The 2013 National Children And Youth Surfing Games At The Historic Revolcadero Festival Come To A Close

Translation: Heido Sundstrom

With the participation of 100 children and youth from Baja California Norte, Baja California Sur, Sinaloa, Colima, Nayarit, Jalisco, Michoacan, Distrito Federal, Oaxaca, Quintana Roo and Guerrero, the event was held after more than 15 years of not celebrating a National Games in Acapulco. The first National Children and Youth Surfing Games Historic Revolcadero, exclusively for minors under the age of 18, will define the national Mexican representative that will compete in the VISSLA ISA World Junior Championship (WJSC), which will be held in Salinas, Ecuador on April 5th – 13th, 2014.

The surf conditions were the best on Saturday, with good-sized waves and the late arrival of the wind, which allowed us to observe a good demonstration of what these little “groms” were capable of in favorable conditions. Alan Cleland achieved the best score of the contest when he entered a left tube and rode it for a good distance before exiting successfully, receiving a standing ovation from the excited crowd.

On Sunday, the finals kicked off with slightly more difficult conditions. The wind had picked up and the water was a more choppy for all the finalists. The new generations of Mexican surfers faced their rivals: the other competitors, the wave conditions and paddling against the current. Before their final heat, they studied where the wave was breaking the best in order to get around the conditions. They knew they had to make good wave selections and secure two good ones before attempting any radical and spectacular tricks with high degrees of difficulty. The battle of “Revol” was coming to an end and there was only 20 minutes left to fight for the glory and honor of becoming champions of Mexican surfing.

With a great effort, the state delegations gathered, bringing their selects for the participation of this exclusive event. Entering in two categories demands a great deal of strength, but the remaining “groms” came to battle it out with everything. The Mexican talent in the Under 18 category was present in the Historic Revolcadero Festival, writing their own story and doing a great job while they were at it, which we can all appreciate as that means a new generation of surfers—the new “pros”—are coming in strong. The new Mexican talent shortens the distance to the global level, which means we should work harder with them and in the categories where there are few young competitors (such as the girls and bodyboard categories).

We thank the Mayor of Acapulco, Luis Walton, as well as Kristian Vargas, Director of the Youth Institute, Councilman Wulfrano Salgado, the Secretary of Municipal Tourism, Octavio Olea of Sedesol, the Private Sector and the Media, and the State Associations for making this event possible.

Results

Girls Under 18 Shortboard         

1.    Ana Gonzalez (Col)
2.    Ana Pau Castillo (Gro)
3.    Rebeca Ladron (Gro)
4.    Valeria Peconi (Oax)

Girls Under 16 Shortboard

1.    Ana Gonzalez (Col)
2.    Valeria Peconi (Oax)
3.    Gina Genchis (Gro)
4.    Sofia Quiñones (Nay)

Boys 6 – 8 Years Old

1.    Benny Garcia (Gro)
1.    Osmar Valencia (Gro)

Girls Under 18 Bodyboard

1.    Vania Olivera (Oax)

Boys Under 18 Shortboard

1.    Jimel Corzo (Oax)
2.    Carlos Dominguez (Sin)
3.    Brandon Cabrera (Nay)
4.    Jafet Ramos (Oax)

Boys Under 18 Bodyboard

1.    Javier Valenzuela (Sin)
2.    David Olivera (Oax)
3.    Derick Gonzalez (Bcn)
4.    Alfonso Aguilar (Mich)

Boys Under 16 Shortboard

1.    Jony Corzo (Oax)
2.    Alan Cleland (Col)
3.    Nahum Corzo (Oax)
4.    Sasha Donnanno (Oax)

Boys Under 16 Bodyboard

1.    Alfonso Aguilar (Mich)
2.    David Olivera (Oax)
3.    Heraclio Hernandez (Col)
4.    Fanferi Ruiz (Oax)

Boys Under 14 Shortboard

1.    Alan Cleland (Col)
2.    Sebastian Williams (Oax)
3.    Jose Andrade (Nay)
4.    Jacon Mcgraw (Col)

The 2013 National Children And Youth Surfing Games At The Historic Revolcadero Festival Is Inaugurated By Mayor Luis Walton

Translation: Heido Sundstrom

There’s no deadline that can’t be met and the moment of truth came this past Friday, November 29th, when the Mayor of Acapulco, Luis Walton, inaugurated the 2013 National Children and Youth Surfing Games of the Historic Revolcadero Festival and kicked it off with a flag ceremony. Alongside the Mayor stood Kristian Vargas, Director of the Youth Institute, Covadonga Gomez, Tourism Undersecretary, Councilman Wulfrano Salgado, Sporting Director Adolfo Aquino, Rodolfo Monreal, Secretary of Social Development, Alfonso Polidura, Secretary of the Mexican Surfing Federation, Javier Hernandez, President of the Guerrero State Surfing Association, and Ernesto “Micha” Trujillo, Director of the event, among other authorities that were in attendance of this historic event celebrating children and youth from all across Mexico.

The cream of the national surfing crop in the junior's category took place at the beach in front of the Hotel Princess, which has played host to two international ASP events in recent years. On this occasion, the young surfers attempted their best tricks in 3-foot waves with one goal in mind: to become national champions and represent their country in the upcoming 2014 VISSLA ISA World Junior Surfing Championship (WJSC), set to take place in Salinas, Ecuador on April 5th – 13th, 2014.

One hundred young people from around the Mexican Caribbean and Pacific came together to compete in nine different categories; the “seed” of Mexican surfing developing amongst young 6 – 8 year olds who have traded in their toys for a surfboard or bodyboard, taking their place in the sea and in the waves.

Commentary by Jony Corzo after getting The best tube of the 2013 Puerto Escondido Open

Translation: heido sundstrom

“Well, there was about a minute left to finish the heat and I had already grabbed a tube and felt confident that I had a place in the finals, then all of the sudden I heard the entire crowd begin to whistle that there was another good wave coming. I saw it perfectly and decided to take it and secure my pass to the final 100%. I saw that it had a good wall so that I could get in the tube so I braked a little and started to get covered. I did a couple of movements with my board so that I wouldn’t stay in the tube and it was an incredible view with crystal blue water and everything! After I exited the tube, the wave still had a good-sized wall and I kept hitting it until the wave finished. It was one of the best sensations I’ve ever had in a heat. When I got out of the water, everyone came to congratulate me: Jacobo McGraw, Jose Trujillo, my friends, my brothers, Angelo Lozano, Jimel Corzo and one of my best friends, Sebastian Williams. I want to thank everyone for their support, especially my family for the great support they’ve always given me!”
Commentary by Jony Corzo after getting
The best tube of the 2013 Puerto Escondido Open
Translation: heido sundstrom

“Well, there was about a minute left to finish the heat and I had already grabbed a tube and felt confident that I had a place in the finals, then all of the sudden I heard the entire crowd begin to whistle that there was another good wave coming. I saw it perfectly and decided to take it and secure my pass to the final 100%. I saw that it had a good wall so that I could get in the tube so I braked a little and started to get covered. I did a couple of movements with my board so that I wouldn’t stay in the tube and it was an incredible view with crystal blue water and everything! After I exited the tube, the wave still had a good-sized wall and I kept hitting it until the wave finished. It was one of the best sensations I’ve ever had in a heat. When I got out of the water, everyone came to congratulate me: Jacobo McGraw, Jose Trujillo, my friends, my brothers, Angelo Lozano, Jimel Corzo and one of my best friends, Sebastian Williams. I want to thank everyone for their support, especially my family for the great support they’ve always given me!”

The 2nd annual luis aldaco surf classic

Surfing: university of the waves
Translation: Heido Sundstrom

“The fact is that until I fall asleep,
in some magnetic way I move in
the university of the waves.”
- Pablo Neruda

It is a poetic sport because it is performed over the waves, with all of the attributes of poetry but that tends to concentrate on rhythm and rhyme. For the verse and a whole stanza, surfers are tasked with choreographies performed over animated surfaces; the equivalent of a poet’s writing and the stroke of an artist create literal marine calligraphy.

They inquire, in these gusts of saltwater of poetic elements. Each rise on the board means the beginning of their search. The better ones discover and then stick with it, with the mastery of their own physicality, rhythm and rhyme that the intrinsic wave carries, closer to art in its execution.

The tide and waves are the art to which the water-rider looks to find shapes, consistency, provide order. But as expressing form and substance is fallacy, then both components comprise a natural pair, creating full unity thus making them inseparable. Cavalier for excellence of the waves, like an elemental synthesis, a metaphor of the fusion between chaos and the chain of hidden marine messages. This rhyme and rhythm that the surfer discovers incorporates and then emulates those on the surface with their figure in contortion.

The movements of the surfer are then marine correspondents of the verse and those same movements are multiplied during the period of their performance. Acting as a comparison of all the stanzas that comprise the poem.

If we want to look into the process, perhaps at the technique, of how they approach this marine dance, then you could say that it’s a debate between their own skill and luck brought by the multitude of valleys and ridges that break the wind, the breeze, the deep currents and the mysterious workings of the sea; between its intervention capabilities in the realm of Poseidon and the untamed and unpredictable waves movements. The supreme quality of the surfer is then the right balance of his swagger.

“The surfers don’t go to heaven, they stay in the sea”. And then, as so often happens, a poet of the water acquires this status forever, as they no longer inhabit this earthly and finite perimeter. They from their own marine tomb to their peers from here on this side who gather in solidarity to pay tribute to their memory and create a play on water that lasts over 48 hours.

They have baptized one such contest with the name of Luis Aldaco, whose ashes were scattered into the sea two years ago.

The recent congregation was comprised of over 130 participants, over 130 figures that one saw for three days wandering here and there, hovering, entering and exiting, rising and falling, getting wet and drying off... All clad in their second skins; cross-shaped silhouettes perpendicular to their thinness and impeccably adhered to their boards, extensions of themselves.

This year marks the second year of the memorial and the waves appeared larger than the year before. The contest coincided, like a divine commandment, with a big swell, bringing flocks of frequent and excellent sized waves that cut through the water like a train and arrived at the shore like gifts for the surfers.

Swell, rhyme and marine rhythms are naturally inseparable and act as the sea's poetic tribute to the riders of the water.