Pavones Surfer Noe McGonagle Wins Quiksilver King of the Groms

Noe Mar McGonagle of Pavones,

Costa Rica won King of the Groms,

photo: Maripaz Chinchilla

Noe Mar McGonagle of Pavones, Costa Rica, won the first national Quiksilver "King of the Groms" competition in Playa Hermosa on March 19, 2011. He will now go to Mexico for the Latin American final in June.

Noe competed against 35 other competitors in the under-16 competition. Conditions in Playa Hermosa were good when the surfers entered the water at 3:00 p.m., with waves 1.5 meters high, mild winds and a crowd of 1,000 spectators. Saturday's contest was the final round of a regional competition.

The finals also included Thomas King of Tamarindo, Bruno Carvalho of Jaco and Jason Mora of MalPais. Noe had the highest combined score of the event: 13.27 (7.00 and 6.27).

"I want to thank my dad (Sean McGonagle) for being my main sponsor. For me, winning this competition is very important because I can go on to represent Costa Rica in Mexico and hopefully in France too," said Noe. Noe is 14 years old, and born in Costa Rica; his parents are from the United States.

Quiksilver's contest was open to Costa Rican, Nicaraguan and Panamanian surfers, however Nicaragua was represented by only 3 surfers, with none from Panama.

Congratulations Noe!

Read more (in Spanish) at TicoDeporte.com, Él es el hijo del 'Mar' and at La Nacion, Noe Mar visó boleto a Mazatlán


You may also want to read:

• 5 reasons to bring the kids ("groms") to Pavones this winter
• Surf in the morning, kitesurf in the afternoon.
• Wavehunter's luxury surf tour
• Good SUP behavior (video)
• Need to Rent a Surfboard or SUP in Pavones?

Translated from the Spanish original by GMP, we assume all responsibilities for errors and welcome comments.

Noe Mar McGonagle of Pavones, Costa Rica won the 2011 Quiksilver King of the Groms contest in Playa Hermosa on March 20th.