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SURF WIRE
August 8, 2014

Carlos Muniz beats Dusty Payne in online voting contest to win second wildcard to Hurley Pro


By: Ben Mondy
21-year-old Costa Rican Carlos Munoz just won the Hurley Pro Video Trials, securing himself a wildcard spot for the Hurley Pro at Trestles. Munoz defeated Hawaiian Dusty Payne in the final, riding the back of a huge wave of support from his native Costa Ricans.

"It's amazing that a country of just 5 million people had such an impact on the global surfing stage," said Evan Slater, VP of marketing at Hurley. "Of the 115,000 votes cast this week, 40 percent of those votes went to Carlos Munoz. There were 400k visits to the site during this time and nearly half of those visits were from Costa Rica. They rallied behind their team at the World Cup, and they rallied behind their favorite surfer at this event. We're excited to see the first Costa Rican ever to compete in an asp WCT. He's more than deserving."

Indeed, after backing their team to the quarterfinals in the World Cup it seems the Costa Ricans turned there attention to another of their impressive underdogs. Via social media, web, radio and even national television, a huge call was made to vote for Munoz in the 2014 Hurley Pro Video Trials, the only contest of its kind where the public chooses a wildcard for an WCT event. The results were emphatic with Munoz dominating the week-long online competition, winning by massive margins each round and beating runner-up Dusty Payne by more than 11,000 votes.

It follows on from last year when the East Coast's relatively unknown Cam Richards came within a whisker (or 183 votes to be precise) of beating Dane Reynolds to the wildcard spot. Facing elimination from the event Reynolds took the unprecedented step for him of taking to social media, joining Instagram and famously tweeting, "I was in a social media war with a 17-year-old from South Carolina complete with hilarious celebrity shout-outs...... [Cam Richards] must be an Internet wizard or something."

Ironically it was Munoz who took out Richards in the early rounds of this year's trials, his huge voting numbers apparent early on in the virtual event. He definitely is no internet wizard though, just a powerful surfer with a strong Pipe rep and a well known aerial act (he has been dubbed The Flying Costa Rican) who had the backing of a (small) country behind him.

"It has always been my dream to surf against my favorite surfers on the world stage," said Munoz. "And now, thanks to my country, my friends, family and sponsors, and thanks to all of Latin America, I get to do just that at one of the best performance waves in the world."

"This year was really exciting; we made the push for global entries, with the hopes of someone like Carlos getting the opportunity of a lifetime," said Hurley VP of Sports Marketing Pat O'Connell. "He's an amazing surfer and we are really excited to have him here at the Hurley Pro."