Jury 2010
Christophe Commarieu
DIRECTOR, SURFOS MAGAZINE (COSTA RICA, LATIN AMERICA)
Christophe Commarieu, director of Surfos magazine, originally arrived in Costa Rica from his native France in 1992 with a camera, an accounting qualification and some savings to get by. What followed was an unexpected turn of events.
"A friend of mine who visited told me all about the place, the waves, the people, the nature. When I first came over to visit, I only stayed for such a long time because I got hit in the eye by a racket ball on the beach and had to rest for five months. I had planned to visit Fiji. I liked it so much here that I decided to come back the next year. If I hadn't got hit by the ball, who knows if Surfos would ever have existed!"
Surfos magazine was born in 1995 as a supplement of the Tico Times newspaper. After several issues it became independent as a surf magazine for Costa Rica. Two years later it branched out its coverage to all of Central America, and then in 1999 expanded again to reach 14 countries in Latin America. Today, information is published daily in Spanish on its website and in a monthly print edition.
“I am proud of the journey that Surfos has made in the 15 years since it has been established,” Commarieu says. “Little by little, we have evolved and improved in so many aspects so that we could be where we are today, a place where we are recognized for the intense focus on our subject - the high level of surfing in Latin America!”
He also believes that Central and South America has the potential to rival other top surf-locations. "Latin America as a continent can be the elite place for world surfing. It's only a matter of time. Peru already has some of the world's best surfers. The surf circuit here is weaving together a big Latin American family too."
As a judge, Christophe is on the look out for photos with a "great angle" and "images that surprise me." Time will tell if Latin America will feature among the stunning locations in this year's Red Bull Illume.
