PKRA Cabarete: Butt It’s Over

Cabarete, July 7th, 2007

-Chiche Arimbe

It’s all happened. It’s done. It’s history. It’s in stone. After a busy few days the event completed with Alvaro coming in 2nd overall and Bruna taking out the Women’s event!

The first elimination finished up with Bruna winning the Women’s and Alvaro taking second in the Men’s. Both Alvaro and Bruna excelled in the difficult conditions to earn a well-deserved rest day, after riding brilliantly through the final rounds of the first elimination. Bruna had a hard and close heat against Gisela, which she won, whilst Alvaro met Arial who was ripping to take out the first round of the men’s.

The rest day let the team recharge their batteries and enjoy some so delicious food cooked be “Chiche” at the apartment with friends and to celebrate Carlos’s b’day!! It also gave the opportunity to do some photo shoots on the new Yargas and tune their boards for the next round. Alvaro snapped his board in the second-to-last heat of the first round, forcing him to switch to his backup board, whilst Bruna busted a footstrap in the same round of the Women’s, sending her to the mechanics (our villa) for a pit stop.

The finals had to be drawn out over two days as storms caused the wind to pick up and then die in the final 10 minutes, to force the Women’s event to be postponed till the next day. Alvaro once again beat Soto in the semis, to earn his place in the final against Ariel. Unluckily, a busted footstrap at the beginning of the final all but ended his chances of getting back in the game, as Ariel rode his way to a well-deserved victory. Alvaro, still out on a display once he got back in action, showcased one footers and old school tricks for the crowd.

Bruna had a tough run in the re-run of the first round finals as the wind picked up causing both girls to be way overpowered, with Gisela forcing the deciding heat to take place in the stronger winds. And just as the girls prepared to get back out there and do it again, the storm passed over, the wind died, and it was postponed for the day. The parties happened to finish the event celebrations with the Tiger on the prowl and Bruna taking it easy, with the heat the following day. Chiche picked up the slack checking to see if any of the team was left behind after the bars closed. Thankfully, they had left by then and Chiche could put down his beer and head home himself.

The wind finally picked up today (Sunday) by late afternoon, after a weird stormy morning, to complete the final women’s heat which Bruna took out with precision. Riding a smart heat on an 11m, Bruna gradually picked up the pace throughout the heat and worked up to a powered non-inverted slim to seal the deal and take the ratings lead coming in the next weeks event in Tarifa. There was enough wind to run the board-off competition, with Alvaro taking out the Men’s section whilst Bruna finished 2nd in the Women’s. Alvaro also got the special award for Sportsmanship. Alvaro is so popular with all the locals and tourists alike and even when he broke his footstrap he had fun and put the bad luck behind him.

Congrats to Bruna and Alvaro for riding brilliantly throughout the event. Well deserved results for them both and after spending the last 2 weeks with them, I couldn’t be more happy for them as they move up the ladder on the PKRA ratings. As we say in Africa “Wind fuels the fire, it burns in the soul of us all.”

-“Chiche”