Golden Girl!

Unfortunately for Team South Africa, the other two members who made finals each got a 4th place: Ethan Pentz in the Juniors, and Thomas King in the Mens. King get a 9pt+ opening wave, but sadly could find no further quality waves to take him to 1st place. Justin Bing got an equal ninth after he fought his way through the repercharge route, securing 1 000 precious points towards Team SA’s challenge for the team title.

However, South Africa fell agonisingly short of the gold medal, and had to settle for silver with 4,010 team points as opposed to France's 4,810, which saw them clinch the gold. 

Robb, who had dominated her earlier heats, just held onto second place in the semis by a narrow 0.10 of a point to advance to the Women’s Grand Final.

France’s Antoine Delpero won the Open Men’s, and Hawaii’s Honolua Blomfield won the Junior’s Under-18. Team France won the ISA Aloha Cup.

Huanchaco’s waves were in the 3-5 feet range, bigger than previous days, with calm winds all day long, providing exceptionally long rides for the surfers to perform at their highest level.

The first final in the water was the Junior’s Under-18, where Hawaii’s Honolua Blomfield won the Gold Medal earning 15.00. As one of only two girls entered in the Junior competition, Blomfield had a difficult task, but managed to dominate most of her heats throughout the event, including the final.

“I just feel on top of the world! I can’t believe that I was able to make it this far,” said the elated Hawaiian. “On my first wave, a set wave, I just played safe and did a couple of turns and some nose riding and ended up getting a seven. I was just amped throughout the whole heat. Then another really long wave came through, a little nugget that peeled all the way to the inside and I ended up getting another seven on that one.” These two rides added up to a winning performance.

The Silver Medal went to France’s Martin Coret (13.24), the Bronze to Brazil’s Caio Santana (10.56) and the Copper to South Africa’s Ethan Pentz (7.27).

Up next was the Open Women’s Final. Robb earned 11.50, defeating Silver Medalist Rachael Tilly (10.43) from USA, Bronze Medalist Justine Dupont (9.83) from France, and the Copper Medalist Megan Godinez (7.27) from Hawaii.

“I started up with a bang! I got the first wave of the heat, which was an 8, and I was really lucky to get that one,” commented the South African in her post-heat interview. “It’s really cool to be the first Female ISA World Longboard Champion. I’m really happy. My kids will wear my Medal when I get back home. This event was amazing and the other women were so nice to compete against; they were all are really friendly.”

In the Open Men’s Final, France’s Antoine Delpero won the Gold after posting two big scores of 9.00 and 8.20, an impressive total heat score of 17.20. Great Britain’s Ben Skinner had been in form all event, but felt just short in the Final, earning 15.60 and the Silver Medal. Brazil’s Phil Rajzman won the Bronze Medal, earning 12.03 and South Africa’s Thomas King the Copper Medal (11.97).

“It was a really hard and close Final, and everyone got good waves,” said Delpero as he waved his third ISA Gold Medal in his career having previously won Gold in the Longboard division of the ISA World Surfing Games in 2009 and SUP Surfing in the 2012 ISA World SUP and Paddleboard Championship.

“You never know if you’re going to have a good wave because the wave doesn’t opens up until near the end, where the strong scoring potential of the wave is. I tried to do my best and I’m super happy about that!”

The last event in the 2013 ISA World Longboard Championship was the exciting ISA Aloha Cup, a tag-team competition.

The Aloha Cup Final featured Australia, Brazil, France, and Peru. Team France featuring the Gold Medalist Delpero, his younger brother Edouard, Justine Dupont and Martin Coret won the Gold Medal exhibiting a smart strategy and displaying high-level surfing longboarding skills. The French defeated Peru (Silver), Australia (Bronze) and Brazil (Copper), as the largest crowd of the event cheered them on.

Final Team Standing:
1- France- 4,810
2- South Africa- 4,010
3- Hawaii- 3,726
4- Brazil- 3,618
5- Great Britain- 3,478
6- Peru- 3,441
7- USA- 3,136
8- Argentina- 2,993
9- Venezuela- 2,783
10- Australia- 2,636
11- New Zealand- 2,500
12- Ecuador- 2,425
13- Uruguay- 1,855
14- Dominican Republic- 1,745
15- Japan- 1,735
16- Mexico- 1,546
17- Costa Rica- 1,380
18- Puerto Rico- 1,320
19- Italy- 1,170
20- Canada- 875
21- Chile- 660
22- Panama- 600

Open Men’s:
Antoine Delpero (FRA), Gold Medal
Ben Skinner (GBR), Silver Medal
Phil Rajzman (BRA), Bronze Medal
Thomas King (RSA), Copper Medal

Open Women’s:
Simone Robb (RSA), Gold Medal
Rachael Tilly (USA), Silver Medal
Justine Dupont (FRA), Bronze Medal
Megan Godinez (HAW), Copper Medal

Junior’s Under-18:
Honolua Blomfeld (HAW), Gold Medal
Martin Coret (FRA), Silver Medal
Caio Santana (BRA), Bronze Medal
Ethan Pentz (RSA), Copper Medal

ISA Aloha Cup:
France- 58.05, Gold Medal
Peru- 46.95, Silver Medal
Australia- 42.90, Bronze Medal
Brazil- 29.45, Copper Medal