Santander welcomes the La Vaca Gigante surfing championship with waves of more than nine metres

Santander welcomed the 24 national and international surfers taking part in the La Vaca Gigante surfing championship this Monday with waves of over nine metres.

This sporting event, which for the first time counts towards the Spanish giant wave championship, has been delayed longer than expected, as they could not find a day with waves of at least six metres.

In this eleventh edition, surfers of 'great cachet' have decided to go to the Cantabrian test, after the repercussion it has had in the previous competitions, so 12 Spanish and 12 international surfers will compete in the waters of Santander in La Vaca Gigante.

This year there will be representatives from France, the United States, Portugal, the Netherlands, Peru, Brazil and Australia, in addition to representatives from Cantabria and the rest of Spain.

In fact, the competition will include, among others, the World Surfing Tow-in champions, the French Justine Dupon and Clément Roseyro; the La Nord champion, Kyllian Guerin; the El Buey Santos del Mar champion, the Peruvian Joaquín del Castillo; and Nic Lamb (USA), who finished fifth in the last edition of La Vaca Gigante.

Also returning is the current champion of La Vaca Gigante, Indar Unanue; Laura Coviella (Spain) and Shannon Marie Quirk (Hawaii), leaders in women's surfing; the runner-up of this championship last year, Juan Merodio; and Nico García from Santander, third place last year and son of one of the discoverers of this Cantabrian wave.

After having been considered one of the events of the Spanish Championship, this year it will have two phases, a first one for national athletes and another one for those from other countries.

However, the three best Spanish athletes and the three international athletes will compete, six of them, in the grand final of this event, which this year has become part of the Big Wave Alliance, the world circuit of big waves created by Gary Linden, which includes championships such as El Buey Santos del Mar (Chile) or the prestigious tournament of Nazaré (Portugal).