Nadia Erostarbe makes Spanish surfing shine in her Olympic debut

There were few more formidable rivals, but the draw dictated that the path would be very difficult for Nadia Erostarbe Géiser (Zarautz, 24 years old), the surfer who has given the Olympic diploma to Spanish surfing in her first participation in the Olympic Games. The Basque athlete, the great asset for medals that a few years ago seemed unattainable, finished her participation in the competition held on the prestigious and dangerous wave of Teahupo’o, in French Polynesia, in fifth place. She lost to the Brazilian Tatiana Weston-Webb, one of the leaders of the world circuit, by a couple of points. Now, it all still seems like a dream.

The Spanish Surfing Federation, with 75,000 licences, is not exactly the one with the greatest resources for these Games. Despite having qualified half of its team for the Tahiti event, it has not even been able to invest funds to pay the coach’s work. Its president, Carlos García, has not been able to travel with the protagonists either, and every euro has had to be taken care of down to the smallest detail to have the best conditions, as far as possible, in Paris 2024.

In tubes, a specialty that has hardly been touched by top-level surfers in Spain, Erostarbe has confirmed her personal growth in the last year. In fact, at the end of her participation she can boast of having ridden the fourth best wave in the women’s category, a magnificent tube that earned her a score of 8.33 out of 10 in the first round. Her performance and confidence in the water also perfectly represents the collective rise of a discipline that also saw the presence of Janire González-Etxabarri (Zumaia, 19 years old) and Andy Criere (Hendaya, 28 years old), both eliminated in the second round.

Last night, at dinner time and also well into the early hours, a hundred people gathered in front of the surf club in Zarautz, where they all grew up surfing from a very young age. Gathered around the big screen installed next to the beach, the residents of this town were thrilled by the performance of Erostarbe, daughter and sister of surfers: the parents, every day, without fail, take to the sea in one of the classic breaks of the national scene; June, her older sister, went on to represent Switzerland in a World Championship of the discipline, the country from which her mother comes.

“It was a really nice moment, very exciting,” Indar Unane, a surfing coach and big wave specialist, who has known Nadia since she was little, told Morning Express. There, in fact, everyone knows each other. “Being up there with the best is something that crosses everyone’s minds, but you never know, of course. It’s very difficult to get your best surfing in the 20 or 30 minutes that you’re given in the competition, and the key is knowing how to adapt to any situation. In the last year, she has made a big leap in this regard, and her progress since she was 18 is impressive,” he says.

About a year ago, Erostarbe surprised the entire gang of usual suspects from Zaragoza surfing during a group trip to Namibia. She pulled a tube out of her sleeve and made it clear that she was ready to attack the great goal of the Games. “Nadia can and wants to,” says Aritz Aranburu, the great national tube specialist and luxury coach for the Spanish team in recent months. Nothing surprises those who know her best anymore, not even her partner Guille Gutiérrez, a Cantabrian surfer and coach of the national team. Both have been sharing adventures, trips and training for several years now, a process that allows them to enjoy the competition despite all the pressure that the elite entails.

Erostarbe, European champion in 2018, has been making giant strides since then. She was on the verge of Tokyo 2020 and last year she was close to qualifying for the first division of world surfing, an achievement for which she is still competing this season. She was also Spanish champion in 2020. “From the outside, I have seen Nadia as strong, physically imposing, very involved in the competition and hungry for victory,” Criere told this newspaper before traveling to Tahiti. “I think this is her year, she has worked very hard and has always been there when she needed to be,” she concluded.

Coming out of the water, after hugging Aranburu, who was standing in the front row to give her instructions and encourage her, Erostarbe was visibly excited. Satisfied with her performance, she was still smarting from not being able to ride a slightly better wave to try to reach the fight for the medals. “Having it so close makes me angry, but being able to qualify for the Games was a world of success, and reaching the quarterfinals is incredible. I am very happy with the result,” said the Spaniard in statements collected by Duke Surf“I have felt the warmth of the locals and this gives me more motivation to keep pushing hard and pursue the next goal, which is to qualify for the world circuit,” he added.

The Basque athlete will barely have time to process the Olympic experience, as next Tuesday, August 6, the competition window for the US Open opens, the next stop on the calendar for those aspiring to access the highest category of world surfing. Currently, Erostarbe is ranked sixth in the table, just a few points away from the cut-off with three events left to compete. If she qualifies, she would become the first Spanish woman to enter the elite of world surfing.

Olympic competition will resume this Saturday at 19:00 CET in Teahupo’o, provided conditions remain the same. In the men’s category, Alonso Correa (Peru), Kauli Vaast (France), Gabriel Medina (Brazil) and Jack Robinson (Australia) will fight for medals, while Caroline Marks (USA), Johanne Defay (France), Brisa Hennessy (Costa Rica) and Weston-Webb (Brazil) will do so in the women’s category. They will be in charge of closing the magnificent spectacle that will take place more than 15,000 kilometres from the French capital.

You can follow Morning Express Sports onFacebook andXor sign up here to receive theDaily newsletter of the Paris Olympic Games.