Punta de Lobos local Cristian Merello won the 2018 edition of La ola de Chile thanks to a good tube he surfed at his beach on March 9, and he also won in the “Olón” of the year category for a bomb surfed behind the hills in September, according to a statement sent by the organization.

“It is a great pride and joy for me to win these two categories, on none other than the wave that has given me everything, Punta de Lobos.  This wave has been the springboard of my career as a professional surfer and it continues to be so. I thank the organization for this championship that pushes and strengthens national surfing” said Cristian Merello after receiving the award for Wave of the Year and Wave of the Year.

According to the press release, the award for wave of the year was a hard-fought battle against another local, Emilio Garcia de la Huerta, who in the September session got two tubes in a good one behind the hills and instantly became the big favorite. In the end, the check for more than 2000 dollars went to Merello.

Merello's winning waves were as follows:

The wave of the year filmed by Ulises Yañez

The big one of the year filmed by Rodrigo Farías: 

The other categories were distributed as follows:

Trip of the Year: Ramon Navarro surfing the wave of the century in Fiji filmed by Tim Boynton

Pagón of the Year: Chacha Ibarra in Punta de Lobos filmed by Oscar Fredes

Viewpoint of the year: Hinariru Tucki Icka in Mataveri

Maneuver of the Year: Roberto Araki in a full rotation filmed by Rosita Gonzalez

“As organizers, we thank everyone who sent us videos and we continue to motivate them to participate in this championship and continue to promote national surfing with this project,” said the director of the event, Tomás Mekis, at the awards ceremony that took place in Pichilemu last Saturday.