Finalists Decided At 2008 ISA World Masters Surfing Championship

(Friday 4th, April 2008): Punta Rocas turned it on for the world’s premier masters surfers aged 35-years and older today, serving up ideal 2-metre right hand point break waves for a sunny day five of the 2008 ISA World Masters Surfing Championships in Peru.

Getting underway beneath blue skies and light offshore winds, finalists across main qualifying and repercharge rounds of the Masters (Over 25), Grand Masters (Over 40), Kahunas (Over 45), Grand Kahunas (Over 50) and Masters Women’s (Over 35) divisions were decided.

South American surfers stole the show with the Peruvian duo of Jorge Posso and Magoo De La Rosa scoring big wins in their respective round four heats.

Posso, a Punta Rocas local, caused the upset of the day, beating South African heavyweights Marc Wright and Nick Pike to blast his way through to the final of the Kahunas division.

After the lead swapped several times between Wright and Pike, Posso jagged the lead from his rivals with a 7.00 wave score, forcing his foes to chase victory.

His opponents locked in scores in the dying stages but it was not enough.

Posso finishing on 12.50 points to Wright’s 11.54. Australian Rod Baldwin finished third, whilst Pike grabbed fourth.

“I was sitting in fourth place for the majority of the heat, so I knew I had to pull out something big,” said Posso.

“I decided to risk everything in the last ten minutes. In the last minute the wave came and I made the most of it.”

Reigning Grand Masters champion and seven-times national champion Magoo De La Rosa (Peru) continued the South American charge, winning his stacked Grand Masters round four heat en route to booking an elusive finals spot.

De La Rosa, a Peruvian surfing legend, is gunning for back-to-back Grand Masters titles and is in good touch heading into tomorrow’s finals.

“I’m so happy to be competing in Peru,” said De La Rosa.

“It’s great to able to compete in front of your own country. Hopefully, I can win this event for my friends, family and most importantly Peru.”

De La Rosa, who has been consistently ranked among the top surfers in Latin America for the past two decades, added, “We need to thank the ISA for this event…The best surfing contest!”

“It’s great that the over 35 surfers in the Masters division have a well organized world championship. Now we can train and surf hard all year looking forward to being part of our national teams.”

Puerto Rico natural footer and reigning Masters champion Juan Ashton sealed the South American trifecta, outscoring Rob Page (Australia), Titi De Col (Peru) and Jay Sharpe (Australia), to progress along with Page into the final of the Masters Division.

Meanwhile, South Africa’s campaign for successive world teams titles was given a shot in the arm today with Heather Clark (Masters Womens) and Chris Knutsen (Grand Kahunas) netting convincing wins in their respective divisions.

The surfing action continued this afternoon with surfers duking it out across repercharge rounds in the race for prestigious finals spots. Surfers advancing through to the finals included Puerto Rico’s Beck Taylor (Masters Womens), Argentina’s Marina Boullosa (Masters Womens), South Africa’s Andrew Banks (Masters), Australia’s Rob Page (Grand Masters) and Puerto Rico’s Rene Gonzales (Grand Kahunas).

A long list of Brazilian’s including Ricardo Toledo (Masters), Brazil’s Newton Miranda (Kahunas), Renato Phebo (Kahunas), Roberto Cavallero (Grand Masters) and Massimo Panajotti (Grand Kahunas) were also successful in reaching the repercharge finals.

2008 ISA World Masters Surfing Championship winners will be crowned tomorrow. Stay tuned to www.isasurf.org for all event related updates.

The 2008 ISA World Masters Surfing Championships will be broadcast live on the Internet, at the ISA website, www.isasurf.org. Photos, news and results will be updated continuously throughout each day of competition.

The ISA World Masters Surfing Championship is a team competition. The nation who places highest in each division will win the gold medal in the team standings, earning the status of the best over 35 surfing country in the world. Individual standings will add points towards the team totals.

The divisions are:
Masters: Over 35 years old
Grand Masters: Over 40 years old
Kahunas: Over 45 years old
Grand Kahunas: Over 50 years old
Masters Women: Women over 35 years old

A complete team is formed by eight athletes: two Masters, two Grand Masters and two Kahunas, a Grand Kahuna and a Master Woman.

The top four finalists in each division are awarded gold, silver, bronze and copper medals, as well as the top four national teams.

Media Contact
All media interested in getting information about this event, please contact Pablo Zanocchi: <mailto:pablo@isasurf.org> pablo@isasurf.org. High resolution images will be available everyday at the disposal of the media press.

About International Surfing Association:
The International Surfing Association (ISA) is recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the World Governing Authority for surfing, bodyboarding and surfriding. It was originally founded as the International Surfing Federation in 1964 and has been running world championships since 1964 and the Junior World Championships since 1980.

ISA membership includes the surfing National Governing Bodies (NGBs) of over 50 countries on six continents. Its headquarters are located in San Diego, California. It is presided by Fernando Aguerre, first elected in 1994 in Rio, and re-elected six times since. The ISA's four Vice Presidents are Alan Atkins (Australia), Robin de Kock (South Africa), Maile Aguerre (Hawaii) and Mike Gerard (USA).

Sponsors & Media Partners International Surfing Association (ISA) / tel: 7609310111 - www.isasurf.org - news @isasurf.org