INTERNATIONAL NEWS - The International Surfing Association (ISA) is pleased to announce that the 2017 VISSLA ISA World Junior Surfing Championship will gather Surfing’s top 18 and under surfers to represent their nations and compete for Gold from September 23 to October 1 in Japan.

 

The event will take place at the superb break of Okuragahama beach in Hyuga City on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu.

 

VISSLA, an innovative surf lifestyle brand, has committed to sustain their role as Title Sponsor of the event, continuing their strong, four-year support of the ISA and Surfing’s youth that started at the 2014 VISSLA ISA World Junior Surfing Championship in Ecuador.

The announcement comes on the back of the International Olympic Committee’s decision in August of 2016 to include Surfing in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. With Surfing’s rapidly growing popularity and strong youth appeal in Japan, the VISSLA ISA World Junior Surfing Championship will set a precedent of world-class Surfing that fans can expect to witness when the sport makes its Olympic debut at Chiba’s Shidashita beach in the 2020 Games.

The VISSLA ISA World Junior Surfing Championship is the largest junior Surfing contest in the world, with the 2016 edition in the Azores breaking participation records for the second consecutive year with 371 athletes from 39 countries.

The event has proven to provide a glimpse of the future stars of the sport ever since legendary surfer Tom Curren won the Gold Medal at the inaugural edition in 1980.

 

Other top professional surfers that have launched their careers with ISA Junior Gold Medals include Gabriel Medina, Julian Wilson, Jordy Smith, Filipe Toledo, Owen Wright, Leonardo Fioravanti, Stephanie Gilmore, Sally Fitzgibbons, Laura Enever, Tatiana Weston-Webb and Tyler Wright. The 2017 edition of the event in Japan will define the future stars of Surfing, those that could potentially be the first surfers to represent their nations in the Olympic Games.