Tiago Pires has conquered the Islas Canarias Santa Pro, in Lanzarote, Canary Islands, after defeating Gabe Kling.
The tight final was surfed in three-foot wave sets. Pires kept improving his two best scores by working in the long right-handers at offer, in the San Juan surf spot.
Kling has never given up and always pushed the scores into higher grounds. However, the Euro force was unstoppable. Pires is closer to a sixth consecutive season amongst the Elite Top 34.
"I feel amazing, it's been a few years since I won an event and I haven't felt the rush of adrenalin you get when winning for a while now !" Pires stated. "I was really sad with my performance in the European leg, I've been struggling on the last few CT events and I just came here to get some points and work on my Star rankings".
Tiago Pires secured a very important result for the final ASP Men's World Ranking. Before the Spanish leg - where many WCT surfers tried to improve their scores - Pires was sitting in the 36th spot. Now, he's moving up into the 2013 ASP World Championship Tour.
"I came here by myself, I knew I was going to hang out with my friends here, but I've been staying alone, I just feel more focused and more concentrated on my job"
"I just got this board in Trestles and it feels amazing. I really didn't want to break it here, cause heading to Santa Cruz I really need a big result on the CT. I'm great now, maybe I'll be a little less pressured there and we'll see how it goes"
In the Semifinal, the Portuguese tiger smashed Willian Cardoso with an impressive overall score of 19.73 points. Meanwhile, Marlon Lipke has been crowned 2012 ASP European champion. The half-Portuguese and half-German wave rider secured his maiden title, when Marc Lacomare failed to clinch the title in Lanzarote.
Islas Canarias Santa Pro | Final
Tiago Pires (POR), 16.53 def. Gabe Kling (USA), 14.47