BOCA BARRANCA, Costa Rica on Sunday (ASP Photo)
Cole Robbins (Santa Barbara, CA), 19, and Jen Smith (San Diego, CA), 24, won the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Longboard Qualifying Series (LQS) 3-Star Costa Rica PLA Pro in clean two-to-four-foot (1 metre) surf at Costa Rica’s impressive lefthand pointbreak of Boca Barranca.
The Costa Rica PLA Pro marks the second stop on the ASP North America Longboard Qualifying Series (LQS) and offers valuable ratings points towards qualification for the ASP World Longboard Tour.
Robbins clinched his first major ASP LQS victory today in impressive fashion by topping a stacked list of talent including former two-time ASP North America Longboard Champion Taylor Jensen (Oceanside, CA), 26, who finished second, current ASP WLT competitor Kai Sallas (Waikiki, HI), 28, and former ASP World Longboard Champion Josh Constable (Noosa, AUS), in a last second exchange to clinch the event with a 9 point ride.
“I can’t believe it, I feel on top of the world right now,” Robbins said. “I saw that wave coming and I thought ‘this is it’, hopefully I can at least move in to second and make some more money. It’s such a great event to win with Taylor (Jensen), Josh (Constable) and Kai (Sallas), there all such great surfers. I just don’t even know what to say.”
The young Californian has been struggling through and injury plagued season, and was elated to come away with the victory over such a talented field of finalists.
“I’ve been injured for most of this year and I really wasn’t sure how I was going to do in this contest,” Robbins said. “I pulled out an old board that works really well and it just all came together for me.”
Smith, who is the reigning two-time ASP Women’s World Longboard Champion, wasted no time in her final bout to clinch the highest scores of the entire women’s event by combining beautiful noserides and massive turns to post a 17.50 out of 20 combined heat total to take out her first event win of the season.
“It was incredible out there,” Smith said. “It really turned on for the Final and I definitely caught my best waves by far in that heat. I just sort of positioned myself further down the point that all of the other girls and they were a little too deep for those sets and I was able to get some really beautiful noserides.”
In addition to clinching the impressive victory, Smith also launches out to an early-season ratings lead over the women’s ASP North America Longboard Qualifying Series field with today’s win.
“I’m doing all of the events this year and with this being a 3-Star, the points are important,” Smith said. “We all split the points at the last event in Ocean Beach, I knew that this event would be the one to put someone out front.”
The next stop on the ASP North America Longboard Qualifying Series will be the ASP LQS 6-Star America’s Open of Longboarding at Huntington Beach Pier from June 4 through 6, 2010.
For additional information log on to ASPworldtour.com or ASPnorthamerica.org
Costa Rica PLA Pro Men’s Final Results:
1- Cole Robbins (USA) 15.80
2- Taylor Jensen (USA) 14.37
3- Kai Sallas (HAW) 13.50
4- Josh Constable (AUS) 13.10
Costa Rica PLA Pro Men’s Semifinals Results:
Heat 1: Kai Sallas (HAW) 16.83, Josh Constable (AUS) 16.00, Rodrigo Sphaier (BRA) 13.90, Steve Newton (USA) 6.86
Heat 2: Taylor Jensen (USA) 17.63, Cole Robbins (USA) 14.67, Ty Roach (USA) 9.77
Costa Rica PLA Pro Women’s Final Results:
1- Jen Smith (USA) 17.50
2- Summer Romero (USA) 14.13
3- Leah Dawson (HAW) 12.03
4- Kelly Nicely (USA) 8.67
Costa Rica PLA Pro Women’s Semifinals Results:
Heat 1: Leah Dawson (HAW) 13.10, Jennifer Smith (USA) 16.93, Nava Young (AUS) 11.76, Kaitlin Maguire (USA) 8.34
Heat 2: Summer Romero (USA) 16.93, Kelly Nicely (USA) 11.27, Amy King (USA) 10.10, Kate Easton (USA) 4.10
