10 Things to Know about the 2019 Surf City El Salvador ISA World SUP and Paddleboard Championship

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  1. The venue

The ISA World SUP and Paddleboard Championship will take place in El Salvador for the first time in the event’s eight-year history.

El Sunzal will take center stage during the World Championship, a magnet for picking up southern hemisphere swell. The cobblestone point provides long waves with open faces that will play a role in the SUP Surfing, SUP Technical Race, and SUP Distance Race.

Fresh off a Gold Medal at the Lima 2019 Pan American Games, Colombia’s Izzy Gomez showed her elite skills in a right point break at Punta Rocas, Peru, which will translate well to the rights of El Sunzal. Photo: ISA / Pablo Jimenez
Fresh off a Gold Medal at the Lima 2019 Pan American Games, Colombia’s Izzy Gomez showed her elite skills in a right point break at Punta Rocas, Peru, which will translate well to the rights of El Sunzal. Photo: ISA / Pablo Jimenez\
  1. How to watch online

The World Championship will be streamed live on www.isasurf.org from November 24 – December 1. Visit the official event website for results, photos, videos and news pertaining to the competition.

Fans will also be able to watch the live webcast on the ISA’s Facebook page, International Surfing Association.

  1. The past Gold Medalists

A contingent of past ISA Gold Medalists will represent their nations and aim to add to their medal count.

Casper Steinfath (DEN), Candice Appleby (USA), Connor Baxter (USA), Zane Schweizer (USA), Jade Howson (USA), Izzy Gomez (COL), Titouan Puyo (FRA), and Arthur Carvalho (BRA) have all earned Gold in past editions and will compete in El Salvador.

Zane Schweizer took the Men’s SUP Surfing Gold at the 2016 edition in Fiji. He’ll look for another Gold on Team USA in 2019. Photo: ISA / Sean Evans
Zane Schweizer took the Men’s SUP Surfing Gold at the 2016 edition in Fiji. He’ll look for another Gold on Team USA in 2019. Photo: ISA / Sean Evans
  1. The ISA’s global leadership of SUP

The ISA has been committed to the global leadership, development and promotion of SUP for over a decade, including having organized the World Championship for SUP and Paddleboard since 2012.

Through development programs, scholarships for young SUP athletes, and promoting Championships at the national level, SUP has experienced explosive growth under the ISA’s leadership and governance.

The ISA presented both Surfing and SUP to the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee for inclusion in the Olympic Sports Program. Tokyo 2020 elected to include only Surfing in the Games and not SUP, however achievements such as inclusion in the 2019 Pan American Games and 2017 Central American Games, under the ISA’s leadership, have added momentum to the ISA’s push for inclusion in future editions of the Games.

  1. Junior World Champions

In 2018 the ISA crowned the first-ever Junior (U-18) World Champions in the Technical Race. USA showed their promising up-and-coming youth movement and swept the Gold Medals with Ryan Funk winning the Boy’s Division and Jade Howson the Girl’s Division.

In 2019 the ISA will continue to crown Junior World Champions to create a platform for young athletes to develop.

Jade Howson (USA) will defend her Gold Medal in the Junior SUP Technical Race. Photo: ISA / Pablo Jimenez
Jade Howson (USA) will defend her Gold Medal in the Junior SUP Technical Race. Photo: ISA / Pablo Jimenez
  1. The disciplines

The World Championship features eight medal-awarding disciplines, including:

  • Men’s and Women’s SUP Technical Race
  • Boy’s and Girl’s Under-18 SUP Technical Race
  • Men’s and Women’s Paddleboard Technical Race
  • Men’s and Women’s SUP Distance Race
  • Women’s and Women’s Paddleboard Distance Race
  • Men’s and Women’s SUP Sprint Race
  • Team Relay Race
  • Men’s and Women’s SUP Surfing

  1. The races

The World Championship will feature four separate race courses for the Technical Race, Distance Race, Sprint Race and Team Relay Race.

The courses are designed to challenge the world-class athletes with various conditions while displaying the beauty of the coast of El Sunzal.

View the race course maps here.

  1. Social media

The ISA will be posting live updates, photos and videos from the competition on social media. Follow along on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. Don’t forget use the official hashtags #ISAworlds, #SurfCity, and #ElSalvador. 

Facebook: International Surfing Association
Instagram: @ISAsurfing
Twitter: @ISAsurfing
YouTube: @ISAsurfing

  1. The schedule

November 24

  • Opening Ceremony
  • SUP Sprint Races

November 25

  • Long Distance Races

November 26

  • Technical Race Preliminary Rounds
  • Team Relay Preliminary Rounds
  • Team Relay Final

November 27

  • Technical Race Finals

November 28 – December 1

  • SUP Surfing

December 1

  • Closing Ceremony

The schedule is subject to changes.

  1. The Support & #SurfCity

The ISA would like to warmly thank the government of El Salvador, and especially the President, Nayib Bukele, who has been the driving source of support behind the World Championship. The ISA is thrilled that President Bukele and his government have made surfing a strategic priority, with “Surf City” as part of a five-year plan to promote tourism on El Salvador’s beautiful beaches.

About the International Surfing Association:

The International Surfing Association (ISA), founded in 1964, is recognized by the International Olympic Committee as the World Governing Authority for Surfing. The ISA governs and defines Surfing as Shortboard, Longboard & Bodyboarding, StandUp Paddle (SUP) Racing and Surfing, Para-Surfing, Bodysurfing, Wakesurfing, and all other wave riding activities on any type of waves, and on flat water using wave riding equipment. The ISA crowned its first Men’s and Women’s World Champions in 1964. It crowned the first Big Wave World Champion in 1965; World Junior Champion in 1980; World Kneeboard Champions in 1982; World Longboard Surfing and World Bodyboard Champions in 1988; World Tandem Surfing Champions in 2006; World Masters Champions in 2007; World StandUp Paddle (SUP, both surfing and racing) and Paddleboard Champions in 2012; and World Adaptive Surfing Champions in 2015.

ISA membership includes the surfing National Federations of 108 countries on five continents. The ISA is presided over by Fernando Aguerre (ARG). The Executive Committee includes four Vice-Presidents Karín Sierralta (PER), Kirsty Coventry (ZIM), Casper Steinfath (DEN) and Barbara Kendall (NZL), Athletes’ Commission Chair Justine Dupont (FRA), Regular Members Atsushi Sakai (JPN) and Jean Luc Arassus (FRA) and ISA Executive Director Robert Fasulo as Ex-officio Member.

Its headquarters are located in La Jolla, California (USA).

For more information, please visit www.isasurf.org

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