Joshua Burke and Chelsea Tuach continue to fly Barbados’ flag high on the international stage. Fresh from eleventh place finishes at the recently held International Surfing Association’s World Surfing Championships, the duo once again dominated their heats with their speed, power and flow, dropping the highest wave scores and heat totals of their respective Divisions at the 2022 Santa Marta CAC Beach Games to make it all the way to the final.
The men’s final was held first with Burke facing off against Puerto Ricans Dwight Alfonso Pastrana and Ricardo Delgado Rodriguez and Panamanian Tao Rodriguez. The Puerto Rican started strong, launching an air reverse right on the shore break to score a perfect 10. Burke fought back hard, launching an air of his own, which earned him a 6.47. Needing an excellent score, he found a nice left on which he belted four turns to earn a 7.33. This gave him a heat total of 13.80 to the Puerto Rican’s 16.30, making him Barbados’ first male surfer to win a silver medal in Shortboard surfing. The bronze medal went to Ricardo Delgado Rodriguez.
Next it was Chelsea Tuach’s turn who was joined in the final by team- mate, Chelsea Roett. The Bajan duo faced off against Colombia’s number one female surfer, Isabela Gomez and Rosanny Alvarez from Venezuela.
The Colombian started strong, finding a nice left on which she had one big turn, falling on the second, to earn a 4.83. She quickly backed this up with a front-side hit on the shore break that earned her a 5.57. Tuach struggled to find waves that opened up, but mid-way through the heat she found a decent left that gave her 3 turns which were rewarded with a 4.90 by the judges.
She backed this up with another left that gave her a two-turn combo that would have given her the score she needed to take gold but the backwash made it difficult for her to ride out of the second turn so she fell short of the score by 0.93 ad walked away with the silver medal, her 3rd medal in shortboard surfing for Barbados. Roett fought hard but ended 4th with a heat total of 7.30, with Rosanny Alvarez earning the bronze with a heat total of 8.47.
“I was happy with my overall performance, I won all of my heats up to the final and won the main final before the grand final with the highest scores of the women in the event. I knew that I could win gold but it just did not happen in the final, but this is just motivation for me to go for the gold next year,” Tuach said in an interview following the medal presentation.
Burke was also happy with his performance and added: “I’m super proud to be here in Colombia, representing my island, Barbados. I did my job and I’m proud to have won the silver medal.”
The island’s two top surfers will again be in action this weekend at the Soup Bowl for the TSL Independence Pro. (PR)
