Dave Winchester wins Arica Chilean Challenge Bodyboarding Contest

ARICA- Australia’s Dave Winchester has won the 2012 IBA Stealth Arica Chilean Challenge Grand Slam presented by BSC, in glassy 6 foot (2 meter) waves at El Gringo today. Winchester topped last year’s event winner Guilherme Tamega (BRA) in the dying seconds of the final.

Needing a score of 6.84 with 30 seconds remaining a solid set approached, offering Winchester who was in first priority one last opportunity to come out victorious. The Australian paddled into the last possible scoring wave of the heat, drove off the bottom and launched a clean invert (launching yourself upside down above the wave) onto the open face, a clean spin in the pocket and finished it off with strong close-out roll to score a 9.17 and take out the final.

On winning Winchester said, “I am so happy to beat Tamega today. I just wanted to get him back for beating me in the final here last year. It was even better that it all happened in the last few seconds, because he thought he had it.” He added, “Now I am excited to head to Brazil. Something different, a beach break and a it’s a wave most of us have never surfed before.”

On his way to the final, Winchester defeated fellow countryman Andrew Lester in the quarterfinal and an in form Mike Stewart (HAW) in the semifinal. With two 3rd place finishes and a win here today, Winchester is in a commanding lead on the 2012 IBA GSS rankings, 900 points ahead of number 2 seed, Jeff Hubbard (HAW).

The Brazilian powerhouse, Guilherme Tamega was looking like a strong contender for the win today, taking out 2010 world champion, Amaury Lavernhe (FRA) in the quarterfinal and 2011 world champion Pierre-Louis Costes in the semifinal, but eventually fell short to Winchester in the final.

Event 4 on the IBA GSS tour will be held in Itacoatare, Brazil from June 7-17. Marking the halfway point of the 2012 GSS, the beach break hosting this event is renowned for its powerful wedges and consistently big swells, the perfect recipe for another action packed IBA Grand Slam.

Danton Correa was the best placed Chilean rider. The rider from Algarrobo reached the fifth round before being eliminated by Australian Dallas Singer. Alan Muñoz from El Tabo was knocked out in the third round.

For the full draw and results of the event, go to http://results.ibaworldtour.com/draw.html

In other surf news, the Big Wave World Tour event in Pichilemu is running out of time. The two month waiting period expires on May 31 and the conditions required to hold the contest have not been forthcoming.

This post originally appeared on I Love Chile.

Tags: Arica, Bodyboarding, Chile