Cover photo: Not many people know how to place their board where Cristobal de Col is placing it at Peñascal. And this was during the first day of the championship, when it was smaller and cleaner. Image: WSL/Kirfa

The QS Peñascal Pro is taking place in the Peruvian Sunset, the waves have been epic for the average human being, for the Peruvians the waves were not even close to being epic, maybe they were “good” because they are used to seeing seas like that; these are conditions in which they surf comfortably.

Yesterday the walls of water were up to double overhead plus on the biggest ones, the sea was a bit “choppy”, choppy in Hawaiian or Peruvian terms. There were some epic waves surfed that were on par with any QS at Sunset or Haleiwa. Heavy lip attacks, tricky barrels and real power carvings, classy surfing. And there was not one aerial.

And the most interesting thing of all is that this was not a swell that lit up the entire Pacific and generated green lights for big wave events, it is closer to winter in the northern hemisphere than in the southern. It was a moderate swell, a swell that perhaps does not move a Peruvian too much (because he is used to it), but the moments that were experienced in the tournament were intense.

There are a couple of videos of Alonso Correa, Manuel Selman and Cristobal de Col, among others, attacking a couple of sections that most surfers would look at from afar on the beach or surfing straight on an eight-footer. There were also some barrels, like the one by Argentine Nacho Gundesen who went into a disgusting mass of water and did not come out to qualify for the next phase, but it surely reminded him more of Hawaii than anything else.

Two days into the event, the quarterfinals for men and women have already been defined:
Alonso Correa (PER) vs Luel Felipe (BRA)
Cristobal de Col (PER) vs Guillermo Satt (CHI)
Lucas Silveira (BRA) vs Gabriel Vargas (PER)
Manuel Selman (CHI) vs Wesley Leite (BRA)

In ladies, this is how it goes:
Mimi Barona (ECU) vs Vania Torres (PER)
Julia Camargo (BRA) vs Anali Gomez (PER)
Karol Ribeiro (BRA) vs Natalia Escobar (CHI)
Leilani Aguirre (PER) vs Melanie Giunta (PER)

A couple of days ago Alonso Correa said in an interview with DUKE, after obtaining a significant result in a QS with pointbreak waves, what would really make the difference for the Peruvians would be to have QSs of greater importance at home, in the waves they grew up surfing (note for example that Gabriel Vargas is a 17-year-old junior and is in the quarterfinals of a respectable QS). And this, referring to the results that can be seen above, also applies to the Chileans and Ecuadorians.

If it were a QS 10.000, those 630 points guaranteed to the surfers for making it to the quarterfinals would be 5200. That's a little less than a third of what is needed to make it to the CT. Sure, all the stars would be at Peñascal, but who's to say that the same kicks that Alonso, Manuel and Cristobal made yesterday can be made by Deivid Silva, Peterson Crisanto, Evan Geiselman and Jorgann Couzinet, who are currently in the qualifying zone for their results in small waves?

It's something to keep in mind. QS 6.000 and 10.000 championships in the region may finally be the hammer blow that is missing for a Hispanic American man to finally enter the CT.