- The Cadiz native dominated the final in the under-21 category, posting the four best waves of the day, and the Japanese managed to beat her sister, Kaede Inoue, in the last seconds thanks to a winning wave
- The competition continues this Saturday in Los Muellitos with the longboard surf semifinals for women and the quarterfinal round for men
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Friday, December 6, 2024. The fourth day of the Gran Canaria Pro-AM 2024 crowned Enrique Pérez Serra, 17, from Cádiz, and Japan’s Sakura Inoue, 16, as new world champions of the APP World Tour in the junior under-21 category. The rider from Caños de Meca completely dominated his final and achieved the four best waves of the day. Meanwhile, among the women, equality prevailed and Sakura managed to beat her older sister, Kaede Inoue, 19, in the last attempt with just a few seconds remaining.
The prominence of the day was for the youngest. Many doubled their participation by also participating in the absolute wave category, called Performance, the previous days. Unlike the last few days, the competition moved to Los Muellitos with its left wave, somewhat longer than that of El Lloret although with somewhat less intensity.
Enrique Pérez Serra, from Caños de Meca, had already been very solid in the qualifying rounds, but now in Los Muellitos, and with a board with a little more volume, he offered a noticeably superior performance than his rivals, curiously with a higher quality material. The Cádiz native shined against the frenchmen Baruc Killian, Titouan Pajot and Lucas Winder. In his first wave he reached 6.5 points and put a distance between himself and his rivals that he never lost. In its second wave, it reached 11 points. Meanwhile, their rivals seemed bewildered, waiting for a wave that would allow them to close the gap. Enrique just had to stay calm and overcome his worst wave to increase his margin. He did it twice, finishing with 12.83 points.
Second in the 2023 edition, he went out on shoulders along the Paseo de Las Canteras as Under 21 World champion, until he met Iballa Ruano. The Gran Canaria champion has taken under her protective wing two youngsters from the international circuit, the Cádiz Enrique Pérez and Julieta Rodríguez Villamil, who also offered, an outstanding performance both in her category and among the seniors. Enrique stopped, got off the shoulders of his teammates and embraced the Canarian legend in a respectful hug.
The women’s final was defined by the component of emotion until the last second, mainly between the Inoue sisters, although Julieta Rodríguez Villamil also displayed her talent. The eldest Inoue won the World Championship in the men’s category this Thursday, based on bravery, risky moves and his ability to land impossible moves. Tristan Boxford, founder of the APP circuit, defined it as a cat. “No matter how you throw him, he always lands on its feet,” he said. And the two Inoue sisters seem to have taken their brother as a reference and model. Their attitude was very similar, offering one hundred percent of their energy in each wave, regardless of its size or strength.
The eldest of the Inoue sisters, Kaede, took the lead from the start, with a ride of 5.33 points. Julieta followed, with 5.13. Kaede continued riding to raise her tally to 11.33 points. This family’s love affair with Las Canteras, under the gaze of their mother, Yuriko Inoue, known to everyone as Taka Mama, was total. Sakura approached her sister, with 9 points. The duel continued until the last seconds. Sakura waited for her moment with extreme patience. “I needed a 4.5 point wave”. She heard the warning from the speaker, Alexis Miranda, as the champion later acknowledged. “I felt it was possible and I went for it.” She signed a championship rentry. She didn’t know it, but she finished with a greater margin, plus 13. She was the champion, but she didn’t know it until her teammates told her. Her older sister took her on her shoulders, next to the woman from Cádiz. She raised the Japanese flag. All three with huge smiles.
Once the competition was resolved in the wave mode and with small boards, in the absolute and U21 categories, the Gran Canaria Pro-AM 2024, the Stand Up Paddle world championship of the APP World Tour gave way to the elegant spectacle of the longboards, the boards of greater length and weight. In this type of Paddle Surf, the classic longboard scoring model is followed. The athlete must do a series of maneuvers or movements on the board to score, as well as speed and style are elements to be evaluated by the judges. The most important classic movements are the cross-step towards the rear area, when the rider crosses his legs to move along the board; the hang five when one leg passes in front of the board; hang ten, when he manages to pass the two feet and take on the ten toes. Another classic maneuver is the drop knee cut back, crossing the legs on the longboard, one of the most beautiful and sought after. In addition, occasionally, riders perform surfing techniques such as floaters and rentry, to raise the board over the crest of the wave before landing on it.
At the end of the day, Kaede and Sakura Inoue, the sisters, face each other this Saturday in a fratricidal duel to begin the semifinal round of the longboard competition. Camille Dubrana, French, will face the young woman from Cádiz, Julieta Rodríguez-Villamil, who is demonstrating great versatility in different categories and sports modalities. Meanwhile, the men’s category faces the quarterfinal round this Saturday with duels that promise a spectacle: Taka Inoue against the Frenchman Burac Killian; Mathieu Carpentier against his brother Pierre; Leonardo Gómez against Sebastián Gómez and Dave Boehne against Benoit Carpentier, the youngest of the Carpentier brothers.
Tribute to Amandine Chazot
Before the start of the competition, the participants and the organization paid a heartfelt tribute to the french rider Amandine Chazot who died recently, a victim of cancer. The surfers gathered in the water to form a circle and pay respectful tribute to an important surfer on the international scene and very loved by the APP World Tour family and community. Amandine achieved a good number of titles and podiums. Highlights include a third place in the Pornichet Glisse Trophy, a bronze in the 2022 world championship and a fifth place in the season finale in the long distance modality, the 2022 World Cup, held in Switzerland, where he won the Sprint and Tech Race tests, in addition to being a silver medalist in long distance.
