World Surfing Games Costa Rica 2009 Breaks
Records
Prior to the Billabong International Surfing
Association (ISA) World Surfing Games Costa
Rica 2009, organizers thought that with the
confirmation of the participation of 35
countries there would be major
possibilities, and they had great
expectations for the championship.
Nevertheless, after almost three weeks have
passed since the close of this great
sporting event, the results have surpassed
even their wildest expectations.
The personnel of the ISA, Billabong, as well
as the Federacion de Surf de Costa Rica (FSC),
all agreed that this event was the greatest
surfing tournament in the history of the
World Surfing Games. In the middle of one of
the biggest economic crisis's of the world,
two government entities supported this event
strongly--ICT (Costa Rican Institute of
Tourism) and ICE (Costa Rican Institute of
Electricity)--making deep investments to the
Billabong ISA World Surfing Games Costa Rica
2009, and contributing to the healing of the
recession that has affected this country.
Also, the Municipality of Garabito, where
the World Surfing Game towns of Jaco and
Hermosa are located, had tremendous vision
for these Olympic Games of Surfing. Jaco
offered tourist promotion like no other
district in Costa Rica in the past. Now
certainly, the entire world knows about Jaco,
Playa Hermosa and Costa Rica.
In fact, 100 different media outlets were on
hand from all parts of Costa Rica, as well
as more than 50 international outlets to
promote what was going on in the water and
the ancillary activities as well. In total,
400 journalists were credentialed.
One of the main goals that was accomplished
in these World Surfing Games was to break
the record of $1 million in media space that
was set at the Junior World Surfing Games in
Ecuador in April of this year. With the hope
of the last published articles of those who
attended, it looks like it will add up to
about $2 million this year. Aiding in
accomplishing this task, were the various
press representatives, who attended the
World Surfing Games as part of each of the
National Selections. They maintained media
coverage for their individual teams for
their respective countries on a day-to-day
basis. The ISA was brilliant this year in
providing a tremendous amount of text
information, photographic material, video
and audio for the international contingent,
coming in Spanish, English, French and
Portuguese.
For Franklin Solis, Press Officier for
ICODER (Costa Rican Office of Sports and
Recreation), the Billabong ISA World Surfing
Games Costa Rica 2009 was positioned as the
sporting event with the greatest media
coverage in the promotion of sports in the
history of Costa Rica.
"The unique thing we can compare the
coverage of the World Surfing Games with are
the National Games. However, the media
impact internationally that we had from the
Playa Hermosa event, marked an era in this
country not only concerning promotion, but,
in sports," said Solis.
Another one of the goals reached by
organizers was the number of spectators on
the beach and the concurrent activities they
attended during the 8 days of the World
Surfing Games. At the closing of the event,
the Costa Rican Red Cross reported that
attendance of 70,000 people during the days
of competition. Organizers considered the
arrival of more than 80,000 to the zone of
Jaco during those days. In this sense, those
people contributed a minimum of $30 per day
per person to the commerce and hotels of the
area, adding up to approximately $2.5
million dollars.
Retails of Jaco reported the tripling of
sales in comparison to a regular High
Season. Billabong ISA World Surfing Games
Costa Rica 2009 was the second highest event
in terms of attendance in the surfing world.
The U.S. Open, an Association of Surfing
Professionals (ASP) World Qualifying (WQS)
event, draws 500,000 people every year.
Nevertheless, these World Surfing Games had
the largest attendance since its inception
in 1964. The calculations of the Red Cross
were that 30,000 were present on the last
day of the event.
One of the main reasons that the World
Surfing Games in Costa Rica drew such a
large amount of people, press and money,
were to a large extent the participation of
the prominent figures of the surfing world.
Names like France's Jeremy Flores, the Top
10 WCT competitor who won the gold medal at
these World Surfing Games; the United
States' Cory Lopez, who been a WCT
competitor since 1997 and finished 3rd on
the WCT this year and WCT competitor Ben
Bourgeois; Australia's WCT competitors Mick
Campbell, Dayan Neve, Samantha Cornish, Amee
Donahue; Peru's Sofia Mulanovich, the 2004
ASP Women's WCT Champion and 2004 World
Surfing Games gold medalist; and others.
Karin Sierralta, Vice President of ISA and
Manager of the Asociacion Latinamerica
Surfistas Profesionals (ALAS) Latin Tour,
confirmed that the Billabong ISA World
Surfing Games Costa Rica 2009 was the one
that has more stars of the ASP WCT events.
"Personally, I don't remember seeing a
surfing event with so many people by square
meters in 13 years that come from the WCT,
Pan-American Tour and ALAS," commented
Sierralta.
In addition, for added value, the
opportunity offered the time to see several
athletes of Costa Rica's National Surf Team
in this exceptional arena, facing such
strong powerful surfers. It was the fourth
consecutive time that the Costa Ricans
placed inside of the Top 10 in the world,
and once again, Jason Torres of Jaco--the
21-year-old surfer who made the best
international performance--also placed in
the Top 10, coming in at #7. And there was
Carlos Muñoz, the Esterillos surfer of 16,
in his first World Surfing Games, coming in
at #13.
It's important to note that Latin American
surfers broke a record of attendance at
these World Surfing Games with the
participation of 14 of a total of 15
Spanish-speaking countries. It was the first
time that all 5 countries of Central America
together sent teams to a World Surfing
Games--Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El
Salvador and Guatemala.
The Latinos finished well: Costa Rica at #7
and Peru's Gabriel Villarán ended up 3rd
place in the Open Finals.
The Billabong ISA World Surfing Games Costa
Rica had 260 competitors between its 35
countries, the highest amount of countries
since the Games broke away from having
Juniors included in 1996.
Also aiding in making this an outstanding
event was the fact that Playa Hermosa
offered up a high quality of waves during
the week. Set at Hotel Terraza del Pacifico,
Playa Hermosa provided waves that ranged
from 3-6 foot, nice size and form, sometimes
tubes, that resulted in scores that often
times topped 9s.
"Thanks to the results that the Costa Rican
team transcended throughout this event, it
was well recognized that in this country
surfing is a highly practiced sport by
professionals who strive everyday for this
sport to be praised every time," concluded
Jose Ureña, President of the FSC and
Director of the Commission of Organization
of Billabong ISA World Surfing Games Costa
Rica 2009. |
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