PLAYA HERMOSA, Costa Rica — Kaua‘i’s Nage Melamed made a strong showing at the Billabong ISA World Games this week at Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica. Melamed, the Hawai‘i Surfing Association state champion the last two years, survived the first two
PLAYA HERMOSA, Costa Rica — Kaua‘i’s Nage Melamed made a strong showing at the Billabong ISA World Games this week at Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica. Melamed, the Hawai‘i Surfing Association state champion the last two years, survived the first two rounds of the women’s competition before being edged out in her third-round heat.
In the first round, Melamed put up a score of 9.90 to move on alongside Sofia Mulanovich of Peru, the 2004 women’s champion. She just topped fellow Hawaiian Alessa Quizon, of O‘ahu, who scored 9.50. The top two surfers in each four-person heat advanced.
In the second round, she again took second in her heat with a score of 8.36. Ornella Pellizzari of Italy notched 12.27 points to move on.
A bit of bad luck put an end to Nage’s run in the third round. She again scored a solid 8.63, but Mulanovich and American star Sage Ericson put up 16.40 and 13.00 points, respectively, to secure their spots ahead of Nage in the fourth round.
Another Kaua‘i resident, Roy Powers, got out to a great start in the men’s division, attaining a score of 16.60 in his first heat, which ended up being the highest total of the 128 riders in the first round. He advanced to the second round alongside fellow Team Hawaiians Joel Centeio and Hank Gaskell, who each survived their heats to gain points for the team’s cause.
Unfortunately, Powers was also just topped in the second round. Though he put up a score of 13.14, Jason Torres and French superstar Jeremy Flores scored 17.33 and 13.67 points, respectively. Centeio and Gaskell are still among the 16 surfers left in the fourth round.
Big surf powerhouses Australia, France, Hawai‘i, South Africa and the USA have all placed several team members in the next round. But each took heavy hits Tuesday, losing some of their very best performers to underdogs like Venezuela, Argentina, and an unexpected last minute charge from unlikely Italy.
The Cinderella story of the moment is Venezuela, which has battled its way into repercharge after repercharge and now stands ready to enter several members into the next round and a shot at the title.
“Three years ago we thought it was impossible even get through the qualifying rounds,” said Jesús Chacón. “Now we have a shot!”
“We have a lot of momentum going into (Tuesday),” added another team member Rafael Pereyra, who won two repercharge heats. “The local Venezuelan people really gave us support, which made us work even harder. We feel like the second locals here!”
“For months and months we have been working together as a team,” Chacon explained through his coach. He talked about how hard they had worked to prepare for the Games.
“We trained physically, psychologically, technically, philosophically, and tactically to do our best.”
A press release from Billabong contributed to this story.
