Santa Cruz, CA [September 13, 2007]--Girls4Sport team riders Monica Dell’Amore and Tara Parsons swept the 2007 Bodyboarder International Association (BIA) Tour this year with big wins at the last weekend's BIA Championships, which were held September 8-9 at the Huntington Beach Pier.
Competing with riders from Chile, Venezuela, Mexico, Brazil, and the U.S., top-ranked women's bodyboarder Dell'Amore, 33, from Dana Point, California, capped off an incredible season by taking home the women's overall tour champion trophy Sunday, finishing 1000 points ahead of the number two-position. Dell'Amore consistently finished among the top three in each of the BIA Tour events this year, including two first-place wins in Zuma Beach in June and Salt Creek Beach in February, and a second place win at the championship event last weekend.
"I really wanted to win," said Dell'Amore, who is originally from Sao Paulo, Brazil. "I had been working so hard, training six to seven hours a day, plus working a regular job. I put my time in, and it paid off. I'm totally stoked."
Dell'Amore works as a caterer at the Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point, where she also teaches pilates and aqua classes. In addition, she teaches surfing at the Ocean Academy.
Parsons, 30, from San Clemente, California also enjoyed a great season, nabbing her third first-place win at the BIA Championships with the contest's highest scores of the day.
"It was really exciting," said Parsons. "It was also a lot of fun to battle it out with my friend Monica [Dell'Amore] for the championships."
Traveling to Europe, Africa, and Latin America to bodyboard this year, Parsons missed out on the chance to compete in three of the eight BIA Tour events, but she nevertheless finished as BIA's number three ranked women's bodyboarder.
Parsons works as a medical assistant and office manager for a physician's family practice.
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