It is kind of crazy to think that I a have been in the sport for over 10 years and never got to meet the ISA president. After all they started way back when with the first SUP World Championships in Peru. There fore it was an even bigger pleasure to finally meet Fernando even if it was only virtual.
We are looking at interesting times and many people in the SUP Community have burning questions. One of my biggest was that the ISA has been very quiet as far as SUP goes up until their announcement of their SUP Worlds in Puerto Rico. We are also trying to figure out what the CAS decision really means and generally what is the future of the sport holding.
I hope we are able to answer some questions in this video.
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For all of you who were not interested to sitting through the entire video here are a few main takeaways from the interview:
SUP Olympic inclusion for France 2024 is off the table, there were efforts but at the time it was already to late. We are now looking for a possibility in Los Angeles 2028, the wheels are in motion.
Casper Steinfath is up for reelection and per Fernando Casper will continue to be Vice President of the ISA. (We will have to make an effort to find out what that exactly means and how Casper is intending to get active.) Also the ISA will have a full time SUP person on staff, an announcement will come soon and it is a person we all know well.
Fernando is very passionate about SUP being a surf sport and the ISA having a great track record of holding SUP World Championships and including SUP in international Olympic like games.
Future of the sport with the ISA per our own interpretation:
It is a bit like in surfing with the WSL being a private organization with the goal of making money, while the ISA is a non-profit organization with the goal of furthering the sport. The ISA will not have world tour, it is the ISAs job to hold World Championships and to get people qualified for the Olympics. Olympic hopefuls will be selected via the private World Tour Organizer and National Surfing Associations / Federations. In the meanwhile no one is kept from holding their own tour, world championships and so on… but is is up the the ISA to decide who to work with on Olympic qualifications. Evidently the APP is the longest standing tour and is partly owned by the ISA so things should be pretty clear.
The ISA welcomes athletes at their SUP World from counties that don’t have a National Surfing Association. The ISA welcomes SUP athletes that were formerly canoe athletes or are both. In fact the ISA welcomes anybody.
Fernando is not a big fan of the ICF.
For everything else we really recommend or your to listen to what Fernando has to say.
Thanks for watching.
