The secretary of the Pan American Surfing Association and former president of the Chilean federation, Paula Muñoz, passed away in the early hours of yesterday, Saturday, January 6, after a long battle with cancer.

Muñoz had recently been elected as a member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Pan American Sports Confederations (ACODEPA), which placed a surfing leader at the center of the oversight of the sport at a continental level.

Muñoz had a strong presence in Santiago 2023 surfing where she was reassigned as secretary of PASA.

Charismatic, energetic, with a strong personality and very close to surfers, Muñoz's death has caused grief in surfing on a continental level.

The president of PASA, ALAS and vice president of ISA, Karín Sierralta, remembered her on her Facebook wall: “For Paula there were no closed doors, there was no such thing as no or no, they were forbidden words for her.”

In a passage from Sierralta's letter, he says that at Santiago 2023 she was seen with too much energy: “At the event she didn't stop greeting everyone who crossed her path, from volunteers, security, staff, hotel and restaurant staff, she was unbearably kind to everyone, I couldn't keep up with her, because it took her several minutes to meet each person and she always pulled me to introduce myself to each person she had greeted. One day, somewhat surprised, I said to her: 'Paula, are you sure you have cancer?' 'Yes Karin, several years ago, grade 4 with metastasis.'

'It can't be,' I said, 'how can you have so much energy?' Xavier and I were exhausted from walking so much and she followed the same routine every day, being the last to go to bed and the first to get up. One day, I was very tired with an eye infection, and I angrily demanded, 'Paula, please! Stop stopping to say hello to every person you see. I can't wait for you 45 minutes to walk 200 meters.'