2025 World Champs Round #2, here we go.

An impressive cohort of top talent has traversed from one side of the world to the other to make it to the ISA SUP World Championships in El Salvador this week, just a handful of days after the ICF SUP World Championships in Abu Dhabi wrapped up. Other top paddlers skipped the ICF’s Abu Dhabi Worlds altogether to go straight to the beach in El Sunzal, “Surf City”. The number of athletes is much smaller, by design, but the level of racing will be high.

After two days of SUP Surfing, the racing starts today: tech on Thursday, distance on Friday, and finishing with sprints (and the relay) on Saturday.

Thurdsay 13th November	Friday 14th November	Saturday 15th November
Technical Races	Distance Race	Sprint Race & Relay Race
12:30 – 5:10 pm* (Junior Boys, Junior Girls, Men, Women)	11:30 am – 2:00 pm* Women; 2:30 pm – 5:00 pm* Men	7:30 am – 9:30 am Sprints (Men & Women); 2:30 pm – 3 pm Relay

Paddlers to Watch: Women

Mariecarmen Rivera (PUR) will be on a mission to find out just how many world titles she can rack up in one year (month). She’s already up to a record-breaking 3 from winning the sprint, tech, and distance races at the ICF Worlds. Now, she has the chance to double that number. Judging by how thoroughly she dominated the racing in Abu Dhabi, she just might end the season with an unbelievable six titles.

Can anyone challenge Mariecarmen? The leading candidates will be Alba Alonso Frey (ESP), Duna Gordillo (ESP), and Juliette Duhaime (ARG). Mariecarmen may have bested them in Abu Dhabi, but any one of these paddlers will be ready to step into first place if things don’t go Mariecarmen’s way.

Alba finished the ICF World Champs with a personal record of 3 medals: silver in the sprint, and bronzes in both tech and distance. She’s also the defending World Champion in the sprint from last year’s ISA Worlds in Denmark and finished just 0.59 of a second behind Mariecarmen in the sprint final in Abu Dhabi. Like Mariecarmen, she’s one of those rare all-rounders. Watch out for Alba to increase her medal count, fight hard to keep her sprint crown, and maybe take a world title (or two?) in Surf City.

Duna is the reigning ISA champion in technical racing. She came away from the ICF champs with two silver medals, finishing just behind Mariecarmen in tech and distance. She’ll be working hard to defend her title in tech, and might just pull it off. The tech race is often the least predictable, and Duna showed at the ICF Worlds in 2024 that when the racing gets messy, she knows how to cut through the chaos and emerge in first place. That said, the tech race for the ISA is 3 laps of approximately 1 km, about three times longer than the ICF tech race – meaning that if someone does get knocked off their board or take a wrong turn, there might just be enough time to recover.

Perhaps the most exciting match-up though will be in the women’s long distance race. Mariecarmen finished second to Esperanza Barreras last year, but Espe isn’t racing this year (neither ICF nor ISA). Mariecarmen’s greatest rival could end up being a junior: Csillag Kocsis of Hungary.

Csillag proved herself to be a rising star at last year’s ISA & ICF World Championships, and since then she’s further cemented that status. At the Lake Rocks Festival earlier this year, Csillag went head-to- head against Espe and pushed her all the way to the end: Espe won by just 3 seconds. At the recent ICF champs, Csillag raced only in the junior category so she hasn’t faced Mariecarmen directly. In the junior long distance race, Csillag won by an astounding 3 minutes. Csillag finished in 1:02:02.95 while Mariecarmen won the open women’s race in 1:02:04.11. It’s tricky to compare times when the open and junior race ran at different times of day and the course in Abu Dhabi was tidal, which could have affected those times. Nonetheless… Csillag has the potential to take the ISA open women’s title as a junior. Or at the very least, give Mariecarmen, Duna, and Alba a serious challenge for the podium.

There’s a few more big names to watch who skipped the UAE in favour of El Salvador, and these paddlers could also be strong podium contenders. Cecilia Pampinella (ITA) and Mélanie Lafenetre (FRA) took silver and bronze, respectively, in the sprints in Denmark last year. Cecilia won that open medal as a junior, and has now stepped up into her first year officially racing in the open category. Anais Guyomarch (FRA) finished 4th in the 2024 ISA tech race and 8th in distance, and Iona Rivet (FRA) finished 7th in the distance race. Several of the women who finished ahead of them in the distance race (Espe, Seychelle, Rika Okuaki) are not racing this year, so it could be a chance for the Frenchwomen to upgrade their results.

View this post on Instagram

In the junior girls racing, Csillag will be a favourite as will Soryn Preston (USA), Alexia Soto (ESP), and the powerhouse of Italian juniors: Claudia Postiglione, Sveva Sabato, and Lisa Venturelli. Sveva was one of the big stand-outs in Abu Dhabi: she’s only 16 years old, but won the junior girls technical race after Csillag made an early mistake, and finished second to Csillag in the long distance race. Soryn skipped Abu Dhabi, but she finished 3rd place in the girls tech race in Denmark and may outdo herself this year in the bigger conditions. Soryn was one of only two women (with Seychelle) to finish the USA Surfing SUP Nationals 10km race in California in June when serious waves knocked the rest of their competitors out of the race. When Soryn’s board snapped in half, she got a new one and finished the race (pictured above, via @donaldmiralle on Instagram). “Surf City” might just be the perfect course for her, and her chance to take a world title.

Paddlers to Watch: Men

The men’s competition could see a bigger change from the ICF worlds results since many of the biggest names chose to race only one of the two events.

ICF only: Rai Taguchi (JPN), Andrey Kraytor (BUL), Donato Freens (NED), Michael Booth (AUS), Vadim Korobov (LTU), Team Greece, and more.

ISA only: David Leao (BRA), Eri Tenorio (BRA), Christian Andersen (DEN), Titouan Puyo (FRA), Ethan Bry (FRA), Arthur Arutkin (FRA), Itzel Delgado (PER), Davide Alpino (ITA), and more.

Team Spain, who are having another outstanding season, have sent most of their top talent to both events, including Aaron Sanchez (distance), Sergio Cantoral Quirant (sprint), Fernando Perez Serra (distance), Manuel Hoyuela (tech), and Antonio Morillo (tech).

And Shuri “Shrimpy” Araki is doubling up.

Shrimpy went into the ICF Worlds as the favourite for both the tech and distance race, but faced serious challenges from Aaron Sanchez in the tech race and Rai Taguchi in distance. Shrimpy came away with gold in the distance race and silver in tech. He’ll be looking to take both tech and distance titles in El Salvador, with the advantage that he won’t have to face Aaron in tech or Rai in distance. Aaron is only signed up to race long distance given the ISA’s limits on the number of places per country allowed in each race. And Rai is unfortunately missing from the ISA start lists, which is particularly disappointing as he’s the defending world champ in ISA distance racing from 2024 and put on some thrilling battles racing against Shuri at the ICF Worlds.

In tech, Christian “Polar Bear” Andersen is consistently near the top. In the first part of the season, Christian finished on the podium for tech racing at the Battle for Hercules, Triple S Festival Melilla, and World SUP Festival Santa Pola, though he never got the better of Shrimpy. Manuel Hoyuela and Antonio Morillo of Spain are only racing tech, and likely to be strong podium threats. Both looked solid at the ICF Worlds, and although the tech race wasn’t the best event for either of them in Abu Dhabi, perhaps the longer race and presence of waves at the ISA will offer more favourable conditions.

Arthur Arutkin and Ethan Bry of France are both competing in tech and distance after skipping the ICF Worlds, and both have looked sharp in distance racing this year. In the distance race in Denmark, Ethan finished 4th last year. And Arthur finished on the podium earlier this season in the distance races at the Battle for Hercules, World SUP Festival Santa Pola, and BCN SUP Fest.

It’ll be great to see Brazilians David Leão and Eri Tenorio racing against the best in the world again. They both raced against each other in the sprint quarterfinals at Boot Dusseldorf, the first 2025 EuroTour event back in January. Eri won that matchup, and went on to finish in 3rd place overall. But in El Salvador, Leao is the one racing sprint and Tenorio is racing both tech and distance. David is the reigning champion from 2024 in the sprint, so he’ll be aiming to defend his title.

Another top contender in the sprints will be New Caledonian Titouan Puyo. Titou is only racing the sprint event, and although he hasn’t raced much SUP internationally this year, he showed that he still has plenty of speed when he finished 5th at the BCN SUP Fest, behind Shrimpy, Antonio Morillo, Arthur Arutkin, and Aaron Sanchez.

So who will come away with the world titles? Everything points to Shrimpy in distance and tech: the longer distance of the tech race and the presence of waves are exactly the conditions he loves and thrives in. But nothing is guaranteed, as Aaron Sanchez proved when he sprinted past Shuri to win the tech final at ICF Worlds a couple weeks ago.

In the sprints, it’s harder to predict. David Leão is the defending champion. Silver and bronze from last year, Manu Hoyuela and Noic Garioud, aren’t racing. Christian Andersen finished with a copper medal last year (4th place) so could upgrade that or challenge for the world title in sprint. Titou has a good chance at the podium. And one of the biggest stand-outs from the ICF Worlds, Sergio Cantoral could potentially double up his sprint world titles. Sergio won the 100m ICF sprint in 23.92, ahead of 2024 champ Andrey Kraytor and world-level canoeist Vadim Korobov (LTU). The ISA sprint is a bit longer and includes a 180 degree buoy turn, but Sergio has certainly proven that he has the speed. He’s just 20 years old, but he seems to have all the potential in the world.

In the junior category, not one of the boys who podiumed at ICF Worlds has opted to race at ISA Worlds:

Sprint: Andreas Voulgaris (GRE), Matei Barbu (ROU), Zeno Szabo (HUN)

Technical: Tastuma Nishikawa (JPN), Joao Laurenco Pimenta Viveiros (POR), Benyam Bossack (GER)

Distance: Tastuma Nishikawa (JPN), Zeno Szabo (HUN), Maximus Sijrier (NED)

But there’s still a few accomplished names to look out for, and several of these boys still have a few years left as juniors. Elliot Bry (FRA) & Nagito Hirata (JPN) finished in 4th & 5th place, respectively, at the ICF Worlds in the technical race and 5th (Nagito) & 6th (Elliot) in the distance race. Hirata is 16, and Bry is 17. Ruben Cantoral Quirant (ESP), the younger brother of Sergio, is only 16 and finished 7th in the distance race in Abu Dhabi. In the sprints, taking after his sprint world champion brother, Ruben finished 5th.

Many of the top names from 2024 have either aged out or aren’t racing in El Salvador. One returner though is Cameron Carney (CAN). He finished 9th in the ISA boys tech race last year, and 2nd in the B final in Abu Dhabi (10th overall), so he might be able to improve on those results in El Sunzal.

It’s a pretty big hit to be missing so many of the fastest boys who raced at ICF Worlds, but it could create exciting opportunities for the young men from countries who’ve sent larger delegations to El Salvador, such as Argentina, Brazil, and Peru.

Follow along

Follow along on SUP Racer’s Stories on Facebook and Instagram, and watch the official ISA livestream for free on their website.