Seventh Annual Circuito Nacional de Surf Competition Begins Saturday
Antonio Pilurzu, President of Federation de Surf de Costa Rica (FSC), announced that the 2006-07 Circuito Nacional de Surf (CNS) will begin this year on November 18 and 19 in the Puntarenas province at Boca Barranca.

The 2-star Copa Mango, which begins at 7:00 a.m., marks significant growth for this year’s seventh’s annual countrywide competition. Not only will this event be the first of nine contests in the six month, countrywide, seven-beach tournament  - making the Circuito 50 percent larger than last year to accommodate the overwhelming amount of entrants who registered in 2005-06 and are expected to compete this season - but the Copa Mango is the first campaign to solely focus on the younger divisions.

These include Junior (18 years and under), Boys (16 years and under), Grommets (14 years and under), Mini-Grommets (12 years and under) and Junior Women’s (18 and under). As with the previous year when the Junior category was splintered into a female division to allow for more competitive development in that age and gender, the CNS has once more expanded the 18-year-old and younger surfers, by creating the Junior Longboard category. Young athletes will go for this division’s first title this weekend at Boca Barranca’s Copa Mango.

According to Pilurzu, “We have observed that in the last few years, there exists an enormous growth in the practice of surf, particularly in the younger generation. In the previous year’s Circuito, we had an average participation of 180 to 190 boys, and we hope to have much more this year,” he added. “For that reason, we decided to offer these new categories and contests with the purpose of supporting this growth.”

In addition, premiering at Boca Barranca Copa Mango, there will be a other new surfing category called Novices that will be open to those whom Pilurzu is calling “lovers of the waves.”

“For this opportunity,” he explains, “we are opening up the contest for all people to register without distinguishing age or sex, people who have never participated before in the Nacional Circuito. We adopted this measure to get new blood to appear at the contest. It is important that we maintain a process of constant renovation.”

Along with these variants will come the brand new team competitions this season, organized by points at every CNS beach event. Each team will register two competitors per category, and those surfers may be replaced at subsequent contests, should the team decided on this. Once again, as is the CNS mission, team ranks will increase the facets of participation during the tournament year as well as the push the level of competition higher.

The debut of the 2006-07 CNS surfers in the remaining categories of Open, Women’s, Bodyboard, Longboard, Longboard Women’s, Masters (35 and over), will take place the following weekend—November 25-26—at the 3-star Pinilla Classic at the Guanacaste province’s Playa Avellanas. "We have very good expectations for this new year, and we are sure to attract a great amount of surf talent to every date,” added Pilurzu.

At the present time, the Champions of the 2005-06 CNS to beat are: Isaac Vega/Open (Tamarindo), Anna Garaway/Women’s (USA), Jason Torres/Junior (Jaco), Lupe Galluccio/Junior Women’s (Jaco), Jairo Pérez/Boys (Jaco), Carlos Muñoz/Grommets (Esterillos), Alberto Muñoz/Mini-Grommets (Esterillos), Rónald Reyes/Longboard (Jaco), Hannah Rico/Longboard Women’s (Jaco), Louis Maresca/Masters (Tamarindo), and Iván Castillo/Bodyboard (Quepos).

The inscriptions for the first date of the Circuito Nacional de Surf can be made on Thursday, November 16, between 5:00-7:00 p.m. at the Jass Surf Shop in Playa Jacó or on Friday, November 17, also between 5:00-7:00 p.m., at Boca Barranca Hotel. On Friday, and on Saturday, November 18, at 9:00 p.m. there will be a party at Pie Calliente in Boca Barranca for surfers and their guests.