Colombian surfer and SUPer Izzi Gomez claimed her first historic victory in a WSL Qualifying Series (QS) event today on the waves of Morro Bay in Central California, the WSL website reports.

This is the Colombian's first international victory on a shortboard and the best result of her career in the WSL after having competed in fifteen events in her career with the shortboard (Gómez has been SUP world champion several times).

After going through four series, Gomez beat the American Sawyer Lindblad in the final by a good margin (11,5 to 6).

With the 1000 points of victory he catapulted himself to position 51 in the world ranking.

“I’m in shock right now, I was paddling out for another wave with a minute and a half left and I saw Sawyer sitting on the inside trying to get a score and I was thinking ‘please don’t take a wave (laughs)’ and then she took a wave that closed and I was finally able to celebrate. I can’t believe this has happened,” the Colombian told the WSL after the win.

And she added: “I wasn’t focused on the tournament, I just told myself that since it was close to home… I’m happy that there ended up being waves because I had fun and I kept catching lots of waves and surfing (…) For some reason everything fell into place in this championship, I was calm, waiting for my waves and with a confidence that I never had before, it felt really good.”

The Colombian is coming off of paddling down some of the biggest waves ever surfed by a woman at Jaws.

He has not stated whether he will be working full-time on QS this year.