Born to a well-known surfing family in Florianopolis, Mateus has earned a reputation of his own in the surf world. He’s won a varsity of international events, including the 2015 TCT World Championships at Lower Trestles, and released a handful of must-watch edits from trips all over the globe. His surfing is fast, fiery and futuristic — and it keeps on getting better and better.
“I’m super excited to join the Quiksilver team,” Mateus said. “The brand has such a deep history in surfing and I look up to a lot of the guys that are currently on the team. I’m stoked to do some trips with everybody and represent Quiksilver in Brazil and around the world!”
According to Mateus, the future of surfing is going to be all about going bigger, higher and deeper. That he’s determined to contribute his very own part to this future strikes you pretty clear when watching him surf.
Report by Craig Butler. Photos Irish Surfing Association – Gerald Maher and Patrick Hartley.
Bundoran Co. Donegal over the weekend the inaugural Bundoran Junior surfing Championships was held in some big conditions. Tramore junior surfers showed up in force to claim their spot on the podium and they finished the contest by turning heads and amazement from other competitors and their clubs. See Tramore isn’t known for it’s world class surf or big waves compared to that of Bundoran or Lahinch in Co Clare. But every surfer from Waterford who entered the contest broke through the qualifying rounds, knocking out competitors from more well known surf towns and every single one of them made it to the final. Which is truly an achievement in itself and speaks volumes about the level of surfing that we have in Tramore and the extensive work of the personal trainers and coaches the local surf club in Tramore.
The day kicked off early with the first heats in the water at 8am with the U14 boys. Tramore’s Ben Maher and Jai Widger, despite the big surf on offer these two youngsters battled their way through the rounds and on to the finals where Ben finished in 2nd place and Jai in 4th.
Next up was the U14 girls. With a strong Tramore contingency 4/5 of the finalists where surfing for Tramore. The girls put on a great display of surfing and showed their capabilities and what to expect from them in the future. Jude Lee took the win for Tramore, followed closely by Alex Fanning in 2nd place, Heather Breen in 4th and despite being her first ever surf contest Tess Hartley took 5th spot and contributed to putting Tramore back on the map along with the 3 other Tramore locals
Whilst the U14 girls was leaving the water, the U12 girls was entering. Akiya Moore despite her young age and the big conditions on hand, gracefully surfed a great heat with a style matching her father’s and came away with the win for Tramore. Then followed by the U12 boys. Odhran Bolger representing Tramore walked away with a 2nd place finish, despite his incredible efforts he came up just that little bit short of making it to 1st place. You can expect to hear great things of Akiya and Odhran in the future as they will most definitely grow to become future standouts in the sport.
The bodyboarders entered the line up. They put on an incredible display of what can be done on a bodyboard, but despite being members of the irish junior surf team and representing Ireland at the European championships this coming July, the two young Tramore dudes unfortunately came up short. Even with a break through performance, Joe Breen took 3rd place and Ben Maher took 4th place respectively.
The longboard heats in my eyes is where Tramore really shined. They battled through the rounds in the large surf on their big boards and made it an all Tramore final. All 4 surfers in the final are local standouts. Their places in the final backs up that statement. Knocking out surfers from more well known regions in Ireland. Tom Breen took 1st place after putting on an amazing show for the spectators. Tom is also a member of the Irish junior surf team and will be competing for Ireland at the European championships this July. Second place went to Tramore Surf Shop worker and all round dude Callum Condon, despite being one of his first times riding a longboard he put on a performance that left every body proud to say that he is representing our town. Joe Breen battled against his brother Tom in the final, but unfortunately for Joe he came up short and took 3rd place and again put on a proud display of what can be done on a longboard. Despite the invaluable coaching from his father who is a legendary Tramore surfer ‘Brent’, who moved here from the sunny shores of Sydney 18 years ago, Luke Ennis took 4th position. But after his stand out performance and win whilst surfing at the Tramore junior championships last month, Luke has earned his spot on the Irish junior surf team and rightly so as he is already putting some of the old guys to shame with his smooth style.
Unfortunately for the other Tramore surfers who surfed through the rounds in the open event the only surfer who made it into the final of the open was Kilian Maher. But what an incredible display of surfing Kilian put on. With his family and friends making noise for him on the beach of Bundoran, Kilian put on a display of surfing that even the veteran surfer would be delighted with. Though only 14 years old, Kilian surfed to standards of surfers twice his age and put on another break through performance for Tramore and to the cheers of his peers he managed to come away with the win in the open surf.
The U16 girls, the daughter of local hero Henry Moore, Sarah was a finalist. But despite her efforts and excellent abilities whilst surfing on a surfboard that her father had shaped for her, she came up just that little bit short of a 1st place finish. When I say a little bit short, I mean 0.5 of a point short. But still happy to of done well in the event. she was delighted to take 2nd place.
Another incredible final was the U16 boys. 3/4 of the finalists where local Tramore surfers. They went round for round, knocking out surfers from all over the country. Tom Breen still on form after the Longboard final took the win. Followed closely by his close friend James Power who despite putting on a great display, just came up a little bit short and walked away with a medal for second place. Then we had Kilian Maher who despite putting on an incredible performance in the surf open, Kilian finished in 3rd spot. But with a gold medal already around his neck, he walked away absolutely stoked.
Last but not least was the U18 boys. Scott Widger was the last man standing through the qualifying rounds. He faced some stiff competition in earlier heats, but his excellent knowledge and ability to read the waves secured him a spot in the final. He put on an incredible performance in the final and showed his excellent capability of wave riding. But unfortunately his amazing efforts just wasn’t enough and unfortunately he wasn’t on full form this day. But nevertheless Scott walked away with a 4th place finish and helped put the final touches to an incredible day for surfing in the south east. The U18 girls final was followed quickly after where Sasha Moore put on another incredible display of surfing for Tramore. Her great efforts in the water secured Sasha with a 2nd place finish. Once again Tramore has shown it’s worth on a national level for surfing and proved that we grow some of the best surfers in Ireland. I am excited to see what the Tramore contingency will achieve this July when they compete at the European Junior Championships in Portugal. It would not surprise me to see these kids making the finals on the global stage with their amazing talent.
Article credits:
Craig Butler at Humans of Surfing
U12 Girls
1. Akiya Moore, Tbay
2. Ellie Hoey, BBR
U12 Boys
1. James Cloney, WCSC
2. Odhran Bolger, Tbay
3. Henry Ferguson, Killiney
Congratulations to Quiksilver’s Andy Nieblas for winning the Duct Tape Invitational this weekend in Zarautz, Spain! The 23-year old from San Clemente, California, stole the show in epic conditions on the festival’s final day. Andy impressed the judges with his one-of-a-kind mix of crazy manouvers and smooth style that was celebrated by an enthusiastic crowd in the picturesque Basque town. Winning through the final against Alex Knost, Taylor Warren and Ryan Burch, the Quiksilver rider did not disappoint with a standout performance in pumping 3-4 feet waves, raising the bar of modern day longboarding.
Starting off with two days of flat to small surf, the Atlantic come to life on the third and final day of the event, providing plenty of opportunities for the 16 invitational hand-picks to showcase where surfing is at these days. Mixing up fresh faces in the longboarding community such as local up-and-comer Nico “Niki Dora” Garcia, Levi Prairie or Kai Takayama with visionaries of progressive logging like Alex Knost, Tyler Warren, Ryan Burch or James Parry, the invite list couldn’t have been more diverse while the atmosphere of the event was as relaxed as it can get.
After already taking top honors on Saturday’s expression session, Andy Nieblas rocked the final with plenty of tip time and effortless creativity, bringing on radical movements when you’d least expect it, while showing off his signature style one can hardly put in words.
Chad Wells, Quiksilver US Team Manager, is excited about Andy’s win: “Andy is an amazing surfer! Stylish in and out of the water and visually pleasing on the eyes, you could watch him surf for hours and never get bored. I am super stoked to see him take the win at this event because the Duct Tape Format perfectly suits his surfing.”
Full list of Vans Duct Tape Invitational Invitees starting at the event:
Zach Flores
Ryan Burch
Andy Nieblas
Harrison Roach
Saxon Wilson
Tyler Warren
Justin Quintal
Alex Knost
Levi Prairie
Jordan Spree
Kai Takayama
Robin Falxa
James Parry
Adrian Lopez
Nathan Sadoun
If you wanted to watch longboarding at its best then you should have been at The Saunton Sands Longboard Classic this weekend. The first stop of the 2018 tour kicked off at the North Devon primo longboard wave and in a nutshell – Saunton delivered. Really delivered. The standard of competition was high and the 3-5ft clean surf provided the perfect canvas for Britain’s top longboarders.
Elliot Dudley from Wales, having returned to competition after winning the Welsh title the week before, was quick to set his stall out and with his traditional logging approach posted some high scores. Local lad, Jack Unsworth, also favouring a traditional approach was keen to show why he qualified for the 2018 WSL World Longboard Tour posting two 10s to score a perfect combined heat score of 20 in the Single Fin semi final. However it was Elliot that took the win in the final with Jack in second.
Elliot also dominated the Men’s Open despite a valiant effort from Ben Howey in the final who posted a 10 on one wave, but still fell just short of Elliot’s massive overall score.
Claire Smail returned to her winning ways after a year off, taking the win in the Ladies Division. Her experience at Saunton gave her just too much of an edge against the other finalists, despite Jen Pen and Jenny Briant racking up high scores in earlier rounds.
Barnaby Innes, the 14 year old from Bude, showed that he is going to be one to watch in the future winning both the Cadets U16 and Juniors U18 narrowly squeezing out Newquay gigant-a-grom Jordan Zervas in the final. The predominently right-handed waves at Saunton just seemed to favour Barnaby’s style, which should lead us nicely into the second tour stop at Fistral and Jordan’s home break.
In the Junior Girls U18, the bigger conditions made the paddle out back more of a strength-sapping folly than a winning strategy and Emily Wells played it perfectly, picking off the reforms and putting enough on the scoreboard to seal victory.
The conditions brought out the best in everyone and even the old fellas showed they could still take on some solid waves and long paddles, with Adam Chell and Adam Zervas winning the Masters and Grandmasters respectively. Jason Gray, current Masters Tour Champion, will be looking to redress the balance at Fistral.
A huge thank you to all sponsors of The Saunton Sands Longboard Classic, without you none of this would be possible and we thank you all for your continued support.
This years UKPSA Pro Surf Tour got off to an amazing start last weekend with the first stop, The Surfaced Pro in association with Quiksilver & Roxy. Early Saturday morning the surfers were greeted by the early summer sun and solid 6-8 foot lines rolling into Watergate Bay. This year’s event was especially epic as it was the first time an event was broadcast live to the internet, expanding the audience, giving more exposure to the surfers, the location and the sponsors. This marked a new chapter in UK Pro Surfing as going forward, every event on the tour will be available to watch live on ukprosurf.com
The first day of competition on Saturday, saw a large swell arrive with offshore winds delivering near perfect conditions and the ultimate challenge for the top surfers. The Fistral Beach Men’s division was first up, standout performances came from European Champion Jay Quinn, also WSL Brit Luke Dillon, Jobe Harriss and last year’s tour champion Reubyn Ash, who all progressed to the final. The Under 18 Boys battled through the large surf and stamped their mark on the future of UK Surfing. True to form and befitting the ‘gender equality’ aspect of the event, the women’s open took to the water with the girls showing just as much grit as the guys in the challenging surf. The 2nd day and finals day started with Nerf Clash of the Groms Under 16 Boys division followed by the seven other Junior categories. Surf conditions were still very big with above head high sets still coming through. The weather remained sunny throughout attracting a substantial crowd of spectators to the beach. By the middle of the afternoon on Sunday the finals of all the divisions took to the water
Now in it’s third year, The Surfaced Pro champions the cause for gender equality in sports with both male and female participants receiving equal prize winnings – unprecedented in most sports, including surfing. Instigated by students at Cornwall College Newquay, who plan and implement the event as part of the Surf Science & Technology and Marine Sports Science degree programs, welcomes in a new era in professional surfing and further challenges the traditional norm by having each surfer’s highest wave score doubled, awarding powerful, impressive wave scores over an accumulation of “safe” rides. The Surfaced Pro, like last year, is the first stop on the new Nerf Clash of The Groms Tour, which covers 4 exciting events on the UK Pro Surf circuit, making stops at Watergate Bay with The Surfaced Pro, The UK Schools Surf Championships at Fistral beach, The Thurso Surf Festival in Scotland before returning to the home of The UKPSA at Fistral for The Clash of The Groms finale, giving our new generations of surfing talent an important pathway to hone their competitive skills and promote fresh talent across the UK. Presentations on the beach were the call for the day. Ben Sousek from Quiksilver & Roxy was joined by Cornwall Brender Wilmott to award our Contestants their prizes and crown the Surfaced Pro Champions.
We would like to Thank our fantastic event sponsors for their support Quiksiver, Roxy, Nerf, Korev, The Boardmasters Foundation, Fistral Beach, Cornwall College, Season Surf, Watergate Bay and we look forward to seeing you all at the Night Surf in July 2018
Results:
Men’s Open 1st: Jay Quinn
2nd: Luke Dillon
3rd: Reubyn Ash
4th: Jobe Harriss
Women’s
1st: Joe Dennison
2nd: Emily Currie
3rd: Emily Williams
4th: Lucy Campbell
Under 18 Boys
1st: Barnaby Cox
2nd: Seth Morris
3rd: Patrick Langdon-Dark
4th: Noah Capps
