Press release:
La Jolla, California, November 20, 2013- The International Surfing Association (ISA) is excited to announce the 2014 VISSLA ISA World Junior Surfing Championship (WJSC) to take place in Salinas, Ecuador from April 5th to April 13th, 2014.
The World’s best Junior surfers (under 18) will gather at the beaches of Salinas, Ecuador, to compete for the ISA World Junior Team Champion Trophy and individual Gold Medals.
This is the 4th ISA World Championship to be held in Ecuador over the last decade, and the ISA’s largest event of the year. The most important Junior surfing event in the world has the full support of Ecuador’s President, Rafael Correa, and the country’s Ministries of Tourism and Sports, as well as the Ecuadorian Surfing Federation (FES).
“We are incredibly excited for the ISA World Junior Surfing Championship to return to Ecuador and watch the best young surfers from all over the globe compete in the world-class waves of Salinas,” said ISA President Fernando Aguerre. “Over the last ten years, it’s been exciting to watch the sport of surfing grow exponentially in Ecuador due to media exposure from ISA World Championships held there. I am looking forward to enjoying the country’s amazing waves and the wonderful hospitality of Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa, the Ministries of Tourism and Sports, the Ecuadorian Surfing Federation (FES), and its warm and welcoming people. I know this will be an incredible event.”
Ecuador previously hosted the 2004 ISA World Surfing Games, the 2009 ISA World Junior Surfing Championship and the 2013 ISA World Masters Surfing Championship. Last year’s 2013 ISA World Masters Surfing Championship, held in the small coastal town of Montanita, featured high profile participants including 2012 and 2013 ISA Grand Masters Gold Medalist Sunny Garcia, and 2013 ISA Women’s Masters Gold Medalist Layne Beachley of Australia.“Last year’s ISA Masters in Ecuador was incredibly successful,” said Xavier Aguirre, the President of the Ecuadorian Surfing Federation. “Besides bringing tremendous media attention to the country and Ecuador’s own National Surfing Team, the World Championship helped re-invigorate the sport of surfing in our country and let us showcase our country and its incredible waves to a global audience in excess of 50 million. We expect the ISA World Juniors to attract an even larger global audience.”
This is the first year for the new surf clothing brand, VISSLA, to become the title sponsor of this World Championship, and VISSLA’s first event sponsorship as an international company. “The ISA World Juniors is the perfect venue for us to launch our brand,” said VISSLA CEO Paul Naude. “VISSLA is a surf clothing brand that represents creative freedom, a forward-thinking philosophy, and a new generation of creators and innovators in surfing. This is such an exciting time in surfing with performance surfing at all time high. The Junior surfers are the future of this global sport, and we are incredibly excited for the opportunity to be part of this event, and to help showcase the best young surfers in the world and our brand to millions of people via the live event webcast and the media exposure it will bring.”
The 2013 ISA WJSC will include over 300 competitors in the Boys under-18, Girls under-18, Boys under-16, and Girls under-16 divisions. Each division will produce individual Gold, Silver, Bronze and Copper Medalists that will play a crucial role in the overall team standings.
Last Year’s Gold Medal winners include: Josh Moniz of Hawaii (Boys under-18), Tatiana Weston-Webb of Hawaii (Girls under-18), Jacob Wilcox of Australia (Boys under-16), and Mahina Maeda of Hawaii (Girls under-16). Many of last year’s individual winners as well as the defending 2013 Gold Medal Team, Australia, will come back to defend their titles.
Stay tuned on the ISA website, www.isasurf.org, for more information and updates on the 2014 VISSLA ISA World Junior Surfing Championship.
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, StandUp Paddle (SUP) Racing and 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, Women’s and Junior’s World Champions in 1964. It crowned the first Big Wave World Champion in 1965; 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) and Paddleboard Champions in 2012; and will crown its first World Skimboard Champions in 2014.
ISA membership includes the surfing National Federations of 77 countries in five continents. It’s headquartered in La Jolla, California and is presided over by Fernando Aguerre (Argentina), first elected President in 1994 in Rio de Janeiro and re-elected seven times since. The ISA’s four Vice-Presidents are Alan Atkins (AUS), KarĂn Sierralta (PER), Debbie Beacham (USA) and Layne Beachley (AUS).
About VISSLA
VISSLA is a clothing brand that represents creative freedom, a forward-thinking philosophy, and a generation of creators and innovators. We embrace the modern do-it-yourself attitude within surf culture, performance surfing, and craftsmanship. This is a surf-everything and ride-anything mentality. We are creators and innovators.
