Small World Surfing Games team hopes for big impact

THE JAMAICA Surfing Association has named a four-member team that will compete against 63 other nations at the International Surfing Association (ISA) World Surfing Games (WSG), scheduled to get under way next Tuesday in El Salvador with the opening ceremony followed by seven days of competition.

Jamaica will compete in the open men’s and women’s divisions.

Veteran Icah Wilmot will make yet another appearance along with the high-riding Elishama Beckford and Portland-based Jevaun Brown, who recently graduated from the junior ranks.

Imani Wilmot will be the lone woman at the championships, with Gabrielle Chung and Zoey Anais Bain missing out this time around, having competed at last year’s games in Huntington Beach, California.

The surfers, already in La Bocana, El Salvador, have begun to get climatised with the conditions and Jamaica Surfing Association President Inilek Wilmot is confident that his charges can put on a good showing in front of thousands of spectators on location and the millions of viewers worldwide.

“The biggest thing we can hope for is that one of our guys advances through the rounds. I like what I have been seeing from both Icah and Shama as they have been showing the type of skills that the international judges look for.”

At the last World Surfing Games in the United States, Jamaica struggled with the type of waves in California. However this time around, Wilmot expects the team to revel in the more favourable Surf City waves, which are more similar to those in Jamaica.

“The waves are looking really good and our team would do well in these conditions. The last time Shama surfed in El Salvador he was excellent and became stronger from heat to heat and I am feeling more confident at this championship.”

Thanks to more than 20 years of hard work and dedication from the ISA, led by its President Fernando Aguerre, surfing is now headed into its second Olympic Games in Paris 2024. After a monumental decision at Rio 2016 led to the hugely successful debut of surfing at Tokyo 2020, Tahiti is set to deliver an even bigger and better show in 2024.

Four men and four women will directly qualify for Paris 2024 through the 2023 WSG.

Jamaica will be joined by Barbados and first-time entrants Trinidad and Tobago as Caribbean participants at the WSG, which will also feature defending men’s champion, Kanoa Igarashi of Japan, and three-time female champion Sally Fitzgibbons of Australia.