WHEN QuinnCampbell, Quiksilver’sCentralAmerica and Chileregional sales representative,cameup with the idea tocreate the newDVD, “LatinGuns,” he wantedto promote “thebest surfers inLatin America.”So, in organizinghours offootage from Puerto Rico, Panama,Ecuador, Peru, Argentina, Venezuela, Chileand Brazil into three and a half hours, itwas imperative that he continued to developsurfing in Costa Rica as well. To thatend, “Latin Guns” features the wave performancesof Quiksilver-sponsored AndreaDíaz of Jacó, Gilbert Brown of PuertoViejo, and Federico Pilurzu and BrooksWilson of Tamarindo.NOW an international promotionaltool for Quiksilver, “Latin Guns” is availablefree at movie screenings – includingone last December at San José’s Vertigoclub – and other company events, to meetCampbell’s mandate that as many peopleas possible get to see the depth of experienceof Central and South America’ssurfers.“I wanted to have a movie to show theLatin roots of surfing,” explainedCampbell. “In the last eight years, I’vebeen showing movies at events, and thefilms have only had one guy from LatinAmerica in them. I wanted to inspire people.‘Latin Guns’ is the only film I know ofthat features surfers from Central andSouth America.”Along with Costa Rica’s Brown, Díaz,Pilurzu and Wilson, “Latin Guns” includesfootage of Dylan Graves, GabrielEscudero, Pablo Díaz, Patrick Castagnet,Jimmy Rotherham, Marcos Goncalves,Gabriel Aramburu, Salvador Voysest,Gabriel Villaran, Martin Passeri, DavidDíaz, Ronald Reyes, Magnum Martínez,Ramón Navarro and Sofía Mulanovich.SPEAKING of Mulanovich, the 21-year-old Peruvian made professional surfinghistory recently by becoming the firstLatin American – man or woman – toclaim the Association of SurfingProfessionals (ASP) World ChampionshipTour (WCT) crown. Mulanovich is the2004 women’s world champion.Crying with joy as she was lifted ontothe shoulders of her friends as she emergedfrom the water at Hawaii’s Roxy Pro(where she placed second, but only neededto be third or better to win the WCT thisyear), Mulanovich shouted: “Number one,viva el Perú!”“I’ve done this for my country and forall South Americans,” Mulanovich saidlater in an interview. “Just to make achange and give them hope. If you reallywant something, you’ll get it.”CAMPBELL hopes that Mulanovich’swin and the international attention – aswell as the inclusion of the new Latinchampion on the “Latin Guns” DVD – willstrengthen Costa Rican competitors andfree surfers’ passion for the surfing life.“Sofía inspires Latin people to fulfilltheir dreams and to enjoy the sport,”Campbell said. “Not just competing.Surfing is not just about competition;sometimes seeing Sofía winning caninspire someone to surf and find out thatit’s simply a fun sport.”
