LOCAL TIAGO PIRES WINS BUONDI BILLABONG PRO 

Sunday, September 4 th , 2005 .

Local surfer Tiago Pires pulled off the win of his life this afternoon by winning the 2005 Buondi Billabong Pro a men's ASP 6 star World Qualifying Series (WQS) event. In an emotion charged final Pires held on to take the US$15,000 winner's cheque. Competition relocated north along the reef break of Ribeira D'Ilhas to “A Pontinha” where quarter-finals and semis were run before returning to the main site for the final of this US$125,000 contest. The huge crowd did not mind having to move back from the cliffs to watch their hero claim victory.

Good quality 2-3ft waves with occasional bigger sets were on offer for the final session of the day at both sites. Relocating to avoid the high tide problems allowed a complete non-stop day of competitive surfing.

Tiago Pires stood up to the pressure and bought home the bacon in front of a huge crowd at the spot he grew up surfing. Getting off to a very slow start Pires held his composure to answer the challenge thrown down by his opponent Brazilian Pedro Henrique. The lead constantly changed until with only minutes left Pires caught “the bomb”, tore it to shreds to receive an – 8.90 – and an unassailable lead to the wild cheers of his fans.

“I don't have enough words to describe my feelings at the moment,” began Pires. “I think I haven't touched the ground yet. I'm really really happy. I couldn't imagine a better feeling.”

”I was nervous in the final and everyone was here to support me,” he continued. “I was feeling a bit tired already. I just started to think to myself that I already had second place so why be nervous. I just pulled myself together and did my best. I was pushing my surfing a lot to be powerful and throw a lot of water and in the end it paid off.”

“Pedro is a very fast surfer. He's small and light and technical. It was hard because I knew he could have made the score. He is dangerous in these types of waves so my eye was on him the whole time.”

Young Brazilian Pedro Henrique showed no signs of remorse with his second place finish. One of the fastest surfers seen here this week the little goofy-footer has shown signs of world class surfing. A true gentleman Henrique was happy to have made a good show in the 30-minute final.

“It was Tiago's day,” said an ever smiling Henrique. “He found the last wave and it was amazing. I saw the wave and thought oh! No!! (laughs).”

“But I'm stoked. It is my best result this year – yet. I hope I have more big results. I'm so happy and just stoked to be here.”

”I'm trying hard to be better. I have many things to improve like in big waves and to do big turns with big boards. I am training a lot and I hope I get a lot better (laughs even harder).”

Equal third went to Bobby Martinez (USA) and Sean Moody (HAW). The Hawaiian held a great second semi-final against Henrique. Taking the lead back off his opponent but not having priority he could do little but watch as Henrique destroyed a long right which bowled up to perfection with only 30-seconds on the clock to score a – 9.50 – the single highest score of the final day. Despite the shock loss Moody was philosophical and generally pleased with his third place.

“I can't complain because it's been a long day so it's nice to be done, said Moody. “I would have liked to have made the final but it doesn't always go your way. We actually got better waves than I expected I mean it was pretty good out there. They were some of the better waves I've surfed all trip.”

”He is surfing really well,” said Moody about Henrique. “I thought I had him at the end. I got that 7.33 and he needed about a 6.0 and then that perfect line came through and he got that 9.5 so more power to him. He's doing good.

Martinez put up a great fight against Pires but was never a real threat in their semi-final match up. The Californian was in great form going into the clash and answered the challenge laying down strong turns on his backhand. Never throwing in the towel Martinez was pleased with both his performance and his overall result.

“I'm really excited still,” stated Martinez . “I would have liked to have made it but I'm really happy (laughs). I was just coming here to make a couple of heats and it turned out really good.”

“I hope so,” said Martinez about his WQS rating. “That's what I was trying to do. I'd be really happy to consolidate my ranking.”

Young Frenchman Tim Boal surfed brilliantly the entire week to eventually be eliminated by Martinez . Despite losing, Boal has gained a lot of experience in this WQS event. Finishing equal fifth Boal leads a long list of Europeans including Micky Picon (FRA) and Eneko Acero (EUK) who both finished in ninth place.

“It's a good result for me,” began Boal. “It will better my rankings a lot I think so it's good. I hope I can keep the rhythm going in the next couple of contests.”

”It's good to surf man-on-man heats and I was pretty happy about the first one but I made a couple of mistakes in the second one. I'm happy. I've learnt a couple of things and maybe I can use them next time.”

Fabio Gouveia (BRA) finished fifth losing to Henrique. With no previous results in Europe this year and a recent illness Gouveia was very pleased with his performance.

“There weren't that many waves so I was trying to get any that came,” explained a smiling Gouveia. “My legs are sore,” he went on to say. “It's such a long wave and my fitness isn't good. I was sick before coming down here. It's my first result in Europe this year in the rest I lost in the first heat so I'm stoked to do at least one good.”

FINAL RESULTS:

1 st 2500 pts Tiago Pires (PRT)
2 nd 2150 pts Pedro Henrique (BRA)
3 rd 1825 pts Bobby Martinez (USA), Sean Moody (HAW).
5 th 1525 pts Gabe Kling (USA), Tim Boal (FRA), Fabio Gouveia (BRA), Rodrigo Dornelles (BRA).

The 2005 Buondi Billabong Pro was organized by Alfarroba, sponsored by Buondi, Billabong and B! fruit juice as well as huge support from the Câmara Municipal de Mafra, the Junta de Freguesia da Ericeira, PT, Tsunami, Fiat, Kustom, VonZipper, Nokia, Região de Lisboa, Vila Galé Ericeira, Rock Sisters, Ericeira Surf Shop, Fisioteam, Ribeira d'Ilhas Bar and ASP Europe.

Media partners are: Sport TV, Antena3 Radio, the daily newspapers Correio da Manhã and Record, SURF Portugal magazine and websites Surf. Sapo.Pt, aspeurope.com and Surfersvillage.com