I've never been one for the main stream sports so when I was asked to start a blog as a university assignment I decided to blog on alternate sports, which to me are far more exciting and extreme yet don't get the media exposure the deserve, so after Qualifying as a Exercise Scientist last year I decided to keep my blog going and focus on these sports as well as document my travels being a profession surf judge and a bit of my new interest in sport journalism, feel free to use the question box or post comments, Enjoy!

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

El Salvador adventures


I got my boards and luggage!!

After 2 days of postponed contest due to the to town of La Liebertad being declared in a state of emergency due to 7 days of heavy tropical rain, which left whole trees , horses and the odd dog floating around the line up, the ISA World Masters Surfing Championships was given the green light today.

Today kicked off with the opening ceremony at Punta Roca , behind the podium, the flag carriers and sand pourers from each of the competing nations each had a turn to walk up onto the stage and empty their containers into the glass tank on the stage, team South Africa's sand came from Warner Beach, my home town which was pretty cool, it was also mixed with sand from Vic Bay. El Salvador and Switzerland poured pebbles into the tank because their beaches don't have sand but pebbles instead.
So team by team the tank filled, the result was awesome (see picture)!

The sun decided to show face today and by noon it had burned away majority of the clouds and we were blessed with a scorcher of a day!

10am saw the first heats hit the water, Punta Roca produced, broken up swell at first but as the day progressed the waves straightened out and there were so great waves on offer, chocolate barrels for everyone.
All the Saffa's that surfed advanced directly into qualifier round 2.

After the event the judges decided it was our turn to surf, Punta Roca was crowded so the Peruvian , Nino insisted that we jump in the van and head "10 minutes" down the coast, 10 minutes i Peruvian is 25 minutes in South African time i'll have you know.

with time not on our side, with sunset just around the corner, Nino took us on a nerve wrecking drive along the windy roads of La Liebertad ( i'm still not quite used to this driving on the other side of the road), we finally arrived at El Zonte , a fun looking right hand cobble stone point break , the tide was a bit high but it was good to get in the water even if it was for only 30 minutes and a mission over 1 million stones in the dark afterwards.

All in all the trip that started off with a couple hiccups , is starting to look like it's going to be great one!!

So here is to the rest of the adventure, oh and don't trust Peruvians when it comes to post contest surfs.


Wade

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