ISA World Junior Championships open with dancing girls in G-strings

Opening Dayz! In Maresias!

Hawaii’s Casey Brown has a bum knee but it didn’t stop him from convincingly winning his heat with committed turns like these.

Only in Brasil would the Quiksilver ISA World Junior Championships open with dancing girls in G-strings, conga lines and pounding drums and the semblance of an international mosh-pit with rhythm in the downtown beach park in Maresias.

The first surf day though opened in peaky 4-5' sometimes glassy peaks with an outside stand-up and if you picked the right one, rippable inside sections with two contest areas running simultaneously, one for the Under 18 Mens and the other for the Under 16's.

Brasil straight away served notice with convincing opening heat wins from Wiggolly Dantos in the Under 18's and Johnny Max in the Under 16's.

The Aussies, Hawaiians, Brasilero's and South African's all looked strong and the emergence of the Latin countries as threats in the early heats was noticeable, but for the USA team it was team captain Eric Geiselman who had a statement heat with a couple of lefts on which he executed his trademark off the bottom off the top speed carve to easily win his heat.

With the withdrawal of last year's silver medalists Tanner Guduskas due to his battles with mononucleosis and Karina Petroni to the pursuit of her professional career, Eric's heat was exactly what the USA needed to say we are a threat without them, as without them the USA is fielding it's youngest team since Surfing America took the NGB reigns back in 2004 leading to the silver medal winning performance in Tahiti that year. All but Geiselman will be eligible for the nest ISA World Juniors in Portugal next year.

USA’s Eric Geiselman found the lined up lefts to his liking

In the Under 16's Dillon Perillo surfed one of the strongest performances of the day and looks like an early medal contender in that division. Rookie USA Surf Team super groms Andrew Doheny and Kolohe Andina backed up their selections with first round heat wins.

After day one the USA has started off in the medal hunt, but there's a long way to go as today was just the first of eight straight days of competition, the Quiksilver ISA World Juniors is not a sprint, it's a marathon and the marathon has just begun and the USA is in the running.

Coach PT from Maresias, Brasil

 

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