For immediate release
23 March 2023
From: Surfing New Zealand
Sport: Surfing, Longboarding
Event: ISA World Longboard Championship
Dates: 7-13 May 2023
Divisions: Men’s and Women’s Longboard
Location: Surf City, El Salvador
Websites: Surfing New Zealand and ISA
New Zealand Longboard Team Prepares For ISA World Longboard Championship
The New Zealand Longboard Team heads to the International Surfing Association (ISA) World Longboard Championship in El Salvador this May
The event is being held at Surf City, El Salvador and will see the best longboarders in the world competing for their respective nations. The event runs over seven days from the 7th – 13th of May.
New Zealand is sending a team of four surfers to the event who qualified via the Surfing New Zealand National Team Qualification Policy. The team comprises of William Jamieson (Chch) and Zen Wallis (Piha) in the Men’s Longboard Division. Estella Hungerford (Chch) and Amelie Wink will represent New Zealand in the Women’s Longboard Division.
Last held in Biarritz, France in 2019 with a record 103 surfers from 32 nations, the world championship promises to be extremely exciting with El Salvador’s world famous El Sunzal point an ideal destination for longboard surfing.
William Jamieson will be representing New Zealand in surfing for the first time. Having recently done a surf trip around the heads of Noosa and Mooloolaba he looks forward to heading to El Salvador “I am frothing on the trip, after some serious training in Australia I feel a lot more comfortable surfing overseas and with the break looking a wee bit like Maungamanu in Kaikoura I am beyond stoked to be surfing a familiar style of wave”.
“I am really frothing on representing my country having been given the opportunity in a few different sports pre covid and missing out on those opportunities, I want to represent New Zealand with pride, and show the world who we are”. “There is a lot of experience in the team with Zen and Estella so I feel pretty confident, hopefully we can really showcase the excellent calibre of longboarding that we have in New Zealand at the moment”.
There will be two females in the team, both from the South Island, Estella Hungerford supported by Team Cabling is excited to be heading to El Salvador, it’s a real privilege and a dream come true for the young surfer who has competed internationally in the past.
Amelie Wink will be the youngest member of the team and looks forward to heading to El Salvador, Surf City for the first time.
The fourth member of the team, Zen Wallis will bring the team together with his years of overseas competitive experience, he will also manage the team. Wallis is an ex-New Zealand representative having represented New Zealand in Longboard and Shortboard divisions multiple times.
Longboarding was first held as an ISA medal division at the 1988 ISA World Surfing Championship (now the ISA World Surfing Games) in Puerto Rico. The discipline continued as part of the ISA World Surfing Games until 2013, when it was held as a stand-alone event for the first-time in Huanchaco, Peru.
The ISA will have a live stream of the event via their website.
The Surfing New Zealand Longboard Team is as follows:
Men’s Longboard
Will Jamieson (Christchurch)
Zen Wallis (Piha)
Women’s Longboard
Estella Hungerford (Christchurch)
Amelie Wink (Christchurch)
Complete event write-ups, results, surfer ratings and images from the event can be viewed at Surfing New Zealand. And the ISA Website
Information
For more information please contact Ben Kennings on 021 2278732 or email benkennings@surfingnz.co.nz.
Imagery
Web clips and newsfeeds will be distributed free of charge from the event. Please contact the ISA for further details.
High-resolution images will be available to media upon request. Images will be distributed free of charge.
Follow Surfing New Zealand
Keep in touch with all the surfing info from around the country by following Surfing New Zealand’s social media networks – @SurfingNZ. @ISA
Event Details
The draw and results can be viewed at www.ISA.com
Surfing New Zealand is proudly partnered by:
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