Cover photo: WSL/Heff

Costa Rican Carlos Muñoz won his debut series at the Vans World Cup of Surfing, the last QS 10.000 of the year, the last chance to achieve his long-awaited qualification for the CT.

Muñoz read the conditions well and started with the best wave of the beginning of the series, a 7,17 and finished with the best wave of the entire series, a 7,27, ending a perfect start to the event.

He left South African Jordy Maree in second place, local Gavin Gillette in third and Japanese Hiroto Ohhara in fourth.

This put him into round 3 where he will face Brazilians Michael Rodriguez and Yago Dora and Frenchman Gatien Delahaye.

After getting out of the water, he said in the livestream interview: “I’m happy, a little nervous but I did the job, caught some fun waves, the ocean is great… I’ve been putting in a lot of time here. I have Myles Padaca in my corner and he’s been giving me some good advice.”

Asked about the pressure he is under being so close to qualifying, he explained: “It is the first time I have felt this pressure in my career. I asked God to let me experience this and that is what he is giving me.”