As many of you will know there has been a huge return of he magnificent tuna to the UK and Irish waves over the last few years. Local fishermen have been really restrained in protecting them and indeed helped in the scientific and conservation efforts, but now the tina face decimation on the edge of protected waters.
“There is now a fleet of 35 long liners, with a total of 2,100 miles of lines and hundreds of thousands of baited hooks, waiting for the blue fin tuna we’ve seen – and studied – off our coast for the last four or five years. Marine conservation is a global game, and only works if all play by certain rules, and understand that every reproduce is finite.”
“This represents an industrial scale, opportunistic plundering of a glorious and precious species that is on the brink of a comeback from near oblivion. Oceanic animals know no barriers, something we as global citizens must surely try to understand if there’s to be any hope…”
This isn’t ‘fishing’ any more and in the long term it’s commercial suicide.
France wins first Para Surfing Team World Championship, England win first ever ISA team medal, the copper
Para Surfing’s winningest woman Victoria Feige (CAN) earns fifth gold medal, extends own record
Golds for Sponge (Wales) and Charlotte Banfield (England)
Silver medals for both Melissa Reid and Zoe Smith (England)
Norway’s first ever ISA medal won by Ismaël Guilliorit
Performance levels were pushed, new records were set and history was made on a phenomenal day of surfing that saw fourteen World Champions crowned in Surf City USA to close competition at the 2023 ISA World Para Surfing Championship (WSPC).
France claimed their first WPSC team gold medal, to join with their team wins across all other current ISA competitions. USA took the silver medal, Brazil, bronze. England won copper, their first ever ISA team medal, largely thanks to Charlotte Banfield’s victory in Women’s Stand 3.
“It’s really, really exciting,” Banfield said. “I think the team we’ve got this year is the strongest we’ve ever had, and not only is it a strong team, it’s a supportive team.”
Three multiple World Champions added to their medal counts. Davi Teixeira (BRA) and Marta Paço (POR) each earned their third gold medal, while Victoria Feige (CAN) further extended her own record, collecting her fifth. This year however, para surfing’s winningest woman faced her strongest competition yet.
“Seeing the level rise, it’s so sweet to have a victory, but seeing the movement rise is probably the best part,” Feige said. “It’s also so empowering, because I feel like I’m not alone, there’s other girls in the world with disabilities like mine who’ve got that fire to really push the level.”
New World Champions were crowned in six divisions. Aaron Paulk (HAW), Kirk Watson (AUS) and Sarah Almagro (ESP) each won their first gold medals after multiple previous finals, Laurie Phipps (FRA) claimed gold in her second, and Nagisa Ikegami (JPN) and Joel Taylor (AUS) topped the podium in their very first event.
“[This has been] the best experience of my life,” Taylor said. “I’ve waited for 30 years. I’ve dreamed of being a World Champion from when Eppo (Michael Eppelstun) won the first world title for Australia in bodyboarding. I worked a long time as a bodyboarder and then I had my injury and then over 20 years out of the water and 12 months later, as a para surfer, it’s mind-blowing.”
Alelí Medina (PUR), Rafael Lueders (BRA) and Llywelyn ‘Sponge Williams (WAL) each backed up their inaugural victories in 2022. After winning her first gold medal in the assisted Prone 2 classification in 2022, Emma Dieters (AUS) collected her second in her new classification, the unassisted Prone 1. 2020 Stand 2 gold medalist Roberto Pino (BRA) earned his first gold medal in the Stand 1 classification.
Norway’s Ismael Guilliorit returned to competition after six years away to make his first Final and win his nation their first ever ISA medal.
“For the Norwegian people, I opened the door,” Guilliorit said. “So now they can believe that we are able to take some good waves at the competition.”
ISA President Fernando Aguerre said:
“Many years ago, when we started with the first Para Surfing World Championship, it was an act of faith, an act of hope, thinking that this could become the beginning of a new era for surfing, an era in which we open our arms and our competitions to all surfers, regardless of their physical abilities, and it has been wonderful.
“What a week Huntington Beach has served for us, incredible, unforgettable. Of course in the back of all our minds is the hope, it might happen, that the LA 2028 Paralympic Games will finally include Para Surfing.”
RESULTS
Team
Gold – France
Silver – USA
Bronze – Brazil
Copper – England
Men’s Vision Impairment 2
Gold – Aaron Paulk (HAW)
Silver – Roy Calderon (CRC)
Bronze – Pierrot Gagliano (FRA)
Copper – Jack Jackson (AUS)
“I love surfing so much. Therefore, for this episode, I naturally teamed up with surfer William Aliotti, my favourite free surfer and former team mate. The idea was to explore the similarities & connections between snowboarding and surfing by recreating some iconic moves on both side, in an artistic way.
Both riders are perfectly mirroring each other’s moves, on the same element – water – while playfully shifting between its frozen and liquid states. A vision magnified through a pure and simple black and white lens, accompanied by a dreamy soundtrack created specifically for the occasion by Dark Sky.” – Victor Daviet
Monster swell hits in the Hossegor region. We are relieved following these past two storms that the sand bank hasn’t been destroyed, on the contrary it is perfectly in place witnessing this XXL session last Saturday. – Enjoy.
🏄 Vincent Duvignac, Paul Prezat, Floris Figues, Louis Poupi, Jeff Lartigue, Scalp, Remi Cordier, Paul Duvignau, François Elharrar, Leo Etienne, Kyllian Guerin, William Aliotti, Enzo Cavallini,
“Waiting through gale force winds, darkness, blizzards, white outs and snow makes it all the more special when eventually the magic happens.” says Ian Battrick, and he would know about it.
Batty spends months of his life sleeping in his car or van, living on porridge oats, on freezing cold Nordic adventures, check out his Artic adventures below, Batty is indeed a classic. @ianbattrick@lunasurf
An arctic adventure with surfing nomad and underground ripper Ian Battrick. Batty is about as hardcore as they come, global solo surf traveller and super stoked, this edit was mainly self-filmed over time, using a GoPro or camera just left on a tripod. With over 20 years experience of surfing the Arctic, Batty will do anything for a strike mission as this edit shows…
Thank you for the additional clips from: Vilhjálmur Ólafsson Mike Cochran Baptiste Hardoy Ben Weiland (Dane’s waves) Steve Lewis Elli Thor Haukur Arara Gunnarsson
