Welcome to the Surazo Infernal! This event will introduce the full scale seeding round for the 4 STAR Unified PWA IWT Wave Tour events.

PWA-IWT: Surazo Infernal 2023, Chile

Opening day 

This structure, based on the WSL system to seed riders at each location, accounts for wildcards and different skill-sets. It’s a great approach because it helps resolve the difficulties of seeding riders while unifying two different tours and two different past rankings. Round 1 is a non elimination round with 1st and 2nd place advancing to Round 3, while 3rd and 4th place advance to Round 2, the Redemption Round. The top two riders from Round 2 then advance to Round 3 to meet the first round best. 3rd and 4th in the Round 2 Redemption Round heats are then eliminated. From Round 3 onward the riders compete in heats of 4 (for riding only events like Chile) with 1st and 2nd advancing and 3rd and 4th being eliminated in each round to the final. All 1-4 STAR wave events will be run in this way. The 5 STAR events will then include a Double Elimination Round as per the agreement between the PWA and IWT. We’re incredibly exited about the progress we all see in the sport. This is the future and it’s looking good!

40 Pro Men, including Germany’s 5 x World Champion Philip Koster and Guadeloupe’s wave riding guru 2 x Aloha Classic and Fiji Surf Pro champion Camille Juban, will join 24 Open Amateur riders, 21 Masters, 6 Youth and 5 Women for the 2023 Surazo Infernal with a week of great wind and waves to set the heart racing.

Day one kicked off with the Open Amateur rounds in in front of a very enthusiastic crowd many hundreds strong here in the picturesque coastal fishing town of Matanzas. Based around the stunning boutique Hotel Surazo, this event has an incredible positive vibe and huge outdoor party atmosphere that has been energized by news that this 4 Star event now counts toward the global Rider Rankings and ultimately the Wave World Titles as part of the new and exciting Unified PWA IWT Wave Tour.

The local community was on the beach in their hundreds cheering and loving the big event vibes. The energy here is intoxicating. There is a deep passion for waves, surfing and all the wave riders who are seen here as hard core heroes of the wild ocean. One of Chile’s top radical surfers, Diego Andrés, has taken to windsurfing thanks to this event and he entered the Open Am division with a massive smile on his face and couldn’t stop raving about the fun he was having, “I did my first JUMP in my heat!”Another of Chile’s most famous big wave surfers is also one of the top Pro Men in this event. Diego Fabres is nothing if not hard core and famed in these parts for paddling into full tilt deep ocean monsters brewed up in the wild southern ocean and unleashed on this spectacular coastline. The point is this: the windsurfers have made a seriously big and very good impression amongst this hard core surf scene in Chile.

The 24 Open Am riders were sent out in small waves but all were stoked to be part of this global wave riding event. The ethos of supporting grass roots energy while showcasing the best of the best is core business to the IWT. The opening day could not have been a more perfect example. Global superstars of the sport like Koster and Juban on the beach cheering for the Open Am riders was the most incredible and inspiring sight. The Open Am riders could hardly believe their eyes. That’s Philip bloody Koster cheering for ME!!!! WHAAAAAATTTT??!!!!! This is what it’s all about. Showcasing the best of the best and inspiring the rest. That’s the global 5 Star pyramid mission. We’re proud of the top riders for being so cool. They get it. They see, and their passion is obvious.

The Open Am riders pushed through to the final 4 and then we stopped so those 4 best will get the chance to shine in bigger swells later this week. None will ever forget this experience. All will share the experience. Inspiring others, and that’s how this works.

The forecast is for EXCELLENT wind and waves this week and the Pros will shine soon enough. This 4 Star event has attracted an astonishing number of competitors and very high level riders from across the world. Why have they come all this way? For the WAVES!!! For the good VIBES!!! For the extreme performance potential!!! For the FUN!!! Welcome to Chile!!! ITS ON!!!

(Text by  International Windsurfing Tour)

Conditions Arrive, Pro Riders Shine

5 x World Champion Philip Koster ???????? fully vindicated his multiple world champion status in Chile today by smashing out an ultra radical wave riding performance that took our breath away. Seeded #1 in this event, he was in the last of the first round heats, Heat #12. He was up against local young Chilean wild man Matias Vargas ???????? and Sweden’s Martin Lundgren ????????. Vargas put on an an impressive show to come second and advance to Round 3 with Koster, but it was the German powerhouse who dominated the heat and may have thrown down the performance of the day. Koster made it look easy when others were struggling to read the technical wave here at Matanzas. He punched out massive tweaked aerials shown on these shots, with laser precision and perfect form. This truly was a masterclass from the German champion. His was not the only standout performance of the day but this was definitely the biggest story: KOSTER RIPS on the Unified PWA IWT Wave Tour. This guy is one heck of a hard core RIDER.

Another great story of the day was that of the passionate Italian Federico Morisio ???????? winning his way into the Final 16. After so much training, injury, comeback and yes… PASSION! Fede comfortably secured a spot in the round of 32 (Round 3) but the next challenge was to push on to the elite 16 in Round 4. In this intense field, that was no small challenge. Riders need to get top 2 from 4 rider heats to advance. Fede had his work cut out with a stacked field of international and red hot local riders. He attacked with exceptional wave selection and brilliant surf style radical riding that hit all the critical sections and even a super critical under the lip giant air. He dominated to take 1st ahead of Frenchman and now Chilean local legend Killian du Couedic ????????. These two riders were in top form edging out international Belgium Star Dieter Van der Eyken ???????? into 3rd, eliminating the ripper and leaving him in a frustrating =17th place for the event. How far could this young Italian go?

Another big story of the day was the battle of the young Ishii brothers from Japan ????????. Youth rider Hayata Ishii ????????, who is gunning for the Youth World Title this year, made it into the Final 16, Round 4, with a second place in his heat behind Spain’s on form Marino Gil Gherardi ????????, while his older brother Takara Ishii ???????? was knocked out in the Round of 32 by wildly talented young Frenchman Baptiste Cloarec ???????? 1st, and the powerful riding of German Leon Jamaer ???????? 2nd. Takara Ishii ???????? put on a strong performance but he wasn’t quite at his best on the day. He’s now out of the competition with his 3rd behind those two great riders, leaving him in a disappointing =17th for the event. After a top 8 finish in Japan for him this will hurt. The competition here is so intense that only a riders’ very best performance is enough. It’s now harder than ever to climb to the top of this new very big unified pyramid.

(Text by  International Windsurfing Tour)

Final results

A wild coastline of surfers and windsurfers. Pioneers. Adventurers. Incredible local talent. Kids leaning to windsurf. Lots and lots of kids. Passion. A town called Matanzas.

The Unified PWA IWT Wave Tour came here to find great waves. We found them. And so much more. This event broke many records and excited many people. It continues to grow along with the whole tour. Growth. Growth. Growth.

Pro Men (41)

1. Philip Koster ????????
@philip_koster
2. Camille Juban ????????
@camillejuban
3. Julian Salmonn ????????
@juliansalmonn
4. Baptiste Cloarec ????????
@baptiste_cloarec

Women

1. Jane Seman ????????
@janeseman
2. Björte Pürschel ????????????????
3. Carolyne Vita ????????????????
@carovita23
4. Giannina Sarno ????????

Youth

1. Liam Dunkerbeck ????????
@liamdm11
2. Hayata Ishii ????????
@hayataishii
3. Inaki Maturana ????????
@inakimaturana
4. Jose Martin ????????

Masters (22)

1. Felipe Wedeles ????????
@felipe_wedeles
2. Arnaud Frennet ????????????????
@arnaud_frennet
3. Killian du Couedic ????????
@kikss777
4. Mariano Pecora ????????
@marian.pecora

Open AM (25)

1. Franky St Martin ????????
2. Michael Friedl ????????
3. Tato Octavio Caravalo
4. Juan Ignacio Marisio

Grand Masters
Michael Friedl ????????
Nicolas Recordan ????????
Olly Barta ????????

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by IWT Wave Tour (@iwt_wave_tour)

(Text by  International Windsurfing Tour) 

REFLECTING ON CHILE and the Growing Impact of the New Unified PWA IWT Wave Tour

Leon Jamaer wrote in SURF Magazine this week that he thinks Chile’s Surazo Infernal was the first down the line left hand competition to count for the Wave World Title since Brazil in 2007. That may explain the hunger that fueled the much larger than expected turnout and the astonishingly high standard on display here at this ‘little’ 4 Star event.

Germany’s 5 x World Champion Philip Koster and Australia’s Jane Seman stole the show taking out Pro Men’s and Women’s divisions in powerful displays, but the depth and breadth of talent here is the big story.

41 Pro Men, 23 Open Am, 21 Masters, 5 Women, 5 Youth, and 3 Grand Masters, with a total of 75 heats, on 18+2 20 minute cycles for 75 x 20 minutes = 25 hours of wild competition to complete all divisions. Intense. Many big name riders struggled to make the top 16 in the pro men’s bracket. Some didn’t make the top 24. A few didn’t even make the top 32.

There was shock on many faces as results were called out to the waiting riders on the beach, but that’s life in this new bigger world of riders and events. If anyone thought Chile was going to be easy points they were sorely disappointed. Everyone was warned about how good the locals are, and there are a lot of them… not just Chile, but brilliant talent also poured in from Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, the Caribbean and more. Riders are coming out of the woodwork for the exciting new Unified PWA IWT Wave Tour. That’s the big story. Something started here… something big… something unstoppable.

The 9 day event ran like a riders’ dream, with wind and waves showing up right on cue to give us a complete set of results across all divisions: Men, Women, Youth, Masters, Grand Masters, and Open Am.

We marched through the comp as we ran with our standard wave riding heats running at 18 minutes with 2 minute transitions. That gives us a clean predictable 20 minute cycle that started on the hour, or on the hour 20, or the hour 40, for 3 clean rider heats per hour. Every rider sailed at least twice using the round one ‘seeding round’ and the round two ‘redemption round’ system like the WSL for surfers. 4 rider heats with the top 2 advancing.

All this is familiar territory for experienced IWT riders. We’ve found this is a great system for wave riding events but for jumping events we, like the PWA, reduce heats to 2 riders to ensure we see every single ride and jump in each each heat for scoring accuracy. This was a full wave riding only event so we went full WSL.

The men’s final was a terrific showdown between diverse riders. Philip Koster 6 foot 2 and 210 pounds of raw power combined with his extraordinary control, power and precision. Camille Juban 5 foot not much and 140 pounds wringing wet combined with his riders’ flowing style always searching for the ultra critical lip crack and launch moments. Julian Salmonn 6 foot lots and lean build was hunting for bigger waves for his radical hard carving and long aerial style. Baptiste Cloarec 5 foot something, maybe shorter than Camille and similar weight, is utterly electrifying to watch because he’s totally NUTS!!

The Women’s finals were dominated by Australia’s Jane Seman. She won three from three finals with power drive riding, and down the line aerials. Left hand wave riding is this woman’s specialty. Harking from Western Australia and calling mighty Margaret River home, she’s very hard to beat in conditions like these lefts. The battle for second place was close between local living wild women Björte Pürschel originally from Germany and Carolyne Vita originally from Canada with a 2 to 1 final result going to Björte by a whisker.

The Youth division was dominated by Spain’s Liam Dunkerbeck despite very impressive opponents, Japan’s Hayata Ishii and Chile’s own Iñaki Maturana and Jose Fabres. Liam has an impressive mindset. He’s a non stop cheeky kid on the beach always up to mischief but when it comes time to hit the water for a heat, this guy is all business. He smashes out wave after wave of power moves. One to watch. They all are.

The Masters field was crazy stacked and we went to Topocalma to ensure the challenge got very real. Three years of Covid and the bracket is suddenly full of pro riders cracking 45. As the perfect example, French now local legend Killian du Couedic came =7th in the stacked Pro Men’s field and then ‘only’ managed 3rd in Masters!!! How’s that! The de-facto leader of Chile’s windsurfing community is the legendary Felipe Wedeles, and he shone brightly in the Masters final to take the high status title of Masters champion here in Chile. Second was Arnaud Frennet (=13th Pro Men). Argentina’s Mariano Pecora took 4th despite very impressive sailing. Suffice to say the masters field is pretty epic high standard and seriously huge fun.

A big congratulations to the Grand Master riders (55+) who competed in Masters and showed up many of the younger souls. Spain’s Michael Friedl, France’s Nicolas Recordan , and Australia’s Olly Barta. Hats off to these tough old bastards. They are bloody good and they show so much grit to keep pushing this hard. Very special congratulations to winner, Friedl who ended up =7th in Masters and 2nd in Open Am. Impressive. He threw down the gauntlet while laughing over a beer afterwards and challenged all Masters to come try and beat him on Gran Canaria…. We’ve seen the videos… yikes this guy is good! The overall Masters World Title is going to be an incredible battle.

The Open Am division was also huge with talent from all over the world and with a final four who would have all made a respectable showing in the Pro fleet. Franky St Martin from Argentina took the title after a fierce battle in Topocalma’s long lines. Spanish Master and Grand Master and serious danger man Michael Friedl stormed in for second. Tato Octavio Caravalo picked up third and ripper Juan Ignacio Marisio brought up 4th spot in the hotly contested final. Big respect to Franky and Tato for being excellent judges for the Pro field days.

All riders here in Chile showed moments of pure brilliance and all have hearts full of passion, drive and aloha. They had the stoke and they brought their best good vibes which matters so much to the way the sport is perceived. Every single rider deserves high praise for great spirit.

Watch the videos, check out the shots, the performance level had the beach crowd in raptures as they cheered and whooped and hollered for more.

One thing is sure, the wave riders of the world are showing up to rip the worlds best waves and they love this.

(Text by  International Windsurfing Tour)