Noel de la Torre: “My goal was always to win”

Part 1 of a series of interviews with the most outstanding Hispanic surfers in the world. The Chilean wrote history for his country and Latin America


November 6, 2018
|EN News
|POR Pablo Zanocchi

Maitencillo local Noel de la Torre, 14, made history for Chilean and Latin American surfing last week in Huntington Beach after placing ninth in the under 16 category.

Even Manuel Selman himself, who had placed eleventh in the Under 2004 category at the 16 World Championships in Papeeno, Tahiti, acknowledged to De la Torre that the record now belonged to him and said: “Hopefully next year they will also break my record in the Under 18 category,” referring to the eleventh place he obtained in Costa de Caparica, Portugal in 2007.

Chile's 14th in the team standings showed that it is very strong among the juniors and that they have what it takes to do what Selman proposes.

During the World Championship, Noel began to quietly pass series, until at a certain point his presence caught everyone's attention: There were eight representatives from all the powers left in the main event and this skinny Chilean who had already left half the town out.

He has big plans for his career, he says he wanted to win the world championship and that his main goal is to be world champion. He has everything to achieve it.

This is what he had to say in a brief interview with DUKE.

What was your goal for the World Cup?
My goal was always to win.

Did you imagine you could go so far?
Yes, because the wave suited me a lot.

How did you feel as you progressed through the heats and got among the best in the world?
I was becoming more and more nervous, but at the same time proud of what I was achieving and that gave me confidence.

"The constant support of the team helped me through the good and bad times. Without them it wouldn't have been the same," says Noel. All photos: ISA/Reed/Evans
A big man's curve executed by a light 14-year-old. The future looks good for Noel de la Torre.

And when that race was over, how did you take it?
It was sad because my goal was to win, but the constant support of the team helped me get through the good and bad times. Without them it wouldn't have been the same.

What do you think you did well in this World Cup for it to go like this?
I spent three months training very hard in Brazil, technically with Israel Rocha and physically with AktionPaz for this year's competitions.

What are you going to do now?
I will continue training hard for the next competition. I will also return to California to improve my English and train to travel to Hawaii.

And in the long term, what are the objectives?
I want to keep improving my surfing, discover new waves and make new friends. But the ultimate goal is to be a world champion.

"The ultimate goal is to be world champion," says Noel. If he keeps up the pace, he may achieve it sooner rather than later.

This is his level when he is freesurfing:

 

ISA