July 25TH Santa Cruz
And at day seven of the Eurosurf 2024, Santa Cruz was the stage for the main event decisive heats, with the first finalists of all divisions being found.
In the Longboard under 18, Portugal’s Francisco Freitas and Douwe Robroch, from the Netherlands, rose above the competition, that is, French Raony Portilla and Spanish Alfonso Zamora.
In the Longboard under 18 girls’ division, the youngest surfer of the event, Italian “wunderkind” Caimi Ginger, 12 years old, dominated the competition, taking advantage of her experience in Fuerte Ventura’s waves, where she is based, to negotiate the big and bumpy waves Santa Cruz provided today, to beat French Margaux Vieuge who will join her in the big final. Mia Ramakers (Belgium) and Alaitz Castro (Spain) weren’t as happy as they are going to have to try their luck in the repechage final.
The best surfer in the under 18 division was Leonardo Apreda, from Italy, that started strong with the highest single wave of the day, a 9,00 that helped him surpass Israel’s Ido Hagag, who also stamped his passport to the final. Spanish Hans Odriozola and Israeli John John Rabinovich will need to surf again, in the repechage final.
The best under 18 and under 16 female surfer was one and the same: French phenom Tya Zebrowski. On the under 18 division she beat Annette Etxabarri, from Spain and dispatched Portuguese Maria Salgado and Netherlands’ Zoie Zietz to the repechage final, while in the under 16 division, the 13-year-old French pocket rocket bested another Spanish surfer: Carla de la Vall. Once more, Zoie Zietz got the shorter end of the stick and will also be in the under 16 repechage final along with French Naia Monte.
Finally, the under 16 final was the stage for a duel of titanic proportions between England’s Lukas Skinner and Spain’s Dylan Donegan. Lukas got the best of the encounter and will meet Dylan in the big final. Meanwhile, Portuguese Jaime Veselko and French Aaron Bacon will have to go through the filter of the repechage final.
Tomorrow it will be Final’s day and we will know who are the new individual European champions and, above all, which country will take the overall European title.
Replays...
All pictures by Tiago Segurado for Ocean Spirit/ESF.
