The ISA World SUP Championships is in the middle of May in Sayulita, Mexico. 2015 marks the 4th annual ISA World SUP Games bringing together every Nation with a SUP Team currently totaling 27 Nations. ISA has created an Olympic style event which has proven to bring the best SUP Racers and SUP Surfers from all over the world to compete not only themselves but more importantly for their Country.

 

EDITH GARCIA

 

 

 

Edith Garcia has been an Isle Ambassador for several months now and is one of the strongest racers. This event marks her second ISA World SUP Championship and last year she participated in the same event hosted by Nicaragua. Edith competed in both the SUP Surfing division and the Long Distance Race division.

 

2015 COSTA RICA TEAM PHOTO

 

 

 

This is Costa Rica’s second time participating in the ISA World SUP Championships and although they have a strong group of SUP Surfers and SUP Racers, there’s still a lot of hard work and intense training for them to break into the top ten and they are looking forward to 2016. Costa Rica has finished both years right at 19th out of 27 Nations. Paddle Boarding popularity is continuing to blossom as a sport in Costa Rica and with more up and coming riders and experience for the current team they expect to have podium finishes very soon.

 

COMPANIONSHIP: THE LOCALS

Edith had nothing but compliments for the Mexican town of Sayulita for putting on a great event and especially the locals for being so welcoming. She mentioned how the Mexican SUP Team helped the Costa Rican team tremendously during the event. When she arrived at Sayulita her race board was damaged by the airlines, and the Mexican team helped her get it fixed just in time to compete for the event!!

 

SUP SURFING

This was actually the first International SUP Surfing event that Edith has ever competed in, and the level of all the women SUP Surfers in the event was top notch from around the world! She surfed two heats in the event in very small surf. She didn’t advance to further rounds as she couldn’t find any nice open sections to do the turns she needed. Edith found out quickly she needed to tighten up her SUP surf game. You can see what the waves looked like both on Free Surfing Day 1 and Free Surfing Day 2.

 

 

 

 

LONG DISTANCE RACE

 

 

 

This Long Distance Race was Edith’s’ third international race since she competed in last year’s Worlds and also the Central American Championships last December (which she took first place in). Her actual results were not what she was hoping for in this year’s Championships, although she improved upon her performance last year. Last year’s long distance race was 18 Kms in Lake Nicaragua with no waves and she finished in 2 hours 22 minutes. This year’s race was 20 Kms and the course went in and out of the surf three times, and she finished 2 hours 20 minutes again, so you can see she has improved a lot.

 

TRAINING FOR NEXT YEAR

 

 

 

Edith got so much out of this second World Championships and gained a lot of valuable experience from racing and surfing against the best in the world. Edith says she will go back home and commit 100% to improving her skills so that in next year’s World Championships she will have an even better showing and get the results she deserves, which we are sure she will do. Congratulations on all your hard work and good luck in 2016!