The ASP World Tour website recently got the blog update from top Portuguese surfer, and the first and only Portuguese surfer on the World Tour (unless you want to count “German” rookie Marlon Lipke). As part of the seven surfer strong Euro contingent on the 2009 tour, Tiago reflects on his rookie year, his injury and recovery, his fellow Euro competitors, and the upcoming season.
If y’all recall, Tiago was the mustachioed madman who took down the amazingly in-form and seemingly unstoppable Kelly Slater at the Rip Curl Somewhere in Indo contest last year. That win made him one of only a handful of surfers to beat Slater in a man-on-man heat last season.
Tiago is also one of the few World Tour surfers who did serious double duty on the World Qualifying Series last year, winning his way back onto the World Tour on the grind, while just narrowly failing to requalify through the Dream Tour itself. He had the realistic chance of double qualifying in Hawaii, if not for an injury that kept him from competing at Pipeline. Had he double qualified, his buddy Marlon Lipke would have gotten taken the open seed, and we’d have a different wildcard rounding out the top 45.
Check out the article for his complete story, here.
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