El Sol de la Costa, X GAMES SURFING

X GAMES SURFING

IT WAS A HUGE SUCCESS: Good for Puerto, good for Mexican surfing in general and great for ESPN. Although the surf hasn't been huge this summer, conditions were much better than the the zero waves of Huntington Beach, where previous Games were held. ESPN has hours of great surfing to broadcast. It proved to be the best edition of "The Game", the team surfing concept invented by Brad Gerlach, so far. Chances are good that it will return next year.

[angel surfing] It didn't come easily. The logistical problems were a nightmare. But it was all smoothed over by the extraordinary efforts of Angel Salinas and Tom Chaney and their team of volunteers, the officials and local businesses people who pulled together to make it work. (You know who you are! Thank you.)

In the end the East Coast team won, for the 3rd successive year. But the real story of this was the amazing performance of the Mexican surfers, most of them from P.E., during their two days of competition. Christian Corzo set the standard for the visiting all-stars with the best 2 wave set in the history of The Game - - a perfect 10. The Malaguas (Jellyfish) prevailed over the Tiburones (Sharks). But everyone emerged as winners.

We'll report in more depth on this and on the upcoming longboard tournament next month.

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