Saturday saw the opening ceremony here at the 2016 ISA Worlds in Fiji, with 177 athletes from 26 nations descending on this paradisaical slice of the South Pacific for one big week of paddleboarding competition. And you can watch it all on the Fiji ISA live webcast right here on supracer.com.

But who exactly will you be watching? Here’s the final list of teams and athletes that’ll be competing at the 5th annual edition of the ISA World Stand Up Paddle and Paddleboard Championship from November 12-20.

Skip straight to the athlete start list for each race

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Who’s going to win? Check out SUP Racer’s PREDICTIONS for the ISA Worlds in Fiji

The opening two days will be SUP surfing, then it’s a lay day before the surf racing on Wednesday 16th and marathon racing on Thursday (women)/Friday (men). The final event will be the team relay on Sunday 20th. See the full ISA Worlds event schedule for more.

The marathon event is a point-to-point race from Cloudbreak to Musket Cove, which is roughly 16 kilometres (or 10 miles for those still stuck on the imperial system). It’s going to be a spectacular course, with competitors starting at Cloudbreak and doing a detour via the iconic islands of Tavarua and Namotu before finishing at Musket Cove on the Malolo Islands.

This will be an open ocean race meaning wind will play a big factor in the results, though the forecast is calling for only light to moderate winds on both days.

The men’s surf race format is a bit different this year: There will be 4x qualifying heats of 9 or 10 paddlers (there are 38 total competitors in the field), with the top 4 from each qualifier going straight through to a 16-man final.

On the women’s side it’ll be 2x semi-finals of 10 competitors (20 total competitors in the field) with the top 8 from each heat going through to a 16-woman final.

The heat draws will be released on Tuesday evening.

With less than half the field moving through from the qualifying rounds, and with seeding based on the 2015 ISA Worlds overall team standings instead of individual athlete world rankings (meaning contenders like Titouan Puyo and Arthur Arutkin will have surprisingly low seeds), there will surely be some stacked heats and one or two big names missing out on the final.

I would have preferred 2x qualifying heats instead of 4x in the men’s event, just to see more paddlers battling it out in each race. But on the flipside, I think this format will make it more cut-throat, which in turn could make it more exciting. I’ve spoken to a few of the athletes that are quite nervous about being in the “heat of death” where there’s 5 or 6 world-class guys battling for those 4 qualifying spots; if the athletes are nervous, it’s a good sign it’ll be an entertaining race.

Oh and in case you didn’t hear about the change of location last month: The surf race is going to be held at Cloudbreak. Yes, Cloudbreak.

This has stirred up a lot of discussion about safety and carnage over the past week or two. Fortunately it’s only forecast to be 2-3ft on Wednesday, so it won’t be too dangerous, but it’s still going to be very interesting (and probably quite entertaining) to see 12’6 race boards surfing down the reef here at this iconic spot.

Most of the course will be outside the break, but there will be at least one stretch that goes down straight the point with the opportunity to catch a wave.

View the Fiji course maps

Anyway here’s the lineup of athletes for the SUP racing events. You can head to the official site to see the complete teams.

The bold names are paddlers that are ranked in the SUP Racer World Rankings. There are always a few dark horses in this event (I expect young Guilherme Reis from Brazil will take a few big scalps in the surf race, for example, while Australia’s unranked Karla Gilbert will be a podium threat for sure) but I’d say these athletes are the main ones to watch in the hunt for medals.

 

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2016 Fiji ISA Worlds

SUP Racing Athlete Start List

 

MEN’S SURF RACE

Wednesday November 16th @ ~8am
Total athletes: 38
Total nations: 23
Course map
Predictions

Argentina: Sebastian Barbero, Mariano de Cabo
Australia: Lincoln Dews, Toby Cracknell
Brazil: Vinnicius Martins, Guilherme Reis
Canada: Mike Darbyshire, Jason Bennett
Colombia: Carmilo Marmol
Costa Rica: Joseph Cerdas
Denmark: Casper Steinfath
Fiji: Lesi Navuwai, Eroni Fotofili
France: Titouan Puyo, Arthur Arutkin
Great Britain: Glenn Eldridge, Damian Warner
Hawaii: Zane Schweitzer, Kai Lenny
India: Sekar Patchai
Ireland: Johnny O’Hara, Pete Kosinski
Japan: Kenny Kaneko
New Zealand: Marcus Hansen, Cormac McCullough
Peru: Itzel Delgado, Kiko Bustamante
Puerto Rico: Luis Lopez, Sergio Rosa
South Africa: Dylan Frick, Chris Couve
Spain: Pepe Oltra, Jurgi Zulaika
Sweden: Andreas Svensson
Switzerland: Nico Schenk
Tahiti: Georges Cronsteadt
USA: Slater Trout, Chuck Glynn
 

WOMEN’S SURF RACE

Wednesday November 16th @ ~8am
Total athletes: 20
Total nations: 20
Course map
Predictions

Argentina: Juliana Gonzalez
Australia: Karla Gilbert
Canada: Lina Augaitis
Cook Islands: Charlotte Piho
Denmark: Nicoline Rasmussen
Fiji: Arieta Lalabalavu
France: Olivia Piana
Great Britain: Marie Buchannan
Hawaii: Annie Reickert
India: Tanvi Jagadish
Japan: Takayo Yokoyama
Mexico: Alejandra Brito
New Zealand: Penelope Strickland
Peru: Brissa Malaga
Puerto Rico: Nimsay Garcia
Slovenia: Manca Notar
South Africa: Tarryn King
Spain: Laura Quetglas
Sweden: Maya Persson
USA: Candice Appleby

 

MEN’S MARATHON RACE

Thursday November 18th @ 8am
Total athletes: 39
Total nations: 23
Course map
Predictions

Argentina: Sebastian Barbero, Francisco Giusti
Australia: Michael Booth, James Casey
Brazil: Vinnicius Martins, Guilherme Reis
Canada: Mike Darbyshire, Ryan Knysh
Colombia: Carmilo Marmol
Costa Rica: Joseph Cerdas
Denmark: Casper Steinfath
Fiji: Niko Waqaliva, Avisai Tibinaliva
France: Titouan Puyo, Arthur Arutkin
Great Britain: Paul Simmons, Damian Warner
Hawaii: Zane Schweitzer, Kai Lenny
India: Sekar Patchai
Ireland: Johnny O’Hara, Pete Kosinski
Japan: Kenny Kaneko
New Zealand: Marcus Hansen, Michael Hastie
Peru: Itzel Delgado, Raul Delgado
Puerto Rico: Jorge Quintana, Ricardo Avila
South Africa: Dylan Frick, Chris Couve
Spain: Pepe Oltra, Pau Ybarra
Sweden: Andreas Svensson, Jon Hjertström
Switzerland: Nico Schenk
Tahiti: Georges Cronsteadt
USA: Giorgio Gomez, Chuck Glynn

(* Men’s race was tentatively moved to Friday, but we’ve confirmed it will definitely be Thursday for the men and Friday for the women as per original schedule)

 

WOMEN’S MARATHON RACE

Friday November 18th @ 8am (tentative schedule)
Total athletes: 19
Total nations: 19
Course map
Predictions

Argentina: Juliana Gonzalez
Australia: Terrene Black
Canada: Lina Augaitis
Denmark: Nicoline Rasmussen
Fiji: Egi Tikoi Dodd
France: Olivia Piana
Great Britain: Marie Buchannan
Hawaii: Talia Decoite
India: Tanvi Jagadish
Japan: Takayo Yokoyama
Mexico: Alejandra Brito
New Zealand: Penelope Strickland
Peru: Giannissa Vecco
Puerto Rico: Desiree Hernandez
Slovenia: Manca Notar
South Africa: Jackie de Billot
Spain: Laura Quetglas
Sweden: Maya Persson
USA: Candice Appleby

 

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Go to the official site to see the complete teams, including the SUP surfing and prone paddleboarding representatives.

There are only nine full teams (in bold below), with most nations only able to send a handful of paddlers. But those that have made it are in for a real treat. Based on the week I’ve already been here, it’s safe to say that Fiji lives up to its reputation of being a true ocean paradise. And of course the surf contest and short course race being held at the world famous left-hander of Cloudbreak.

The Aussies and Kiwis have the honour of fielding the biggest teams, with the neighbours each sending a dozen athletes to Fiji.

On the other end of the scale: Colombia, the Cook Islands, Costa Rica and Slovenia all have just one athlete proudly flying the flag this week.

And finally, here are all the team sizes. The bold nations have fielded a full team, with the maximum number of athletes in every discipline. That’ll be a huge help on the overall standings, so look for those nations to be near the top of the teams leaderboard by next weekend.

Argentina: 9x athletes
Australia: 12x
Brazil: 5x
Canada: 9x
Colombia: 1x
Cook Islands: 1x
Costa Rica: 1x
Denmark: 3x
Fiji: 11x
France: 9x
Great Britan: 7x
Hawaii: 9x
India: 2x
Ireland: 3x
Japan: 8x
Mexico: 2x
New Zealand: 12x
Peru: 10x
Puerto Rico: 8x
Slovenia: 1x
South Africa: 11x
Spain: 10x
Sweden: 7x
Switzerland: 3x
Tahiti: 4x
USA: 9x

TOTAL: 177x athletes from 26x nations

 

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MORE: Take a look at SUP Racer’s predictions for the ISA Worlds to get your Fiji form guide.