Costa Rica entered the history books of world surfing Sunday when Craig “Tequila” Schieber became the first Costa Rican surfer to win the title of world champion at the 2011 International Surfing Association World Masters Surfing Championship, held Oct. 16-23 in La Libertad, El Salvador. Schieber won gold in the Grand Kahuna division (age 50+).

The masters championship is a gathering of the world’s top surfers age 35 and older. Surfers from different countries compete for medals in five categories, Masters (35+), Grand Masters (40+), Kahunas (45+), Grand Kahuna (50+) and Women Master (35+). Tica surfer Andrea Díaz placed fifth in the women’s category. Costa Rica finished the tournament ranked seventh overall in the world.

Schieber, who became a naturalized Costa Rican citizen 20 years ago, lives in the beach community of Puerto Viejo. He and the rest of the Costa Rican masters team are set to arrive back in Costa Rica on Monday afternoon.

Source: Tico Times: Costa Rican wins world surfing championship

Photo by Sabadomasoquismo

PromoBike and CATCAS are sponsoring this year’s mountain biking event in Puerto Viejo on the 16th of October.

The event will include a 74km long route and a 35km short route for riders.

The ride starts at 9 a.m. and the entry fee is 6000 colones. That includes hydration stations, bicycle mechanics available and a raffle. And there’s usually a great party afterwards!

For more information, telephone 8383-8223 or 8389-5289.

Jordan Hernandez, Winner of the 2009 Puerto Viejo Open & Airshow, Photo by Beto courtesy of www.CRSurf.com

Puerto Viejo Open Pro has announced another surf tournament at Cocles Beach.

The competition will be held on Feb 5, 2011. 

There will be $3000 US in cash and prizes available.

More details will be posted soon at www.PuertoViejoOpenPro.com/ or contact Beto at telephone (506)8885-9688 or email betolocks@hotmail.com.

On Jan 15, a unique event will be happening. Starting in Puerto Viejo runners can choose from 10km, 21km and 42km courses.

The Jungle Run will take participants on a route through nature from its starting point in Puerto Viejo to Punta Cocles (turnaround point for the 10km route), Punta Uva (turnaround for the half marathon) or Punta Mona (turnaround for the full marathon).

The course is at sea level with mostly flat sections. The difficulties runners will face are soft sand, roots, muddy trails, and tropical conditions of sun and/or rain depending on the weather that particular day. Not an easy run, but exotic and demanding.

There are aid stations along the way where runners can get cold water, electrolyte drinks and carbohydrates. The aid stations will be located at 5km, 11km, 21km, 31km, and 36km. Parts of the run are in protected rain forest. Racers must carry CamelBaks or water bottles, we will leave no trace, except footsteps!

More information and registration is available on their website www.jungleruncr.com

The X-Tri Caribe, an “extreme” mountain triathlon will take place on Sept 18 starting from Punta Uva.

The competition will offer two different distances.  The X-Tri Caribe will include a 1.2 km swim, 28 km mountain bike and 9k run. The X-Tri Sprint course has a 600 m swim, 28 km mountain bike and a 5 km run.

The entry cost is ¢22.000 with discounts available for pairs and groups and members of the organizing clubs. Pre-registration is required.

They will be offering a variety of trophies in different categories by age and sex.

More information can be found on the event webpage.

On the same day at Punta Uva there will be an open water swimming competition offered with 2.4km and 1.2km distances.  Information on the swimming competition can be found here.

Photo by Sabadomasoquismo

PromoBike and Maxi’s Restaurant will again be sponsoring a mountain biking event in Puerto Viejo on the 17th of October.

The event will include a 74km long route and a 38km short route for riders. There will be lots of hydration stations as well as a party planned afterward.

Last years event included a route which went through the Talamanca Mountains and included a total elevation gain of 792m. While this year’s route has not yet been published, riders can expect again to be challenged!

More information is available on the event web page.

Jordan Hernandez, Winner of the 2009 Puerto Viejo Open & Airshow, Photo by Beto courtesy of www.CRSurf.com

The Puerto Viejo Open Pro surf competition is set for May 15th, 2010. The entire event is planned and organized exclusively by local surf instructor and legend Alberto “Beto” Miguel Torres Speranza. This much anticipated event is guaranteed to bring the best of the best in surfing to the area, and will surely prove to be an amazing experience.

The competition began back in July of 06’ and was first dubbed as the “Legalize” Surf Tournament. The idea behind the competition was to simply bring friends together for a day of partying, music and spectacular surf. It soon proved to be a huge success and therefore grew bigger and bigger each year with the support of the community growing as well. Competitors and spectators alike, from all over the world, come together for a day of friendly competition, stunning talent and gorgeous views.

Read the full article on www.Caribizine.com or look for it in the May issue.

The first boat crossed the finish line last night in Limon. The boat Crêpes Whaou! crossed the finish line at 22:31, taking the multihull prize and the boat Safran crossed the finish line at 02:52 to take the monohull prize.

In Puerto Viejo, visitors were excited to see 12 large 3 m x 1.5 m (9.8 ft x 4.9 ft) format artworks with a nautical theme displayed at KOKi Beach Restaurant by renowned Costa Rican artists Mario Maffioli and Fabio Herrera.

Puerto Viejo, by Fabio Herrera, is one of the 12 artworks being displayed in the show. Photo courtesy La Nación.

Sources: La Nación: Arte recibe a visitantes de la regata Transat,
SailWorld.com: Safran first IMOCA Open 60 home in Transat Jacques Vabre, Yachte: First multihull home in Transat Jacques Vabre

Thirty-one runners from as far away as Canada, France and Australia arrived in Costa Rica this week to participate in the second running of the cross-country Transtica.

The race begins on Saturday in the central Pacific town of Manuel Antonio and crosses 250 kilometers of terrain to arrive in Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean side on Nov. 26. Runners travel either 20 or 40 km (equivalent to a half or a full marathon) each day, depending on the group they’ve chosen to compete with.

What makes the competition unique is not necessarily the distances or the difficulty of the race, but the fact that runners stop in select locations to participate in social projects.

More/Source: Tico Times: Coast-to-coast humanitarian run launches on Saturday

With it are expected to come some 20,000 visitors, 5,000 all the way from Europe.  Those visitors have reserved local hotels rooms from Limon to Manzanillo and are expected to spend an estimated $25,000,000 while in the area. The estimates are based on the amount of economic impact that the race had on Salvador de Bahia, Brazil in 2007.

The race finished in Salvador de Bahia from its inception in 1993 to its last occurrence in 2007. The Costa Rican government is using these economic impacts to justify the investments they made to lure the race to Limon.

The biannual race is huge in Europe, considered one of the major sporting events of the year so will also bring lots of media attention and reporters to the area.

Transat route from La Havre France to Puerto Limon, Costa Rica

More: La Nación: Regata dejará más de $25 millones en el país