Boardsports Industry scores Olymic Gold / Oakley's First Gold Medal  

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 18 August, 2008 : - - Oakley’s Samuel Sánchez of Spain won gold in the men’s cycling road race on Saturday. The Oakley team cracked open a bottle of bubbly while Sanchez signed autographs

“My team was great,” said an ecstatic Sánchez, “I think I maybe had a little bit of a surprise because the rest of the riders weren’t thinking that I was the strongest rider on the Spanish team. The entire Spanish team rode extremely strong today. It’s like a dream. I can’t believe I just won the gold medal; it’s something out of this world. The heat and humidity were extreme today, there were only five of us on the team but we were all at the front.”

Yes surfers, Surfersvillage editors accept the medal was not won in a boardsport. However, of all the boardsports brands particpating at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, Oakley has produced one medal-winner so far. 

Surfing is not yet an offically scheduled Olympic sport. Several brands participating in the boardsports industry do have athelets attending these Olympics participating in various sports . Below is a brief run down of what we have un-earthed so-far;-

Oakley has around 500 athletes in the Beijing Olymics.

Information is available at www.oakley.com/community/news
www.oakley.com

Dakine has athletes competing in the Olympics, they include:

Shachar Tzubari (Israel) – Men’s Windsurfing
Alessandra Sensini (Italy) – Women’s Windsurfing
Adam Craig (USA) - Men's Cross Country Mountain Bike
Marie Helen-Premont (Canada) - Women's Cross Country Mountain Bike
www.dakine.com

Smith Optics have 3 Olympians in Beijing.  

Adam Craig – Mountain Bike
Mary McConneloug- Mountain Bike
Kristin Armstrong – Road Cycling
www.smithoptics.com

Red Bull have a total of 42 Athletes at the Beijing Games participating in;

Triathalon
Swimming
Soccer
Sailing
Surfing 
Mountain Biking
BMXing
Beach Volleyball
Athletics
www.redbull.com


Gul International are the clothing technology partners to the Skandia Team Great Britain sailing squad
More information available here
www.gul.com

The International Surfing Association (ISA) has been actively pursing the inclusion of Surfing in the Olympics for years. The IOC (International Olympic Committe) has approved Surfing as an Olympic sport. Surfing currently remains on the "waiting list" of sports to be included in the Olympic schedule. More information is available on the ISA website 

Follow the Olympics at http://en.beijing2008.cn

Surfing's own Olympics

The World Surfing Games are sheduled to take place in Costa de Caparica, Portugal, from 11 to 19 October 2008. 350 surfers from more than 40 countries will meet at the greatest surfing competition in the world, to define the World Surfing Champion Nation, as well as the individual champions in the following categories: Open Men, Women, Bodyboard, Women’s Bodyboard & Longboard.

A total of ten members per team will step into the water to represent their country, accompanied by their managers and coaches. The quota per category and per country will be conformed by four Open Men, two Open Women, two Bodyboard Men, one Bodyboard Woman and one Longboarder. Each of the team members will add points and thus the nation will be awarded the highest honor it can receive in the surfing world.

Fernando Aguerre, ISA President, commented in relation to this future event as the last one in this year’s ISA Calendar: “I’m really happy with this year’s ISA calendar. It’s actually historical, for the first time we have three important events on the same year: Junior, Open and Masters. And the popularity of these three is something you can see by the growing amount of teams and athletes attending each contest.”

In the last edition of the World Surfing Games, which took place in Huntington Beach California in October 2006, Australia stood once again at the top of the podium in the overall team placing, but surprisingly only obtaining one gold medal, that of Kira Llewellyn in the Bodyboard Women category.

To bear in mind
The defending champions are:
-Jordy Smith from South Africa in Open Men
-Julia Christian of the United Status in Open Women
-Manuel Centeno of Portugal in Bodyboard Men
-Kira Llewellyn from Australia in Bodyboard Women
-Mathew Moir from South Africa in Longboard

History
The first World Championship happened in 1964 in Sydney, Australia and was won by the native Bernard “Midget” Farrelly among the men and his countrywomen Phyllis O´Donnell.

From then on, fifteen World Championships were held. In the beginning, and until 1976, they were organized by the International Surfing Federation – ISF. From there onwards, the International Surfing Association supervised the world championships.

In 1996, to demonstrate that surfing can be part of the Olympic Games, ISA President Fernando Aguerre created the concept and name World Surfing Games, in which the best surfers of every country in the world confront each other in a single event, establishing the different world champions and the Surfing Medal Board that designates the most developed surfing nation.

Champion Nations:
2006 –Huntington Beach, United States-: Australia
2004 –Salinas, Ecuador-: Australia
2002 –Durban, South Africa-: South Africa
2000 –Maracaípe, Brazil-: Brazil
1998 –Carcavelos, Portugal-: Australia
1996 –Huntington Beach, United States -: United States

The Arena: Costa de Caparica
Costa de Caparica is a 13-km long coastline located in the central Portuguese shore, half hour away from Lisbon International Airport. It is a chain of very consistent left and right beach breaks strangled in some beaches by wharfs. It receives swells from the South and West and their different variations. It starts to break with waves half-a-meter high and above, and supports up to 8-feet swells.

The itinerary –subject to changes-
October:
9 Team Registration
10 Team Registration
11 ISA Judges Seminar and Judges Meeting
11 AM: Managers Meeting / PM: Nations Parade
12-19 Competition
14- ISA Annual and Biannual Meeting
19 Finals and Prize Ceremony
19-20 Departure days

Courses and Meetings
During the event, a Judges Course ISA Level 1 will be administered to all the judges present and there will be a meeting by all the Chiefs of Judges to set the guidelines for the following days of competition.

The Annual and the Biannual ISA Meetings will take place on October 14. These will be of fundamental importance since two of the four Vice President positions will be elected.

About International Surfing Association
The International Surfing Association (ISA) is recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the World Governing Authority for surfing, bodyboarding and surfriding. It was originally founded as the International Surfing Federation in 1964 and has been running world championships since 1964 and the Junior World Championships since 1980. 

ISA membership includes the surfing National Governing Bodies (NGBs) of over 50 countries on six continents. Its headquarters are located in San Diego, California. It is presided by Fernando Aguerre, first elected in 1994 in Rio, and re-elected six times since.  The ISA's four Vice Presidents are Alan Atkins (Australia), Robin de Kock (South Africa), Maile Aguerre (Hawaii) and Mike Gerard (USA).

www.isasurf.org