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Australia becomes triple world champions in the isa world stand-up paddle and paddleboard championship While Mexico places sixth overall

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Translation: Heido Sundstrom

Amazing! For the third straight year in a row, the Australian SUP team wins First Place at the 2014 ISA World Stand-Up Paddle and Paddleboard Championship, celebrated in Nicaragua this past week. The Australian team won eight of the twelve Gold Medals for teams and the Club Waikiki-Peru trophy for the World Championship Team.

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The races require an enormous amount of physical and mental conditioning, a well-defined technique, knowledge of the terrain, the current and the wind, as well as knowledge of the rules, something that the French team ended up being eliminated for in the semifinals due to lack of knowledge about contest regulations. 

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Casper Steinfath, from Denmark, and Australian, Shakira Westdorp, won the SUP Technical Race, while Australians, Rhys Burrows and Jordan Mercer, won the Paddleboard Technical Race.



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The Mexican team competed well, although they dropped three places compared to last year’s contest. The level of worldwide competition has increased and the development of paddleboarding has really taken off in a short amount of time. There are a lot more young people practicing this sport and this year’s competition saw quite a few new countries competing. 

The last day of competition was crucial for everyone, although some teams held a distinct advantage. Mexico held strong in fifth place and hoped to make it to the prize podium, but, unfortunately, they couldn’t hang on to their position and were bumped to sixth, the despair and longing evident in their faces. Fernando Stalla, who was set to finish the race, finally took his position and paddled with everything he had. He managed to leave last place behind, but first place was just too far out of reach and held a noticeable advantage in respect to all the other competitors.

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The Mexican SUP team was made up of: Fernando Stalla, Javier Jimenez, Esperanza Mares, Hector Gonzalez, Tzahui Poo Vazquez, Karen Jacobson, Antonio Valdez, Oliver Cruz and Gaby Farias, under the direction of Alfredo Salafranca and Jose Luis Caselin and their assistant, Leyla Morris. Congratulations, team, on a job well done!

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Team Overall Results :

1. Australia - 16,750


2. US - 13,100
3. Brazil - 10,667
4. Spain - 10,501
5. France - 9,532
6. Mexico - 9,398
7. South Africa - 9,032
8. Peru - 8,671
9. Venezuela - 8,266
10. New Zealand - 8,261
11. Nicaragua - 7,527
12. Great Britain - 7,360
13. Guatemala - 6,234
14. Canada - 6,180
15. Denmark - 5,053
16. Costa Rica - 3,870
17. Ireland - 2,670
18. Italy - 2,300
19. El Salvador - 2,080
19. Tahiti 19 - 2,080
21. Chile - 1,870
22. Latvia - 1,865
23. Germany - 1,560
24. Colombia - 1,360
25. Japan - 1,276
26. Panama – 1,200

27. Barbados - 720


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