Surfing – Day 3

Great excitement filled the breakfast room with Matt, Dylan and Khara taking to the waves again. Dylan was up in heat 2 and Matt in heat 3, while Khara would showcase her skills thereafter. Dylan had a great round with scoring a 5.37 on his second wave and a 6.10 on his fourth wave. The waves were cooking and allowed Dylan to surf them from the back to the front. With great excitement – Dylan exited the water with the top score in his heat. 

Little did we know that the next heat would include top wave scores from Matthew Maxwell from South Africa. After a 5.40 on his second wave, Matt scored a 4.40, placing him third behind Daniel Hughes. Matt waited for the last seconds in his heat, and with a shock to Daniel’s system, already being interviewed for his second spot, Matt got onto his last wave – 30 seconds from the end – and landed every turn from the back to the very end of the best wave up until then. He scored an 8.73. The vuvuzelas reflected these scores with great and loud blows. 

Khara’s heat was coming up and she entered the water with a great excitement after the previous day’s great heat. Khara had a tough heat with Candice Appleby and Lara Claydon from the United States of America and Aline Adisaka from Brazil. Khara had difficulty in getting waves while the others had priority with good sets that came through. She surfed until the end but was not able to place in the top two in this repo round. 

It was time for repechage round 4 for Dylan and Matthew. Matthew was up against Zane Schweitzer from the United States of America, Gabriel Salazar from Chile and Juan de los Reyes from Spain. Matt scored on great waves throughout his heat, with a 4.23 on his second wave. With great disappointment – the commentator announced an interference call after wave two – saying that Matt was warned that he was prone paddling more than five strokes and received the interference penalty on his second warning. This was massively disappointing especially with his fourth and fifth wave scoring 6.2 and 5.10, which would’ve placed him in second place but knocked him down to 3^rd because of the penalty. This meant the end for Matt’s surfing at Worlds. Great surfing Matt! 

Dylan was next and up against Clement Roseyro from France, Guillermo Carracedo from Spain and Jefferson Tascon from Columbia. With some difficulty in finding waves, Dylan scored 5.63 and 5.10 on the two waves that he caught. It was two great waves but was unfortunately not enough to move him from third place.

And just like that – El Salvador Surf City 2019 ISA World SUP and Paddleboard Championships was done and dusted. So what did we do next? We had burritos, organised a bus, packed our boards and found our way to Playa Punta Roca where there were a couple of locals and fun waves. Great fun was found, here. We ended the day with burgers and pasta at our favourite restaurant with the Danish Team. 

What is left for today? Closing Ceremony at 1 pm on Sunday and a Closing fiesta at 6 pm. You can also watch the surfing finals this morning (afternoon in South Africa), which has just started.

Just a massive thanks to Ben Reed and Sean Evans for the great photos throughout the World Championships.  

Surfing – Day 1

A good, great, sunny day in El Salvador and the surfing is getting everyone hyped up and ready for the entertainment. Matt, Dylan and Khara had their first round in the World Championship Surfing. All surfers had quite a challenge to get waves in their heats because of the swell that died down throughout the week – so it was all about getting waves where you could and showcasing as much skill as possible on the waves you got.

Matt started off with a great first wave with a few critical turns on the below average conditions and managed to hold second place until the last 20 seconds where the New Zealand surfer got a great set and jumped from third to first. Matthew will be partaking in the repo rounds on day 2. Dylan was up next and got to surf a few killer waves keeping a steady second place behind Tamil Martino from Peru. The commentators enjoyed Dylan’s board swimming below sea level but this didn’t stop him getting great turns on every wave he went for. Khara partook in heat 5 with Hannah Finlay-Jones from Australia, Takayo Yokoyama from Japan and Viania Torres from Peru. Khara went for the first wave and scored well with 5 turns placing first in the first 5 minutes. Vania from Peru got the second wave and jumped the scoreboard to first place. Khara ended her heat at third place behind Australia and will be going through to repo rounds with Matthew.

Today is Surf Day 2 where Dylan will take part in round two at 9:20 am and Matt and Khara will take part in repo rounds this afternoon. You can stay up to date on the live streaming on the ISA website, on our Whatsapp chat (let Anja know) or on Instagram live on the SASUPTEAM profile.

We had an early start on Tuesday. 6:00 check in, 7:00 race brief and a 7:30 start to 4 very exciting Technical Race heats. Khara had a tough heat to compete in and paddled into 9^th with 0.24.34, which would’ve landed her a 3^rd in the first heat where Candice Applebey paddled a 0.24.39 placing her third. Drained and heated, Khara had a great race. Dylan’s heat followed the women’s second heat. A tough group but with a great start he made it into 7^th from the front knowing that he would have to keep his pace and overtake at least 1 paddler to make it to finals on Wednesday. He gave it all he got. Went for a wide on the surf to paddle Panama in, which sent him a little bit further from the buoy than preferred. But with a perfect run in the last 100 m. Dylan made it to the beach, jumping on the sand and making his way across the finish line a few meters before Panama, getting him his 6^th place and into the final.

With great excitement, Dylan, Khara, Tyra and Ethan got ready for the Relay race. The relay started with the Prone men (Ethan Buncombe), followed by SUP women (Khara Doyle), Prone women (Tyrs Buncombe) and finished with SUP men (Dylan Frick). Lined up and off they went. Most of the field of prone men cleaned up by a big set as they rounded the first bouy on lap one but Ethan survived and recovered to end his 400m in 4^th place. Khara and Tyra paddled well to maintain our position, with Khara catching a great wave and Tyra keeping up brilliantly. Dylan started the last leg in 7^th place and was sitting in 8th by the time he rounded the outside mark. He spotted a large set wave approaching and paddled wide of the bouy to allow himself room to catch it and surf past 3 paddlers ahead of him. Japan just managed to catch the same wave on the inside and because they were closer to the finish chute had a shorter run and just managed to sprint to the line ahead of him to claim the Copper medal position.

The event ended early today – which allowed everyone to get sme good El Salvadorian food and rest, foolowed by an ocean and pool swim, smoothie, siesta and walk on the beach.

Who thought long distance races could be so exciting. It started out to be a sunny, warm morning in El Salvador. Tyra spent the first hour of the day getting used to the England Team board and the rest had a surf. 7:00 – check in; 8:00 race brief and 8:35 – Tyra got on her prone board and off she went. 18 kilometers. El Salvadorian heat. And salty water. The first 6 km’s went good for all athletes. The problems starting coming in on the second round where a lot of the athlete’s missed the 2^nd or 4^th buoy. Everyone, on land and on the streaming were running around, asking questions and stating bold statements about possible disqualifications, but all had to wait for ISA comments. As for the athletes, they were unaware of it all and continued on their race. Tyra almost missed buoy 2 but luckily corrected it as she almost passed it. Little did she know that she was one of only two prone athletes who made all the buoy turns, resulting in a gold or silver. Read our Press Release below.

Women long distance were followed with a two hour rest and the men final. Conditions looked different, but Ethan was ready to take it on. After a cut in his foot while celebrating Tyra’s gold, he got on his board and started his 18 km journey. It was a fast, grueling 18 km for the men with great excitement as the exitted the water. Ethan ended with a 7^th place, showing great skill, calls on the water and good wave surfs in round 1 & 2.

A massive well done for both of our athletes, we are incredibly proud of you! Thank you for all of the support back home.

South African wins Gold at the 2019 International Surfing Association World Stand-up Paddleboarding Championships in El Salvador.

Tuesday November 26^th: Tyra Buncombe of the Western Cape was crowned the 2019 ISA Woman’s World Long Distance Prone Paddleboard Champion yesterday, after winning the 18km race in brutally hot conditions at Playa El Tunco, El Salvador.

In a day of high drama, numerous competitors in both the Woman’s Stand Up Paddleboard, as well as the Woman’s Prone Paddleboard Races, completed the three lap course incorrectly and were disqualified.   

Twenty year old Buncombe, who is competing in the World Championships for the first time, navigated the course correctly and was awarded the Gold Medal.

Her win was made even more impressive by the fact that the young South African was paddling an unfamiliar paddleboard which she borrowed from the English team. Logistical problems in getting her own board to El Salvador meant that she was unable to train or familiarise herself with the course since arriving in El Salvador five days ago.   

The 2019 Surf City El Salvador ISA WSUPP Championships began on November 24 and ends on December 2. It includes various SUP and Prone Paddleboard Race Disciplines as well as SUP Surfing.

The six member South African Team are competing against 150 athletes from 27 Countries in the eighth edition of the annual event. In 2018 Tarryn King from Cape Town became the first South African Gold Medallist at the event when she won the Woman’s Stand Up Paddleboard 200m Sprint Race. 

More information on the event is available at www.isasurf.org

Stand Up Paddling South Africa (SUPSA) is a partner of Surfing South Africa, the recognised governing body for all forms of surfriding in South Africa. SSA is a member of the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC), the African Surfing Confederation (ASC) and the International Surfing Association (ISA).