Rachael Tilly and Edouard Delpero Gold Medalists at 2025 Surf City El Salvador ISA World Longboard Championship

France Wins Unprecedented Fourth Team Gold Medal

Surf City El Salvador – May 1, 2025

Today, France claimed an unprecedented fourth team gold medal to win the 2025 Surf City El Salvador ISA World Longboard Championship (WLC). Finals Day was greeted with clean, three-to-five-foot swell gracing the long right point of El Sunzal, offering pristine conditions for the individual and team World Champions to be crowned.

After appearing in the previous three gold-medal winning French teams, Edouard Delpero (FRA) was finally able to break through and win his first individual gold medal. Two-time Silver Medalist Rachael Tilly (USA) also claimed her first individual gold medal, having been a part of the gold-medal winning Team USA in 2018. In a repeat of their 2024 performances, both winners progressed from the Main Round into the Final in the top spot, but improved upon them today by taking the victory.

In a hotly contested teams race, the last few heats of the event saw the possibilities for gold narrow by the minute. Tilly’s win delivered the team silver medal for USA, while the Philippines held onto the bronze medal and Brazil earned copper.

Having placed runner-up in the very first ISA women’s WLC Final in 2013 in her first ever international event at the age of 15, along with the most recent event in 2024, it was sweet relief for Rachael Tilly (USA) to at last take the win. The 27-year-old won her second WSL World Title at El Sunzal in 2024, before claiming victory today in a major strengthening of her already deep connection to the waves of El Salvador. Tilly has now further etched her name into the history books, standing as the reigning ISA and WSL World Longboard Champion.

“Oh my gosh, I’m absolutely speechless,” Tilly said. “Obviously this was the goal. I’ve gotten two silver medals and I really, really wanted to win gold. But I knew that was going to be a really tough heat with the competition. And then Alice [Le Moigne] opened up with a nine and I backed up with an eight and I was like, OK, it’s on. So, yeah, I can’t believe it.”

Tilly and two-time ISA World Champion Alice Le Moigne (FRA) both opened with scores in the excellent range. The larger wave of Le Moigne’s gave her the upper-hand with a 9.00 to an 8.33 from Tilly. A notable paddling exchange between the two saw Le Moigne sell Tilly on a wave she couldn’t catch, leaving Le Moigne with the pick of the lineup headed into the final exchange. Tilly picked up a wave under priority, displaying her trademark flow through exceptional nose and rail work to earn a 6.80 from a smaller wave, while Le Moigne opted for a set wave that didn’t allow her to find a critical nose-ride on the outside. Both surfers stood on the sand for an extended period waiting for Le Moigne’s score, before Tilly was announced as the champion, Le Moigne the silver medalist.

The pair shared the Final with two surfers who also have extensive El Sunzal experience, 2023 Silver Medalist Maria Fernanda Reyes (PER) and 2023 WSL Surf City El Salvador Longboard Classic event winner Sophia Culhane (HAW), who earned the bronze and copper medals, respectively.

A release of emotion from Edouard Delpero (FRA) after his highest scoring wave in the men’s Final told the entire story. Delpero was appearing in his fourth WLC Final in a row, his third in El Salvador. Across every year the event has run at El Sunzal, Delpero has moved into the Final in the top spot from the Main Round, but has been unable to walk away with the victory. Today that story finally changed, with the 35-year-old standing atop the podium, to join his brother Antoine Delpero (FRA) as an ISA World Champion.

“I don’t realize what’s happening actually right now, but yeah, I made it,” Delpero said, fighting tears. “It’s been the last four years I did the Final and I couldn’t reach that goal. In the 2023 edition, with Antoine [Delpero] winning, that was such a beautiful moment and last year he wasn’t there, but this year he came back as a coach and I won.”

Delpero was one of three of the medalists from 2024 to appear in the Final, with the defending silver and bronze medalists, Taka Inoue (JPN) and Rodrigo Sphaier (BRA), joined by 2023 Copper Medalist Rogelio Esquievel Jr. (PHI). Delpero opened in the excellent range and stayed there for the remainder of the heat, increasing from an 8.50 to a 9.17, before finishing with a 9.07 for an excellent 18.24 heat total. Delpero’s dominance left the rest of the field requiring a combination of two waves to defeat him, which was narrowly broached by Sphaier, whose 8.60 was the only other excellent score of the Final.

In the end, Sphaier added a silver medal to his 2010 gold and 2024 bronze, while Esquievel and Inoue earned their second medals, bronze and copper, respectively.

ISA President Fernando Aguerre said:

“What a wonderful day for longboard surfing, what an amazing week, amazing waves. I want to first thank all the athletes and especially congratulate the medalists. Thank you everybody for coming. Thank you to the people and government of El Salvador for making El Salvador one of the most important destinations of surfing.

“I want to congratulate, especially President Nayib Bukele, who, sometime in 2019, called me and said, ‘I want to make El Salvador one of the key places in the surfing world.’ Congratulations, you’ve done it. I also want to congratulate Morena Valdez, the Minister of Tourism. And to all the athletes, now go home as ambassadors of El Salvador, these beautiful people, this beautiful place. Muchas gracias!!!”

RESULTS

Team
Gold – France
Silver – USA
Bronze – Philippines
Copper – Brazil

Women
Gold – Rachael Tilly (USA)
Silver – Alice Le Moigne (FRA)
Bronze – Maria Fernanda Reyes (PER)
Copper – Sophia Culhane (HAW)

Men
Gold – Edouard Delpero (FRA)
Silver – Rodrigo Sphaier (BRA)
Bronze – Rogelio Esquievel Jr. (PHI)
Copper – Taka Inoue (JPN)