ETL CARAVIA 2010

Publié le 5 juillet 2010 par Aurélien Meynieux

1ST ETL 2010 :

FLAT WAVES FOR AN HEAVY WIN !

Once again the eurosurfing federation, launched the European Tour of Longboard. With this first stage in the greenfull Asturias region of fancy Spain, everything was written to be a good revenche of my last ASP comp in Tapia (LQS 1*).

So , Carravia was choosen to start the ETL 2010 season.

This mellow and quiet village is located 20 kms from main city Gijon on the open Atlantic coast of Spain.

Arrived in town on thursday, I appreciated the peacefull environement to recover from the drive and Reunion Island jetlag.

The landscape was awesome , composed with hills and trees , shining under the spring sun. The bay was hidden behind sky scrapper hills falling into the white sand beach.

It was good to be there , preview of what could be paradise.

The cons was the wind blowing on wrong directions and the bay that couldn't provide consistant waves in this average swell...

Nothing was sounding good for the comp except the cow bells haunting the surrounding fields...

Anyway , I took the little trash out of my head, and started to enjoy the moment. After a typical spanish meal based on oil and meat , a couple of beers to help, I went to sleep in order to get ready for the next day.

ten large

On friday, I assumed a strong headhaque for breakfast, may be it was not just a couple of beers ...

After a furious spanish coffee , and bread toasted with butter, I was back on the track. Packed my bag and boards and drove down the line heading to the contest site...

Such a surprised , with the rising sun above the mountains and the seagulls singing, everything was here excepted waves . No contest infrastructure and advertisement ....

Am I at the right place ... ?

The only man I saw was a about to ask me what i was doing here ...?

even I couldn't find a proper answer .

After a good « olé olà » chat,someone saved me from this early drunk farmer and told me that here was the event site...

Happy to know that I didn't lost myself , I went out surfing to celebrate...

30 Minutes of pure 5cm waves , not 20 or 50 but 5cm waves !!!

ké passo aqui ??? passa nada , was the answer of my new friend !

In that day all competitors arrived and tried to get out in the freezing and rising wind .

Later that day i went out again and caught a few average waves that arrived thanks to the Side-On shore blow.

Saturday was the Day. A competition that started well in average waves with glassy to mushy conditions. Supported by my friends and coached by my shaper LUFI i managed to arrived to the semi final . Then started the struggle . I had to ride against Remy Arauzo who's one of the tour leader and rider of WLT , and James Parry who was the Man to bit in these waves, surfing with so much style and commitment , mastering both of classic and radical manoeuvers. In a 25 min heat after shasing at waves for 20 minutes i finally caught a strong score on a long connecting ride , which put me at the second place behind James .

I'd like to you to notice tha i loose my board and he took it for me , the fair play pays ....

I went asleep easily that night,happy of my job.

On sunday , no big surprised the swell decreased as the wind dorped down ....

The sun was at the rendez-vous and I had to give the best of myself to bit james on a tensed Man on Man heat .

Getting the priority and first score , I started waiting at the outside but nothing happenned excepted two good scores for james who choose to ripp the inside waves...

Getting unsure and nervous I had to slow down and keep focus on the unique waves that passed that day .

In the last 5 minutes I arranged to get 2 long rides risking a hang ten that pushed me in front with two hig scores . And i passed this semi final !

I was so stocked , getting the ticket to the final in front of James was good , we had good time fight out there .

So stocked i was even already happy of my result but still had to go again for the final which was to be against french fellow Alexis Deniel ,strong competitor who brightly made his way to the final.

Here start the Final, no more waves , long lulls ... At some point we were just tea-bagging on the spot, with this « man on man » priority system, I think I waited 12 minutes for a wave, sitting at the peak...

Alexis rapidlly took the lead ,ridding good lefts. but the waves were so small that it was almost impossible to get better than a 6.0 . And as usual in the las 5 minutes i found the ride. I needed something like a 6+ and get 6.75 a hang ten pushing me in first position. Then started the longest 2 minutes of my life. Now Alexis had the priority, and he's the kind of man who can always overtake you at any moment .

He took off on what was the last wave of the day and ride it till the shore. Watching him i thought that the music was over , and i was getting ready to turn down the light.

What a surprised when scores came on the microphone telling that it was not enough ...

I kept my position, I took the win !!!