It’s been two busy days on the beach here at La Torche, France. The sun has been shining, the beach has been packed with spectators and the waves have been pumping for the contest!
The coach Joachim Bech is here and the waves are pumping for real !
On the second day of competition I started out in the quarter finals of the trials. It was a tough heat against Hawaiian Kody Kerbox and 2 other French surfers. I managed to find 2 good scoring waves and passed through the heat in 2nd place behind Kody. I was over the moon! This meant I had secured a spot in the main event of the Naish La Torche Pro.
The Na Kama Kai Youth Challenge (U16) event was run in between heats of the trials. The young kids from all over the world were ripping big time! These kids are the ones that will dominate this sport in the future!
In the Na Kama Kai Youth Challenge my brother Peter did very well. Peter lost the semi final heat because he was having too much fun and had to sit out the last 5 minutes of the heat.
Peter coming in after his semi final heat. The kid that lives by the slogan "#1 is he who has the most fun"
In the semi final I had nothing to lose. I gave it all I had and once again advanced along with my Naish team mate Kody. It’s hard to describe the feeling of joy that was running around inside me. I had never dreamt of making it this far in an event, which I only came to to see how the level was and what is possible on a stand up paddle board in the waves. In the final the waves shut down and I unfortunately did not manage to string 2 great waves together. I finished 4th in the final, but I was still super stoked to be surfing among such great company 
1st Kody Kerbox (HAW), 2nd Kieran Taylor (AUS), 3rd Greg Closier (FRA), 4th Casper Steinfath (DEN)
On the 3rd day of competition the main event got under way. The conditions were mixed with small 3-4 foot waves with light onshore winds. I thought to myself that these conditions reminded me very much of back home in Klitmøller, Denmark. I was super amped to go surf my heat! In heat 6 of round 1 I was up against world #5 and Brazilian longboard and SUP champ Leco Salazar along with Frenchmen Stephane Iralour and Yann Quilfen. A tough heat, but a good heat. I had a chance at making it through and directly in to the 3rd round. And so I did. The waves were super rippable and i netted 2 long waves with fun and powerful turns. I could not believe when the announcers said over the speakers, that “Casper Steinfath from Denmark will be moving into the 3rd round”
Good times in France
Hopefuly the predicted new swell will fill in on Wednesday and the competition can resume.
- Casper
