Dude can still rip. Photo: Free Scrubber
USA Surfing has announced that three-time world champion Tom Curren will be part of its squad at the ISA World Masters Surfing Championships – for the old timers 40 years and older – in El Salvador October 18-24.
The 60-year-old Curren will represent the U.S. in the 50-59 age division (apparently his birthday made the cutoff to compete among those in their 50s). Rounding out the rest of Team USA will be Allen Sarlo (Men’s 60+), Ben Bourgeois (Men’s 40-49), Nicole Grodesky (Women’s 40-49), and Siri Cota (Women’s 50-59). Each country can field one man and one woman in three age divisions: 40-49, 50-59, and 60+.
Curren took the gold medal for the U.S. at the Masters back in 2011 at Punta Roca in El Salvador, which put him in a league of his own as the only person to ever win ISA gold in the junior (1980), open (1982), and masters divisions.
The venue for the 2024 Masters will be El Sunzal, whose mellow, sloping walls will call for a different type of surfing than the steeper faces of Punta Roca, where Curren won Masters gold. That said, the Rincon legend knows his way around a right point break as well as anyone and he’ll certainly be among the favorites to earn gold.
The ISA Masters hasn’t run since 2013 when it ran in Ecuador. Nearly a decade later, El Salvador has stepped in to fill the void, adding the event to its ever-growing resume of surf events. Just in 2024, El Salvador has hosted a WSL Championship Tour event, the ISA Longboard Champs, the ISA Junior Champs, and the WSL Longboard Champs.
Watch Curren compete in the ISA Masters live on ISAsurf.org.
