HUNTINGTON BEACH, California (Sunday, May 31, 2009) – Young goofy-footer Tanner Gudauskas, 20, has had some time to relax after an impressive run at the 6.0 Lowers Pro in front of his home crowd in San Clemente, California, where he finished fifth overall in mainland America’s first ASP 6-Star PRIME contest, the 6.0 Lowers Pro. Gudauskas launched in to the No. 17 seat on The Grind, finding himself just outside of the qualification bubble at this point in the season. Now the motivated Californian is ready to get back on his competitive horse after the brief sabbatical and is hungry for his first ASP WQS win and a ticket to the ASP World Tour for 2010.
“I am super pumped coming off of a good result at home,” Gudauskas said. “That was a big contest for me. I want to go out there now and prove to myself that I can win one of the big events and put it in the end zone. I think that my brothers and I have been feeding off of each other for the past years and now we are ready to fire it up for the ASP World Tour.”
Since there has been more than a month between the 6.0 Lowers Pro and the next major contest, the SriLanken Airlines Pro at the ideal location of Pasta Point in the Maldives, Gudauskas has been enjoying his down-time while relaxing with friends and family and keeping himself busy by working on his golf game.
“It’s been great to have a break from the comps for a little while,” Gudauskas said. “It’s like a ying and yang combo that works perfectly for the life of a WQS surfer. Sometimes you just crave jersey time and getting the score at the end of the heats and other times you just want to go surf and have fun with friends and family back in San Clemente and I’ve been playing golf. The surf has been flat so we have been playing a lot of golf. We are still hacking it up, but the course in San Clemente is really fun and more geared towards ner golf. Now we are back and frothed for Maldives, running little mock heats with the brothers and Nathan Yeomans and just getting the twitch back for Maldives.”
The youngest of the Gudauskas trio is able to utilize the unique support group of his older twin brothers and fulltime travel partners Patrick and Dane to keep on his toes and stay mentally poised for the next event. Traveling with his family also helps Tanner bring a few of the comforts of home along with him while he battles it out on the ASP WQS.
“It’s a great traveling team,” Gudauskas said. “Sometimes it’s the difference of two months on the road and not being burned out, or just an easy two week travel and having a blast. Either way, we just try to have a good time wherever we go with the situations that we find ourselves in. It’s easy now because we all have things that get on each other’s nerves, so we just know when it’s coming and try to avoid it.”
The prodigious talent is out to continue his hunt for a spot on the ASP Dream Tour at the SriLanken Airlines Pro, where he hopes to take advantage of the roping lefthanders on offer at Pasta Point to blast another keeper result in to his 2009 score line.
“I couldn’t be happier about going back to the Maldives,” Gudauskas said. “I have been there twice for the contest and once for a free-surf trip. For myself, I couldn’t think of a more fun wave. Goofy-foots love going frontside and it’s a machine with how perfect it is. You can do any maneuver you can think of and it’s a super-fun contest to be a part of and watch because everyone is pushing their own limits. I can’t wait. We take off in about a week and I know the boys and I from here in town are ready to put it in the ring and leave it all on the floor.”
You can follow Tanner Gudauskas throughout The SriLanken Airlines Pro when the even runs from June 8-14, 2009. Log on to www.aspworldtour.com to catch all of the action.
For Tanner Gudauskas’ full profile log on to www.aspnorthamerica.org
