Special coverage presented by Surf City El Salvador - Photos: Presidency of the Republic of El Salvador  

The President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, dedicated the Surf City ISA World Surfing Games to the young local surfer from El Tunco, Katherine Díaz, who passed away on March 20 while surfing at La Bocana, in preparation for the championship that was officially inaugurated today.

At the opening ceremony held at El Sunzal, where the president was present, he said referring to the tragic event: “I can imagine what that meant to her family and friends, but I don’t know what it meant in the grand scheme of things, but I’m sure she knows, she knows now. That’s why I want to dedicate this international event to her, now you will surf her waves, feel the sun as she felt it, walk on the sand she walked on and honor her with the sport she loved.”

Prior to the dedication, Bukele emphasized the importance of the role of all the visitors from 51 countries present at the event for the development of their country and asked them to become ambassadors.

“Turning El Salvador into a world-class surfing destination is probably one of the few things we can’t do alone; we need your help, we need you to spread the word, to upload photos to your Instagram that tell the story of what you found here and what you thought of it,” the president said.

“We need you to tell the story about how people treated you, how you felt, how friendly you were, the weather, the sun, the pointbreak waves that never end, the warm water and above all, the vibes. I ask you to please be our ambassador and spread good words about our country,” he added.

"And then, when you all get older in a long time, look back and remember that you were the ones who started it all, and that what you started will be enjoyed by generations and generations to come. Even when we are not here," he added, before closing his speech by asking the competitors present to have fun in their country.

ISA President Fernando Aguerre breathed a sigh of relief and referred to the contrasts between this opening ceremony and others, saying that at others there are hundreds more people but that “it is a different world now.”

“Today, we are all proof of the resilience and resistance of the human spirit. The resilience of life and nothing less than the resilience of surfing. In the face of the obstacles we have had in the last year and a half, in the face of the health pandemic, in the face of the economic pandemic, in the face of the isolation to which we have been subjected, today we say: Present!”, declared the authority.

“With the strength of love, for life and the hope of a better world. Humanity needs us and today we are all here making history. A year and a half ago we thought we would have a great 2020, that we would come to El Salvador and that two months later we would be in Tokyo with some of you as Olympic surfers for the first time. It took us a while, but here we are, we never give up, a good surfer never stops paddling and if the wave gets away, he turns around, paddles again and goes for another one,” he added.

“And here we are, one year later, looking for the Olympic wave, accompanied by all our Salvadoran brothers. We will never forget what El Salvador did for Olympic surfing, we will never forget how it welcomed us, the difficulties that this small Latin American country has had to face in order to host these most historic world surfing games,” he said.

For the first time in the modern history of the World Surfing Games, the traditional parade of nations did not take place and for the first time the entire teams were not present. There were two members per team, one carrying the flag and the other carrying the sand of his country which they poured into a single container, symbolising the peaceful union of nations through surfing.

The World Cup will start tomorrow, Sunday, expected at 8am.

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