Finals day is upon us but the Eurosurf Junior still has some surprises left.

And we are reaching the final stretch of this Eurosurf Junior 2022, in Santa Cruz, Portugal. The stronger candidates are lining up to sprint for the podium, but there were still some surprises left.

One of the most shocking was the elimination of Spanish star Hans Odriozola. The basque super grom that fell into the repechage rounds too early for comfort of the Spanish team has been, nevertheless a standout of the event. Until today. Hans was surpassed by an inspired Lukas Skinner, son of English longboarding legend Ben Skinner. Lukas won round 7 of the repechages with electrifying surfing and was followed by Italy’s Michele Scoppa, who edged Hans total score with a 8.8 against the Spaniard’s 8.56.

An ecstatic Lukas Skinner thanked his father, who also is coaching England, and says he only has one plan: “I want to be a pro surfer!”. Regarding the event, the young Englishman has very simple goals: “I want to have fun and help my team score as many points as possible.” And if that means to be European champion, we will see tomorrow, but he still has to go through the repechage final heat.

Meanwhile, there are some finalists already, with Martim Nunes (Portugal) and Kai Odriozola (Spain) in the under 18; Gabriela Dinis (Portugal) and Sarah Leiceaga (France) in the girls under 18; Inigo Madina (France) and Matias Canhoto (Portugal) in the under 16; Anette Etxabarri (Spain) and Anais Blanchard (France) in the girls under 16; Filippo Marullo (Italy) and Frederico Carrilho (Portugal) in the longboard under 18 and, finally, Cannelle Lebreton (France) and Lisa Boos (Germany) in the under-18 girls longboard.

Tomorrow we will crown the European champions!