(Daily summaries by Scott Wessling, posted to Kneeboard Surfing USA Forum)

Day One: today ended the first day of competition for the world kneeboarding titles here in Costa Nova, Portugal, and it was an unforgettable day indeed! We woke to find the contest site with a dramatic increase in surf, sideshore/offshore winds, occasional pelting rain, and vicious riptides and crosscurrents aided and tormented by the 11 foot tide swings. But the judges said, “it’s on!“. So the choices were the outer sets—7 to 10 foot, sometimes bigger— or hanging on the inside and trying to make sense of the wash throughs and smaller waves that might fizzle out or instead turn into a cracking shore break.  On any normal surf check morning we would’ve all passed on these conditions and sought something more sheltered but such was not the option.  However, it was also strangely exciting to see how each group of contestants in each heat undertook the challenging conditions and selected how to attack the dramatically changing lineup.

Team USA did so well today, with the great majority moving on to round two.  But all of us shared the common experience, after getting battered around in the lineup in the currents, or maybe getting sucked out to sea, or getting swept down the beach, or maybe being dumped unceremoniously on the shallow sand, and finally crawling up on the beach at the end of 20 minutes, completely exhausted!  But we got our waves, surfed well, and moved on…

Tomorrow is forecast to bring more troublesome weather, and bigger swell, so we’re not sure if the competition will continue or need to pause for a day

Let me post a few pictures that are frame grabs from the Surfing Portugal Facebook site that was available, and I’ll make some individual comments on the pictures to better explain things…

Pedro Velhinho courageously taking on the outside set waves. Imagine trying to make sense of this sort of set up!

Day Two of the World Kneeboarding Championships is now in the books, a day of joy for some and disappointment for others as a large group of fellow kneelos fell out of the Open Division competition.  The challenge again consisted of making good sense of the rapidly changing conditions in the water.  Often some of the best waves were close to fast moving and varying riptides that often simultaneously chewed up the waves, especially on the more desirable outside sets. So do you risk working around those powerful rips and possibly surf into higher scores, or choose to sit inside and focus on the smaller wave reforms to gain smaller, but more reliable, scores?  Each contestant had to consider his own skills, stamina and luck, and then make this choice.

The two top performances for the day came from team USA’s Sam Coyne and Kevin Skvarna, who both lit up the lineup with an incredible lip bash for each on the outside.  Together, they had the two highest heat scores for the day, as well as the two highest scored individual waves.

I also personally enjoyed watching Norcal’s own Mike Sears display of some of his considerable open water skills, honed in the demanding conditions of Moss Landing, tracking down a tough set wave to continue his advance into the Open Division Round 3.

The big shocker of the morning was to witness the difficulty that Gavin Colman, two-time world champ, had in securing his needed scores in the disjointed surf, and his ultimately falling out of the Open.

So there are five team USA surfers still in the Open (including Chris Beresford and Scott Wessling). Other top countries include five from South Africa, five from France, and also a surprising nine from Spain.

Round three of the Open continues on tomorrow morning, with the winners reaching the prestigious quarterfinals. And it looks as though some of the specific age division heats will also begin tomorrow afternoon. The forecast is for smaller, more manageable surf and better conditions.

I see the Day Two video highlights have been posted on the Facebook site, so you can view some of the surfing there. Unfortunately, it omits Kevin and Sam’s great waves…

Day Three Update: The intensity is really turning up now as we near the end of all the competitive preparations, endless paddling, punishing wipeouts, and on point carves and solid scores, all culminating with only two remaining days for the Contest.

Waves continue to be challenging due to a residue of disorganization left over from the hurricane swell, coupled with the surging tide swings, and the constantly changing currents. Frequent rain squalls send the spectators scurrying off the beach to the large Event Tent. Occasionally the heats have to be put on hold because the conditions just deteriorate and are no longer contestable; but then the waves usually recover within another hour or two—the contest resumes, and some great surfing re-emerges. Most everyone truly has had a positive attitude as we march through this together, and build new friendships.

With the quarterfinals of the prestigious Open Division now set for tomorrow morning Team USA has all its top four seeds (Sam Coyne, Kevin Skvarna, Chris Beresford, and Scott Wessling) in one of those quarterfinal heats. Only the talented South African team also has that many surfers moving on at this critical point.

And there’s lots of joy being spread around this evening as many of the rest of our team have already surfed into the semifinals of their respective age divisions: Chris Beresford, Joe Coyne, Ed Dimick, Roger Hughes, and Mike Sears.

I think the heat of the day was the Open Division Round Three heat featuring our own Sam Coyne and Kevin Skvarna.  Yes, there was also another kneelo in the heat from France, but he quickly fell behind as this was clearly a battle and first time matchup of these two amazing young American talents. These guys are really the future of competitive kneeboarding, with truly international-level abilities.  Attacking each wave with skill and aggression, at one point they were dead even with solid total heat scores of 10.0, then Kevin scored highly on his final wave to pull ahead and take the heat.  But as the top two advance to the next heat neither was eliminated from the Open.

But we were all deeply concerned to learn that South Africa’s very talented Ewan Rosie was rushed to the hospital late yesterday evening with severe lower back pains (possible kidney stone issues?) He was eventually released to be back with his teammates late this afternoon and we were all so glad to see return; sadly, however, he had to forfeit out of his promising Open Division campaign.

Similar wave and water conditions, but also improving weather, are on tap for tomorrow.  Here are some pictures from Brad Colwell from today’s action with Team USA, and I hope to be back with another update tomorrow evening.

Day Four Update: If the goal is to be surfing on finals day, then team USA is looking pretty good.

Kevin and Sam continue their strong run and, for the first time in recent memory, we will enjoy watching two Americans in the Open Division final: Sam returning after his New Zealand final in 2020, and Kevin, for whom this is only his second kneeboarding contest ever!

Here are the Americans in their respective age division finals:

• Pro Juniors (ages 20-29): Kevin Skvarna
• Seniors (ages 30-39): Sam Coyne
• Kahunas (ages 55-59): Chris Beresford
• Legends (ages 60-64): Joe Coyne, Mike Sears, and Ed Dimick
• Immortals (ages 65 and older): Brad Colwell and Scott Wessling
• Team Competition: Sam Coyne, Roger Hughes, Chris Beresford, Kevin Skvarna

Finals Day Photos from Flavio Viana

Final Results:

• Men’s Open: 1. Tom Gray SAF, 2. Sam Coyne USA, 3. Kevin Skvarna USA, 4. Diego Azevedo BRA
• Women’s Open: 1. Linnie Ash SAF, 2. Anne Milochau FRA, 3. Maider Atorrasgasti SPN,  4. Marina Franco SPN
• Juniors: 1. Loris DeMarco FRA, 2. Tomas Freitas POR, 3. Maximillian Elvang POR, 4. Antoine Baney FRA
• Pro Juniors: 1. Kevin Skvarna USA, 2. Lucas Honorato BRA, 3. Bernardo Figueiras POR, 4. Joao Vilhinho POR
• Seniors: 1. Sam Coyne USA, 2. Kelvin Weir NZ
• Masters: 1. Tom Gray SAF, 2. Heyken Sanchez VNZ, 3. Olivier Marimoutou FRA, 4. Cesar Segura SPN
• Grand Masters: 1. Lester Sweetman SAF, 2. Diego Azevedo BRA, 3. Anton Wiersma SAF, 4. Alfonso Alconero SPA
• Veterans: 1. Gavin Colman AUS, 2. Jerome Blanco FRA, 3. Larry Berger SAF, 4. David Hernandez SPN
• Kahunas: 1. Gigs Celliers SAF, 2. Chris Beresford USA, 3. Juan Navarro SPN, 4. Roman Rezac SAF
• Legends: 1. Baden Smith AUS, 2. Ed Dimick USA, 3. Mike Sears USA, 4. Joe Coyne USA
• Immortals: 1. Scott Wessling USA, 2. Murray Weir NZ, 3. Brad Colwell USA, 4. Martin Mitchell UK
• Team Challenge: 1. South Africa, 2. USA, 3. ANZAC, 4. France