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TMN Saca Day was held in Peniche

The first Junior TMN Saca was held this last weekend, in Peniche, with the victory of John Kopke. The 16 junior national chosen not to miss the call and attended with great enthusiasm in the competition sponsored by the national best surfer of all time, Tiago Pires.

The surfer Tiago Pires was in office than usual and made the jury during the seven batteries of the championship. Together with Saca, were two other elements of TMN Surf Team, David Raimundo and John Guedes, the notes to give surfers in evidence.

Vasco Ribeiro, Nicolau Von Rupp and Frederico Morais also attended and spent most of its time in water, to give support to their peers, and even surfing the site of the competition with a commitment to not interfere with the competitors.

It was a very relaxed and informal environment that made the seven batteries. The sea has always been difficult, but it was possible to find enough waves that surfers can show their potential.

In the end we found John Kopke, Rui Henrique, Basile Belimo and Miguel Blanco. The way the batteries surfed before, Michael was the favorite to win, but in the end there was a bit of drama.

John Kopke was in third a minute from the end and found a left that worked well until the last section. He does not need much to go to the front, but when the wave was about to close, Kopke launched for an air, a high-risk maneuver, and the almost completed.

With a panel of judges formed by surfers, it was easy to recognize that Kopke risked everything and deserved to be rewarded for it, which meant that deserved the best note of the final.

“I would like to thank my family, who always supports me and that was here today, I would like also to thank my coaches and sponsors, to Saca and TMN have mounted for this championship, I’d like to thank everyone here, to my dog, to the moon by the tides, the ocean waves by ...”, Kopke said by way of a joke, now with José António Correia, Mayor of Peniche, which surrendered some of the awards and that took the opportunity of the presence of James Pires for the honor by spreading the perfume of the national surf around the world.

“This championship is very important, these initiatives, I have been very out and not have much time to track the surfing of the smallest, but it was good to have seen that there are serious surfers with this age, and that is good in a few years I have to do is sit, not a Kelly Slater to win everything, but a kid Portuguese to clear all the titles, “said James Smith, visibly pleased, after receiving the honor of the Mayor of Peniche.