Vera Jarisz, the prodigy surfer who made the sea her garden and was the South American Sub 18 champion

Vera Jarisz He was born in Lomas de Zamora; But when he was only one year old, his family settled in the Chacras del Mar reserve, located on the Argentine coast, near Villa Gesell. And since then the sea has become an important part of his life. Daughter of two lifeguards, she grew up in contact with water and as a child the beaches, which for many are a holiday destination, were her playground. That’s why it’s not surprising that, when he was five years old for the first time, he got on a board of surfthe taste of riding the waves will captivate you right away.

She was so fascinated by this new sport that it even led her to put swimming, her first great love, aside. Today, at just 17 years old (she turned them on March 11), she is one of the best Argentinean surfers in her category. Earlier this month, she was crowned Under 18 champion in the South American Juvenile in which she played Honu Beach, Mar del Plata, and in which the Argentine national team, with her as captain, also won the team title. And although she knows she still has a long way to go, she has two big goals in mind for the future: to become a world champion and to reach an Olympics.

“I always say that dreams are only dreamed. Goals can be achieved. And I don’t think these two goals are impossible. Even if this road is very long. I have to go through the process. I think about it this way, it’s really frustrating sometimes , but it’s a process and the truth is that I have confidence because I want to keep improving and I’m super motivated,” she said in a chat with clarionminutes before boarding a plane to travel to compete.

Focused almost entirely on his sports career –“This year I’m finishing school, which I’ve been studying virtually since 2020, and then it’ll be all surfing”, he said-, those summers he spent in the lifeguard cubicle seem very distant. But they are still alive in Vera’s memory.

“My dad surfed like Hobby. When some friends gave me a used board, I started playing. He was always at sea. They gave me a toy to go in the water and I went. I was five when I started and I went slowly. At seven or eight they bought me a better board. But it was something he only did in the summer,” she said.

Meanwhile, she continued to compete in swimming and fancied herself diving into a pool during an Olympic event. But in 2017, when she was 11, an invitation to participate in a selective surf session at Villa Gesell, in front of the national team, changed everything.

“I did some surfing, but at the time there weren’t many girls in the sport, so they called everyone. I went and loved it. I’m very competitive and when I found out I could compete in surfing like I used to in swimming, it drove me crazy,” he counted.

And he added: “That year I only rode one tournament on the national youth circuit, but it was beautiful. I finished second and I went crazy. So I said ‘I want to compete again’. So I started to extend the surf season a bit – I would continue until April or May and start again in November -; I changed the material and started using better boards; and I got better.”

In 2018 she raced the full national circuit in the sub 14 and finished second. In addition, she made a leap in quality because she began to travel often to Mar del Plata to train – there she met Maximilian Roller Prenskywho is still his coach and was also able to train abroad for the first time, in Peru.

2019 marked a before and after in his life. That year she won her first national title, in the under 14 category, and was called up to the Argentine team for the ISA Junior World Cup in Huntington Beach, Calif.

“In the World Cup I competed in the under 16 category and it was crazy. I realized that surfing was opening up more avenues for me than swimming and I loved it. So I thought ‘Okay, let’s go there’“, he assured.

Yet, before dedicating himself completely to surfing, he indulged himself: he participated in the 2019 National Swimming Championships in Rocky Park. “After that tournament I felt I had accomplished a cycle and a goal that I had, which was to compete as a federation. Even though it wasn’t easy to leave that sport I loved for something new,” he recalled.

He also made a very difficult personal decision that year: he moved with his mother to Mar del Plata.

“It was one of the most radical changes, because I moved for sport. I was used to a small town… Not even that, I was used to the reserve, which is countryside and beach. When I arrived in Mar del Plata, I thought it was New York, it was crazy,” she said with a laugh. “It was all for the sport. I wasn’t thinking big, I wasn’t thinking “I will be the best in the world.” But I liked it, it had started to work out for me and I saw that it was possible. My parents have always supported me. so I said ‘I’m going to chase it’“.

What came proved him not wrong.

In an atypical 2020 due to the pandemic, she repeated her conquest at the national level and won silver in the Sub 14 at the South American Children’s Championship in Cartagena, Colombia. In 2021 she was crowned the Argentine and South American Under 16 champion. And last year she signed a great performance in the El Salvador Youth World Cupin which she finished ninth in the Sub 16 out of 100 competitors.

“That World Cup was crazy. It was in El Salvador, a place with massive waves. And it was the first in two years, because of the pandemic, so everyone wanted to compete and there were about 400 surfers. It was a beautiful trip i got the best result of my whole career, i lost in the second round, but then i got to the repechage semifinals, i competed against girls i never thought i would compete, who have much more experience than me. never imagined achieving it in that World Cup. Already being there was achieving a goal, so this result is much more than I expected. It was amazing,” he recalled.

Its rapid evolution has surprised no one. After all, the sea is like your second home.

“When I’m in the wave, I don’t think about many things, because everything is very fast. I just have time to think about what maneuver I’m going to do,” he explained.

And between laughter, he added: “Another thing is when I wait for the wave. In a Heat You spend 20 minutes in the water and a lot of things come to mind, songs, conversations… Sometimes I start talking to myself. These are moments in which you and the sea are sharing. And the sea is like an invisible friend. It’s a beautiful moment, I love it.”

The WSL challenge

“Since last year’s World Cup, many things have unlocked. And I said “Well, I’ve already got that. Time to rethink my goals and path’“said Vera, who then put his all into the professional circuit.

Motivated, this year she decided to contest the Qualifying Series (QS), something like the third division of the surfing world championship (professional league), which at the end of each season ranks the best surfers of each region (for South America, the top 5 women) at Challenger series (CS). That second tier, in turn, allows each year’s most outstanding to move up to the Tour of Champions (CT), the highest category.

In recent weeks, in addition to adding two podiums in the appointments in the National League (new name of the circuit) – he was champion in the third and second in the fourth -, he finished fifth in QS 1000 which was held in Playa Grande and opened its 2023 season. And finished ninth in a QS 1000 in Punta Rocas, Peru.

Jarisz – who has had the support of for years “The Wild One”a private neighborhood located near the reservation where he grew up, which has “adopted” it as its own and is its main sponsor, and voncomthe clothing brand that also sponsors it will run a QS 5000 next week in Saquarema, Brazil.

“On an individual level, my dream is to be in the CT, where the best in the world compete. I’m still a girl and I need it. This path is very long and I’m only just beginning,” she reflected. . “Last year was a ‘test’ year for me in the WSL. And I learned a lot. I lost in races, but it wasn’t a defeat, because I gained a lot of experience. This year the idea is that I do better. I would like to reach the final or win a QS, but I have no sporting goals. I will follow the process”.

And that goal of the Olympic Games? “It’s still far away, but still in my head,” she warned. “I won’t make it to Paris. There are many girls in Argentina, more advanced and older, who deserve to be in the national team today. I feel I’m not far from the best in terms of level, but I lack competitive experience, because it’s then that I have to go to the next Games, it could even be later, because I’m a girl and I can also think about 2028. It’s a goal and I don’t think it’s impossible.”