Cover photo: ISA/Reed

Nicaraguan Candelaria Resano won last Friday the very competitive under 12 super girls category of the last regional stage of the National Scholastic Surfing Association (NSSA) circuit that took place on the waves of Kewalos on the south coast of the island of Oahu, Hawaii.

Resano advanced through the quarterfinals and semis in first place, scoring 10,34 in her first match, then 15 and finally 16,43, scoring a 9 and a 7,43 to beat locals Stella Valdez, Oaka Wong and Erin Brooks.

“Winning felt good in the sense that I proved I was the best in that category at the Hawaii event,” Cande told DUKE. “The strategy I used was different. There was no priority and being a reef break everyone was fighting for the inside and the waves ended up closing. So I sat lower and looked for the open waves,” she explained.

“The last three minutes were  “I had a show because I didn’t know if I needed to catch waves to get a score or to make sure that no one caught waves. I came to the conclusion that I was in first place because I remembered the waves that I had caught and that they were better than the other waves that the girls had caught. That’s when I started trying to mark all the girls but it was difficult because there were a lot of small waves coming that the girls could get a score with. I was able to push the girls deep so they wouldn’t catch waves and in the end I won,” added the local from Popoy in Nicaragua who is the daughter of the big rider Manny Resano.