61 nations, including 22 Olympians will be gathering in Surf City El Salvador to compete in the 2025 Surf City El Salvador ISA World Surfing Games (WSG), held September 5-14, 2025.
Here are 10 things you should know about the competition:
1. The World’s Best Surfers Return to Surf City El Salvador
This year’s WSG features a wide array of the best surfers in the world. 22 Olympians will be present, including Paris 2024 Gold Medalist Kauli Vaast (FRA) and Tokyo 2020 Bronze Medalist Amuro Tsuzuki (JPN), along with two of the winningest surfers in WSG history, four-time WSG Gold Medalist Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) and two-time WSG Gold Medalist Leandro Usuna (ARG).
Also an ISA World Junior Champion, Fitzgibbons is joined by Dane Henry(AUS), Noah Klapp (GER), and Ignacio Gundesen (ARG), who have each previously won gold medals at the ISA World Junior Surfing Championship.
The reigning Team World Champion, Brazil, returns with a strong team to defend its title, featuring WSG debuts for some of the nation’s best surfers, including Sophia Medina (BRA), Lucas Silveira (BRA), and Laura Raupp (BRA), while Michael Rodrigues (BRA) returns to ISA competition for the first time since his victory in the 2013 ISA China Cup.
2. Record Attendance
The 2025 edition of the WSG will feature its largest-ever field, with 297 competitors representing 61 nations, breaking the previous record set last time the WSG was hosted by Surf City El Salvador in 2023.
3. New Nations
Two nations will participate in their very first WSG in 2025, Angola and Vanuatu. While participants from the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu previously participated in the 2010 World Junior Surfing Championship in New Zealand, it will be the first ISA appearance everfor surfers representing the West African nation of Angola.
4. Olympic Games Implications
Though this year’s WSG doesn’t feature any specific Olympic Games qualification scenarios, it does set up all-important seeding situations for the coming years, potentially directly impacting who will qualify for LA 2028. The seeding for the WSG is based on a national federation’s results from the previous year.
5. Where to Watch
The live webcast will be streamed on www.isasurf.org from September 5-14.
Visit our website for results, team rosters, photos, videos, and news pertaining to the competition.
Team Brazil 2024 Gold Medalist / Photo: Pablo Jimenez
6.The ISA World Surfing Games: A Historic Event
Originally named the International Surfing Federation, the organization crowned the very first Surfing World Champions in Manly Beach, Australia in 1964. The ISA has been crowning champions ever since, with competitions being held across multiple disciplines on all five continents of the globe.
Continuing the legacy of those first World Championships, the World Surfing Games is the ISA’s flagship open championship event. The very first Olympic qualifying events for surfing were hosted by the ISA in 2019 in Miyazaki, Japan and in 2021 in Surf City El Salvador.
Past WSG Champions include Olympic Gold Medalist Italo Ferreira (BRA), Olympic Silver Medalists Tatiana Weston-Webb (BRA) and Kanoa Igarashi (JPN), Olympic Bronze Medalist Gabriel Medina (BRA), Sally Fitzgibbons(AUS), Jeremy Flores (FRA), Chelsea Hedges (AUS), Jordy Smith (RSA), Courtney Conlogue (USA), and Sofía Mulánovich (PER).
7.Gender Equality
In 2025, the WSG will feature 127 women competing, 44% of the total field. Since 2017, the ISA has offered equal competition slots for men and women across its World Championship Series, and every year those slots continue to be filled more evenly.
8.Schedule
September 4: Press Conference, 12pm, Club Salvadoreño
September 5: Opening Ceremony, Behind Casa De Mar
September 6-13: Competition Days
September 14: Finals Day, Closing Ceremony
9.Social Media
The ISA will be posting live updates, photos and videos from the competition on social media. Follow along on TikTok Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. Don’t forget to use the official hashtags #ISAworlds and #SurfCity.
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@ISAsurfing
10.The ISA and El Salvador
A massive supporter of the ISA, Surf City El Salvador will be headlining its tenth major ISA event, and third WSG.
The 2019 World SUP and Paddleboard World Championship, the 2022 and 2024 ISA World Junior Surfing Championship, the 2023-2025 ISA WLC and the 2024 ISA World Masters Surfing Championship have been joined by two qualifying events for the Olympic Games, the 2021 ISA World Surfing Games, which was the final Surfing qualifier for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, and the 2023 Surf City El Salvador ISA World Surfing Games, which was the second qualifying event for Surfing in Paris 2024.