Celebrating their 50th year, the International Surfing Association (ISA) pulled out all the stops in 2014 for their annual World Surfing Games. The venue for this prestigious surfing competition was Punta Rocas, the most consistent surf spot to be found across the entire Peruvian coastline. Ever since the first ISA World Surfing Games was held at Manly Beach in Sydney, Australia, the organisation and games have grown year on year. For a small introduction to the event watch the video below.
Teams from Across the Globe
Surfers travelled as teams from all over the world to converge at Punta Rocas. This year saw competitors from 22 different countries join in the fun, from Russia, Scotland, Japan, Turkey and Australia to name just a few. Even surfers from Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates came to test their skill against the rest of the world. With Open Men’s and Women’s contests, plus the World Team Champion and Aloha Cup trophies to compete for, Punta Rocas really turned on to provide waves worthy of such a celebration of surfing.
Peru Cleans Up
The day of the finals treated the surfers still in the competition to some great swell. 6-8 foot waves rolled in, with the occasional double overhead clean up set thundering in and catching some competitors out. With the Women’s event held first, Peruvian Anali Gomez took home the Gold medal at her home break. After the heat she revealed, “I’ve been working 20 years for this and thank God it happened here at my home.”
In the Men’s Open Argentinian Lenadro Usuna dominated the final to surf his way to a Gold medal, with waves scored at 8.90 and 9.63 which no other surfer was able to beat. After he won he exclaimed, “I remember my first ISA World Championship in 2004 in Tahiti, exactly ten years ago, so I’m super happy to have won this, I can’t wait for the next one.”
Argentina’s win in the Men’s Open was not enough for them to clinch any other trophies though, as Peru took home all the other silverware on the day. Narrowly beating Australia in the overall team results, the host country team won the IOC President’s Trophy, the Fernando Aguerre World Team Champion Trophy and the Gold medal. Check out the next video to see highlights from the final day.
Until Next Year…
This years event was extra special. Not only being a competition, but also a celebration of ISA and how the association has helped progress the sport by bringing surfers from all over the world together. To find out more about the ISA and see some awesome surfing from guys and girls you don’t see on the WCT, check out the ISA Surfing YouTube Channel.