulated the newly crowned event winner.

The third day of competition started out with the completion of race four, which had been whittled down to the finals on the previous day. First to hit the race course was the men’s losers final, which got off to a nervous start after Jimmy Diaz (Starboard, North), local Bora Kozanoglu (Starboard) and Patrick Diethelm (F2, North) all false started.
 
Taking the reins of the under strength heat, Gabriel Browne (Mistral, MauiSails) led from the start to take a decisive victory ahead of Gonzalo Costa Hoevel (Exocet, NeilPryde) in second.
 
Moving onto to the final, and disaster struck for Antoine Albeau (Starboard, NeilPryde) on the first reach “I went too downwind towards Finian at the gybe, and my clew hit his mast causing me to fall in”. The mistake left Albeau languishing at the back of the pack, and despite an effort to climb back up the ranks; he crossed the finish line in tenth position.
 
At the front of the pack, Bjorn Dunkerbeck (T1, North) dialed into the conditions, opening up a massive lead before finishing the race a solid half reach ahead of his nearest rival, Ross Williams (Tabou, Gaastra) in second. Filling out the remaining podium position was Kevin Pritchard (Starboard, Gaastra, Dakine, MFC), who managed to hold off a sustained attack from Finian Maynard (RRD, NeilPryde), who had to settle for fourth.
 
In the women’s losers final of race four, Lee Korzitz (Tabou, Gaastra) struggled to match her form from previous events, despite finding herself at the front of the fleet. She stood her ground to take the win, and eleventh overall for the race, with Australian Annika Gillgren (Severne) crossing the finish line behind her in second, and twelfth for the race.
 
In the winners final, Valerie Ghibaudo (Tabou, The Loft) had her foot firmly on the throttle as she negotiated the four buoy downwind course. On the finish line she was rewarded with the victory almost an entire reach ahead of the chasing pack. Padding out the all-French podium was Alice Arutkin (Starboard, North) in second, and fifteen year old Morane Demont (Starboard, Severne) in third.

Uri Valadao and Mayla Venturin have won the Sopelana BBK Pro!!!

Uri defeated Eder Luciano and Mayla defeated Christiane Kale making for an all Brazilian domination of both divisions.

In the day three, conditions were perfect for competitors and spectators alike with sunny skies and fun sized  2-3 footers being the order of the day.

The day began with the last 4 heats of R5 for the Men and as expected the action was red hot.

Heat 5 went to the local Aritz Larrinaga who showed that local knowledge counts for a lot with a solid win over Frenchman Pierre Costes. Exit Gastao Entrudo and Gorka Lasa.

Heat 6 was another great battle with the lead constantly changing. Manuel Centeno was leading early but picked up an interference and finished last ahead of Brazils Leonardo Costa with Pablo Serano (Ger) second and Hugo Pinheiro (Port) winning.

Heat 7 and current World champ Ben Player struggles to find waves with power and falls short along with Arim Caberara (Cny). The Brazilian duo of Rene Xavier and Eder Luciano dominated and go 1-2 into the quarters.

In the last of the R5 Men’s heats Mark McCarthy (Sth Af) leads from start to finish with a polished display of small wave surfing. John Showell (Aust) managed to sneak into second place in the closing stages with a tube/roll combo leaving Ryan Hardy in third and Hermano Castro (Brz) last.

Today at El Gringo we finished the finals of the 5th stop on the IBA world tour. With good 8 feet sets, the best bodyboarders on the globe fought it out for the Arica Chilean Challenge.

The final was between Brazilian Guilherme Tâmega and Hawaiian Jeff Hubbard. Tâmega started the heat at 100% getting 4 waves in the first 10 minutes. One of this waves he scored a 9.5 in a 3 session tube that made the crowd go crazy. After he caught another tube and scored a 7 point wave.
 
At this stage, Jeff could only watch Tamega surf. The waves that Jeff paddled for were closing out. As time passed, things got a bit difficult for Jeff with Tâmega holding him to a 16 points combination at the final.

 
“I needed this victory, I felt that something really good was coming. When I knew that would get Jeff on the final I said, I need to win this time(Tâmega loss to Jeff in the 2006 final). I am really stoked and now I will fight for the world title.” said the champion Guilherme Tamega.

The IBA World Tour now moves to Europe for a three leg series. 
 
Results:
1 - Guilherme Tâmega (BRA) 16,50
2 - Jeff Hubabrd (HAV) 11,37
3 - Piere Costes (FRA)
3 – Dave Winchster (Aus)
5 – Magno Oliveira (BRA)
5 – Yeray Martinez (CAN)
5 - Richard Dias (CAN)
5 - Mitch Rawlins(AUS)

SOURCE: IBA

Finally after 3 days off, the Arica Chilean Challenge started with the top 16 in the world hitting the water. As forecasted, the waves where bigger with 7 feet heavy sets pumping at El Gringo.
 
The standout of the day was the Australian Mitch Rawlins that had the highest score of the day 17.60

Chilean Jorge Lecaros  won  the toughest heat of the day with world champion Ben Player, the six time world champion Guilherme Tâmega and the world class rider Ryan Hardy.

Jorge came out of the water as a national celebrity.

Uri Valadao now has a real chance to secure some valuable points with Ben Player eliminated.

He now has to get past an inform Jeff Hubbard
 
Tomorrow the waves will continue to pump at El Gringo and the next round men to men will start at 8:00 AM local time.