Source: Carlos Brenes –Costa Rican Surf Federation - www.surfingcr.net

Federation summons pre-team for World Championship in Costa Rica

Press release sent on May 29, 2009

With sixty days to go for the World Surfing Games to be held in our country, the Costa Rican Surfing Federation (FSC, for its initials in Spanish) announced the list of the twelve surfers to conform the national pre-team.  They will begin a selective process to the most important surfing appointment this year, the Billabong ISA World Surfing Games Costa Rica 2009 to happen in Playa Hermosa of Jacó from July 31 to August 8.

Eight of twelve summoned athletes will complete the National Surfing Team with the final standing to be announced two days before the competition begins.
The list of pre-selected athletes is as follows:

Open: Jason Torres, Luis Vindas, Carlos Muñoz, Diego Naranjo, Jair Pérez and Gilbert Brown.
Ladies: Lisbeth Vindas, Nataly Bernold and Mariana Samudio.
Longboard: Cristian Santamaría and Anthony Flores.

With the announcement of the pre-team, the process of grouping and training the surfers started last week.  The pre-team has been divided into camps that will consist of three days and two nights.  Thepre-team will coexist as a group, which has worked withpast national teams to strengthen the group spirit and allow the excellent performance of the country in several events.
Part of the work of the pre-team will be how to deal with the pressure they may receive by the public and media during the period of competition.

“Union has been the driving force of our national teams in world championships.  It will be a lengthy event and long days, in that sense we need to back each other all the time as a team, both in best as in worst moments”, said José Ureña, the team’s Technical Director.

Through the hands of the physical coach, Donald Vega, the Costa Rican pre-team will intensely work on the mental and physical aspects as well..  The twelve will have a daily gym session and Vega will advise on their food intake from now until the contest.

As to who will finally make up the National Team, the technical body will announce the names one day before the team has to be registered for the World Games. The team will be comprised of eight surfers - 4 Open, 2 Ladies and 2 Longboard.  According to ISA’s calendar, the first day of registration is scheduled for July 28.

Why will the eight members be announced only a day before the competition?  José Ureña said there are two important reasons for announcing the eight members only one day before the competition.  First, to back the National Team in case there would be an unexpected injury; and second, to maintain the athletes’ attitude and motivation right to the very end.

“It’s normal when you work with high performance surfers to have ups and downs in the selection process, that’s we are giving the opportunity to choose the eight that will be at their maximum level”, commented Ureña.
This group of 12 pre-selected athletes combines experience, youth and talent in three different generations of surfers.  Athletes ranging in age from 16 – 27 are being considered. 

“We are going to be very strict with them, in the sense that we are going to demand their commitment in this concentration.  They have a responsibility to surf the contest location, Terrazas del Pacífico, point every day.  Part of the advantage of being the home team is the absolute recognition of the competition’s point.  Surfing the contest break will benefit the surfers with points during the World Games. 

Another important job to be carried out by the technical team and the surfers is to ensure no no medicines or substances are ingested that would deliver a positive result in the doping tests applied by ISA before the finals.

Alex Valverde nominated as International Judge

Alex Valverde, Head Judge of the Costa Rican Surf Federation will appear for the first time in the panel of international judges for the criteria task during the World Surfing Games.
Among the six judges denominated as international, Valverde will the only Hispanic in the list.  This is the judging panel for the Games:

Head  Judges: Glen Elliott (AUS), Cyril Nel (RSA), Jordao Bailo Jr (BRA).
International Judges: Aaron Saranah (AUS), Robby Haugen (USA), Andre Albuquerque (BRA), Bruno Truch (FRA), Alex Valverde (CRC), Tiago Matos (POR).
Team Judges: Sandile Mqadi (RSA), Nathalie Massin (TAH), Borja Echeverria (ESP), Trevor Medcalf (NZL), Fernando Carlin (PER), Takeshi Hirota (JPN).
Nominated Judges: Elvis Carter (BAR), Gordon Torry (TRI).

About the International Surfing Association (ISA)
The International Surfing Association (ISA) is recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the World Governing Authority for surfing, bodyboarding and surfriding. It was originally founded as the International Surfing Federation in 1964 and has been running world championships since 1964 and the Junior World Championships since 1980.

ISA membership includes the surfing National Governing Bodies (NGBs) of over 50 countries on six continents. Its headquarters are located in San Diego, California. It is presided by Fernando Aguerre, first elected in 1994 in Rio, and re-elected six times since. The ISA's four Vice Presidents are Alan Atkins (Australia), Robin de Kock (South Africa), Mike Gerard (USA) and Karin Sierralta (Peru).

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