Eurosurf Junior 2022 starts cutting diamonds and defining standings

They say pressure creates diamonds and then they are cut to their final form. And that’s what we started to witness at day four of the Eurosurf Junior 2022 that takes place in Santa Cruz, Portugal until next weekend, with another day of repechage

The main candidates are starting to come to their own and the best surfers, all over the teams and categories are starting to emerge. Some are not new, like Spain’s Hans Odrizola (u16) or Frances’s Noa Dupouy (u18) two usual standouts that kept on showing great surfing.

But there were other good performances, like England’s Alex Townsend (u18), Dutch Hugo Prinz (u16), Welsh Eli Perrins Davies (u16), German Lisa Boos (girls u18) and Hina Maria Conradi (girls u18), from France.

We spoke a little with Eli Perrins Davies, a 15-year-old surfer from Ogmore, South Wales, who dreams about pursuing a career as a pro surfer, to the point of having “no Plan B”:

“I’m super happy to be competing here in the Eurosurf. I lost on the main round because I insisted on surfing small waves and at this level you must risk more and surf the bigger stuff. But it’s so good to compete in this format and have a second chance to show my skills. Of course, there’s some pressure of surfing the repechage because you can’t lose but things are going well.”

Eli looks up to fellow countrymen Logan Nicol and Patrick Landon Dark and hopes to follow their footsteps: “I dream of being a professional surfer. There is no ‘plan b’ for me.”

Another powerful story among the many that can be told by any of the 170 surfers in this contest is the one of Hina Maria Conradi. Born in the Reunion Islands, the French surfer had to move to mainland France because of the ecological crisis that plagues her birthplace: an overpopulation of aggressive sharks and the constant attacks on surfers, some of them, tragically fatal.

“Yes, I moved to Biarritz to live and train because the shark crisis in the Reunion Islands. It became to dangerous to train or just surf for fun at home, so I just moved. Still, it was easy, I was very welcomed by the surfing community and surfing for France makes me very happy. I am here to help the team to become European Champion”, said Conradi with a huge smile.

The Eurosurf Junior now enters its final stretch and all heats decisive. Tomorrow the call is to start surfing at 10 am, in a day dedicated to both main event and repechage rounds.