Note submitted by Vissla y Vissla Peru - Cover photo: Daniel Bacigalupo

Gabriel Villarán and Hawaii get along extremely well and at times, extremely badly. The Peruvian reached the final in the Peahi Challenge and the Pipe Pro in Mecca and also injured his leg and shoulder surfing there.

But this season everything went well for him. The day he arrived, he got a tube at Pippe and the day he left, he got a tube at Pippe as well. And in between, among other things, he competed in the Backdoor Shootout with Pipe just for him and his friends. In addition, he was able to watch his compatriots competing at the historic CT at Pipe.

Gabriel talks about this and what is coming in 2022 in the following paragraphs.

Your season started off great with a big tube on the first day, ended great with another big tube, and in between there was the Backdoor Shootout among other things. How do you assess that?
My trip to Hawaii was a success, and it started off great with that late afternoon when I got a good tube, in fact, I hadn't gotten a tube like that in Pipe for several seasons.

Starting the trip like this is very special, for me who always goes and knows how difficult it is to find good tubes, getting that tube at the beginning of the trip was epic.

The Shootout was something new because I had never surfed it as a full team, I had always surfed it with Quiksilver but very sporadically. Knowing how the championship really works and being there behind the scenes with the team, it was a luxury to get into the water with the waves like that, it's out of this world, it's something that not many people achieve in life. For everyone it was a dream come true.

And it was also difficult. The first heat the boys went into the water in which I didn't surf, I was a bit over the top, a bit too big and very aggressive. They got a few barrels, but since that heat we always longed to find the perfect heat, good waves until we found that moment and we all got some great barrels. I didn't find the epic but I did get a couple of good barrels, good trips, and the team was up to the task.

"At that moment Pipe caught fire and I think we left the Peruvian flag well placed in Pipe"

There was a lot of hype from the event, the public, the competitors; they gave us a lot of good vibes and energy. At that moment Pipe lit up and I think we left the Peruvian flag well planted in Pipe.

For being the first championship that we participated in as a Tubos team, as a Peru team, it was a success. I'm not sure if we came in fourth or fifth place, but the truth is that all the other teams were made up of “Pipe specialists”; the best Pipe surfers were there.

In fact, one of the teams that surprised me the most was the Japanese team, they were kamikazes and they scored some great hits.

Also, I noticed that other teams were competing with each other because the best prize of the event is individual, I could see that in some teams there was internal competition. In our case it was the opposite, we talked about it before, that whoever is better placed in the line up is the one who has to go, has to throw the bomb because in fact the success of this championship is the vibe of the team. That was a priority from day one and it was what made the championship so special for us; we always encouraged each other.

How did you experience the CT at Pipe with Miguel and Lucca competing? You are one of the Peruvians with the most experience in the queen of the waves, did you talk to them? Did you share any advice? What was it?
The CT in Pipe was super special because we had Miguel and Lucca; we were lucky to have the two Peruvian horses there, fighting.

Miguel actually made some mistakes, he competed well but, what I have been able to see with respect to other competitors and comparing with the position in the line up for example of John John is that they do not position themselves as deep.

I include myself in the group of those who want to go as far back as possible and have the best barrel and score, and in fact that is what the event is about, but Pipe is very special; many times when it is a good size, aggressive and well barreled, the wave is so strong and it is so dry inside the barrel that the foamball takes your board away in a second; it is an energy that is very difficult to control.

And that's what happened to Miguel on a couple of occasions when we were sure he would get out of the tubes but he was too deep, he didn't get out of a couple of key tubes and he didn't make it through his last heat.

I was able to compare myself with other competitors who were suddenly not as deep but were achieving the score and were growing in the momentum of the heat.

"The CT in Pipe was super special because we had Miguel and Lucca; we were lucky to have the two Peruvian horses there, fighting"

With Lucca it was different, since he has less experience than Miguel in Pipe and the truth is that his backside is brutal, it is exceptional, he had a dream heat in which he got some great tubes and was well connected.

But in his last heat the conditions changed, he went onshore, and the strategy of sitting inside and waiting for a bomb didn't work out very well. When this happens you have to catch several waves in the heat to find the clean tube.

His strategy was not successful in the first half of the series and then Miguel Pupo got a good chance that did not seem to work and managed to score. The good thing was that Lucca found his way and was three points away from passing Miguel.

When he came back to the point and there were about seven minutes left, he made a good run and went away on the first one, which, in Pipe with onshore, is not favorable. That's when he gets injured and takes out his dirt.

He lacked a bit of experience in changing strategies before his heat, I didn't see him with a coach on the beach. We were encouraging him but it was difficult to get into coaching if he wasn't in the mood. So we let him flow in the best way, he was doing very well throughout the event, but unfortunately he made a couple of strategy mistakes in the last heat that could have put him on the podium of the historic Pipe Pro.

How is your 2022 going? What goals have you set for yourself?
It's still a bit uncertain since the big wave competitions are not confirmed, but I would like to compete in Punta de Lobos, in Pico Alto, in Puerto Escondido. I'll be super attentive to that.

On the other hand, I am going to open high-performance surf camps here in Peru for young surfers from Latin America who want to evolve and improve their surfing level, I am going to launch it soon.

In addition to that, there is the clinic and the BWRAG program, the rescue and safety course, which will be just before the big wave season starts, at the end of April; the high performance surf camps start in May, then there will be another date in June and another in November.

So I'm going to carry out four important activities for the community in which I'm going to lead activities and programs. And, from there on, chase some swells, maybe go to Tahiti and Fiji, we're talking with the Inkateam to see who signs up for these XXL swells, for that we're starting to train hard and evenly, to be ready and arrive in Hawaii in the best way at the end of the year.

But I would like to compete if the competitions are opened.

 

 

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