Tiago Stock has won Capitulo Perfeito 2024. Photo: CP
Capitulo Perfeito has ended, and Tiago Stock has been crowned the champion. The 18-year-old Carcavelos local was a virtual unknown before the Portuguese tube-riding invitational, having earned a wildcard to compete at his home break via a trials event in January. Now, after emerging victorious against tube hunters, big-wave warriors, Championship Tour veterans, freesurfing icons and the Momentum Generation, we’re not likely to forget his name any time soon.
During the cold morning hours, the competition immediately got off to a running start. In the very first heat, Rob Machado crouched into a peeling left-hand barrel, followed it up with a languid, drawn-out cutback and closed out the ride by dipping his head under the lip. Though it had been around two decades since he last wore a jersey, a fact he humbly quipped about on shore, his return to competition felt smooth as ever.
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Immediately afterwards, previous event winner Bruno Santos took off impossibly late on a deep, hollow left that would end up being the highest scoring wave of the entire competition, a 9.90. “That was amazing,” said Santos on the beach afterwards. “I was expecting a ten, [but] it was a good way to start the day.”
However, conditions were uncooperative for the rest of the morning, leading to a series of low-scoring heats. A 9:36 a.m. high tide, combined with suboptimal cross-shore wind just weren’t conducive to the kind of barrels competitors needed for excellent scores. Heats were decided with threes and fours. Tiago Stock found himself a first-round casualty, getting sent to repechage after a fourth-place finish.
Nathan Hedge, competing as one of the two last-minute substitutions for Nathan Florence and Michael February, was sanguine about the conditions during his first heat, in which he placed second with a 4.10. “I think you have a bunch of buildup and expectation about what it’s going to be [with] barrels, and it just wasn’t. I’m lying if I said I wasn’t a little disappointed, but I’ve been around long enough to know a heat’s a heat and it is what it is. Some things you can’t control, and the conditions are one of them.”
The repechage rounds were more of the same. Francisca Veselko and Anthony Walsh didn’t make the cut in heat five. In heat six, William Aliotti and Tiago Pires got the axe. Meanwhile, Dylan Graves, Pedro Boonman, Lucas Chianca and Tiago Stock made it back into the running. Stock was the standout of the round, with an 11.15 combined score setting him head and shoulders above the rest.
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During round three, the pace started to finally pick up. The banner moment came from a heat between Dylan Graves, Rob Machado and Aritz Anbaru. Dylan grabbed rail on a long, deep backside barrel that ended with a hint of air on the exit, for an 8.00 score. Not to be outdone, Machado immediately responded by burning down the house with two back-to-back tubes that pushed Dylan back into second place. Though Machado ended up winning overall, Dylan’s ride remained the wave of the heat. “It was just pretty lucky to have the heat start, everyone kind of chose their own peak and that one came to me,” said Graves afterwards. “I mean, that’s always the way with the ocean. You take what you can get and that one came to me, so I was stoked. Definitely made my day.”
Balaram Stack charging his way into the final four. Photo: CP
After a third-round heat where he managed to pull off a victory with just 40 seconds to go, Balaram Stack described his strategy as, “Stay busy, get barreled.” That simple, yet effective, ethos served him well going into the semi-finals, where he landed the second-highest scoring wave of the day: a 9.5 against Tiago Stock, Lucas Chianca and Nathan Hedge. After he was covered up by what felt like an endless barrel, the wave violently spat with Balaram still nowhere to be found. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, he rocketed out of the tube and narrowly avoided the closeout. With that, his place in the final was secure.
From there, it was a race for second place, as Stock, Chianca and Hedge tried to eke out a wave to also put them in the final. Chianca appeared to be the favorite until the very the last second. Scratch that – until after the very last second. With less than a minute to go, Stock tucked into a barrel that seemed like it could land him the 2.01 he needed to advance, but the judges’ decision didn’t come until the final horn had already blared. When the score did come in, a 2.70, the crowd erupted into cheers for their hometown hero.
The other semi-final heat evolved into another shootout between Machado and Graves. The long-haired free surfers went back and forth in the back half, until a decisive wave from Machado clinched the win. However, as with Stock, the score came in after the final buzzer. In fact, it was so late that Graves got the post-heat interview. “I guess you won, but they interviewed me,” Graves joked to Machado afterwards. “Thanks, man. Took one for the team,” replied Machado.
With the four final spots determined, it was on to the main event. The conditions were a flashback to the morning heats, with Machado, Graves, Stack and Stock struggling to find ridable waves. The first score didn’t come until nine minutes in, when Machado got on the board with a 0.50. He followed it up by stylishly cruising through a mid-size barrel that netted him a 4.75, giving him an only slightly more comfortable lead.
Then Tiago got going and everything changed. The Carcavelos native locked into a barrel on the most significant wave in the heat up to that point, followed by a playful air reverse out the back for good measure. That would land him a 3.50, still behind Machado. Just two minutes later, he took off on a dramatic right-hander that landed him a 6.25 and first position.
Time continued to wind down. With 15 minutes to go, Dylan and Balaram still hadn’t managed to land any significant scores, nor had Rob followed up on his first two waves. It started to dawn on the spectators that the stickerless local rider had what, in this heat, could amount to an insurmountable lead.
As a side note: During all of this, a group of locals were absolutely ripping on the opposite end of the beach. Though the Capitulo Perfeito finalists had started off spread far apart, looking for separate peaks, by that point in the round they had converged somewhat on the North side of the competition area. Unfortunately, the South side seemed to be where the action was. Apart from Stock’s performance, perhaps the best wave of the heat went to an unnamed teenager who blasted through a barrel that elicited cheers and applause from the audience. One thinks about what could have been, if not for that current pulling Stock and company North.
Locals stream into the water to crown Tiago Stock as champion. Photo: CG
Then, it was over. The clock hit zero and the crowd erupted. As Tiago was taken in by Jet Ski, a horde of shirtless teenagers streamed out into the surf to greet him. He stood on the sled, surfboard held aloft, then took a backflip into the water to wade into the throng of his friends and neighbors. Carcavelos was his.
