China’s National Team Will Also Compete For The First Time in the ISA China Cup
The International Surfing Association (ISA) is proud to announce the ISA’s third annual Hainan Wanning Riyue Bay International Surfing Festival, in Wanning, Hainan Island, China this coming November 23 – 28. The weeklong festival, features two surfing events: the ISA China Cup, a National Team competition, and the Hainan Classic, a Men’s 4-star ASP Qualifying Series event. It’s also the first time China will compete with its own team in the ISA China Cup and in ISA history.
“I am very happy and proud to bring the ISA back to China after two successful Hainan Wanning Riyue Bay International Surfing Festivals,” said ISA President Fernando Aguerre. “Thanks to our partners at Womei Media, led by CEO, Mr. Yang Dunhao, who delivered all of the financial and political resources to help ensure the event. This will be the most important global surfing festival in 2014.”
Aguerre continued, “For an entire week, this coming November, China will become the surfing capital of the world. The opportunities for the development of surfing in China are quite impressive. With China’s National Team competing in the ISA China Cup for the first time in its history this year, as well as the return of this incredibly successful global event, we will continue to boost China’s surfing status to a new level.”
From November 23 – 24, the invitation-only ISA China Cup features the top seven surfing nations in the world based on the National Team results from the 2013 REEF ISA World Surfing Games held in May, 2013, in Santa Catalina, Panama, plus the addition of the national Chinese team.
The eight invited National Teams include: South Africa, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Panama, Costa Rica, Argentina, and for the first time ever, China. Each National Team will include their country’s best four men and two women shortboarders, who will compete for Team and Individual Gold Medals and the honor of representing their nations.
Team Australia, the two-time winners of Team Gold Medal at the ISA China Cup in 2013 and 2012 is the National Team to watch. Past individual champs include Philippa Anderson of Australia, who won the Open Women’s Gold Medal in 2013 and Peru’s Sofia Mulanovich in 2012. In the Open Men’s, Michael Rodriguez of Brazil, won Gold in 2013 and Aussie Heath Joske in 2012.
Following the completion of the ISA China Cup, the International Surfing Festival will continue with the Hainan Classic from November 25 – 28, which the ISA has confirmed will have a Men’s 4-Star ASP Qualifying Series event rating, with a total prize purse of $95,000 USD. This historic competition will be the third ASP event in China, produced by the ISA, and counts towards ASP Men’s Qualifying Series Ranking. Brazilian Caio Ibelli was crowned winner of the Hainan Classic in January, 2013. His victorious start to the year set him up for his best ASP season ever last year. In 2012, Irishman Glenn Hall was crowned winner of the event. His early season win set him up to qualify for a spot in the 2013 ASP World Championship Tour. The ISA is expecting a field of 96 athletes, including a number of local Chinese surfers.
“The Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) is excited to once again be working with the ISA and Womei Media to offer a fantastic opportunity in the back part of this year for Chinese, greater Asia and the International surfers, who will compete, to gain valuable ASP Qualifying Series (QS) ranking points and prize money to help setup their 2015 campaigns to qualify for the ASP World Championship Tour (WCT),” said ASP Australasia General Manager Dane Jordan.
Jordan continued, “The waves at Riyuewan are world class on their day and this event will give local Chinese surfers the chance to build up some ranking points and test themselves against some seasoned competitive surfers and the best upcoming juniors from around the world.”
The ISA selected the left point break at Riyue Bay on Hainan Island off the coast of southeast China, after consulting with the late Sean Collins, legendary founder and President of Surfline (www.surfline.com). Collins was considered the world’s most prestigious surf forecaster. He conducted a historical analysis of the surf along the east coast of Hainan, and after visiting the Island in March 2011 he reported that Riyue Bay held the best opportunity for world-class waves and the ISA events. What Sean Collins said was confirmed months later, when the world’s best surfers arrived to China and were introduced to a land with a perfect left pointbreak, which held barreling overhead waves that broke for ten straight days during the 2012 competition.
With a global media audience of more than 200 million who followed the 2013 ISA China Cup and Hainan Classic online, in print and on TV, China was introduced to the surfing world in all its glory. The third edition of the Hainan Wanning Riyue Bay International Surfing Festival will be a historic event, as a result of the combined efforts of the ISA, its partner in China, Womei Media, the Governments of Hainan Island and the City of Wanning.
