Cover photo: WSL/Bielman

Latin America celebrated yesterday after Peruvian Miguel Tudela managed to place second in the Pipe Invitational and qualify for the most prestigious surfing event in the world, the Pipe Masters, which this year celebrates its 50th edition.

In a stormy and dangerous sea, Tudela did not hesitate and took control of the waves he had to take. He chose the waves well, waited patiently and found the tubes and went out to celebrate.

The only foreigner in a tournament that only has surfers who specialize in the wave, a tiring event that takes place in one day, in today's surfing world, with an impressive hunger and number of competitors. What Tudela did yesterday, December 8, was a gigantic feat, it will forever go down in the history books.

But he is not satisfied and says he is going for more. Below is the interview:

What a historic result, Miguel, how do you feel?
Speechless. It has been a very long, exhausting day, but I am super happy that the objective was achieved. I feel super good, super excited, happy. I only have words of thanks for Peru, for the people who train me, Gabriel (Aramburu), Rodrigo (Jimenez), Billabong, Rainos Hayes who was on the beach all day as a coach.

It's amazing, I'm super happy.

As far as we have been able to find out, the last Peruvian in a Pipe Masters was Magoo, in 1990, what can you say about this? Having made it into the history books.
Super, super, super happy to achieve a result like this, that's what I came here for. It's an honor to represent Peru and get it back into the Pipe Masters. The first objective was achieved but we're going for more. That's what it is.

How did you experience the event? You gradually found your waves, with a lot of patience.
I knew I had to find a couple of good tubes per heat and I waited a lot for my waves. I knew which one I had to catch, I tried to always go for the right one and I think that was the key to progress. The sea was big, quite complicated, with mixed swells that made the lineup move around a lot.

I think the key was patience and choosing the waves well, getting two good tubes per heat and that was what got me into the grand final and obviously then into the main event.

In the live broadcast it was not very clear what the 7,27 was… What was it?
It was a pretty good double wave. I had priority and Eala wanted me to go on one in front of that one. He paddled out, went on the first one and I let him go because I knew a better one was coming behind and thank God it came. It was a barrel behind the peak, big, I just ducked down, secured the barrel well and got thrown out. It was a super barrel really.

How does it feel to face Italo Ferreira, a world champion?
Italo is a super surfer, a super competitor, the number one in the world right now. The truth is that it is an honor to be  part of that series and have the opportunity to learn a little more from the water. So, nothing, we are going to take advantage of the opportunity and hopefully the tubes will give us the opportunity to advance in that heat and hopefully take first place.

What is the goal now?
The goal is to win the championship, that's why we came here. After fulfilling the first goal, which was to qualify, now the second is to win the next one. But we're going heat by heat, wave by wave, looking for those barrels that have been hitting me, hopefully they keep hitting me and we keep moving forward steadily in the event. I think we can do a lot more.

Is this the best result of your career?
I think it's the most important day of my career, possibly one of the best days of my life. I've achieved a dream that I've had since I was very young, which is to be part of a stage of the World Tour, and now we hope that all this will be reflected in the QS and I'll have the opportunity to be able to get into the Tour, which is the ultimate goal, the goal of my life.

 

 

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