11/08/2025
🥈 TEAM USA TAKES SILVER! 🌊🇺🇸
Fifteen athletes. Six classifications. One family. In pumping O’side pier waves, USA Surfing para surfers claimed the team’s second straight team Silver Medal at the 2025 World Para Surfing Championship!
Medals
🥇 Sarah Bettencourt — Women’s Prone 1 (her 5th world title)
🥈 Alana Nichols — Women’s Sit/Waveski
🥈 José Martinez — Men’s Prone 2
🥈 Jeff Munson — Men’s Sit/Waveski
🥉 Chris Oberle — Men’s Sit/Waveski
Team standings: 1) France 🥇 2) United States 🥈 3) Brazil 🥉 4) Australia
“I do this for the generations coming behind me… anyone can surf. It’s healing, it’s magical—and one day it will be in the Paralympics,” — Sarah Bettencourt, Team co-captain & retired USMC helicopter pilot.
Huge props from Head Coach Ryan Simmons “for the hard work the team put in this year—mental performance, strength/conditioning, dialing in equipment, team trainings with video review and analysis, and breaking down heat strategy.” 💙
Endless thanks to our water safety, pushers, catchers, and guides who keep athletes safe and stoked: Jeff Easter, Jesse Baxter, Darren Klassen, Evan Locke, Mario Menze, Jake McNulty, David Waitley, Jimmy Le Beau, Timothy Reed Murphy, CiCi Sullivan—and our sports medicine partners & 🙏
2025 USA Surfing Para Team Roster (Classifications)
• Sarah Bettencourt — San Diego, CA — Prone 1
• Katherine Beattie — Los Angeles, CA — Prone 1
• José Martinez — Apple Valley, CA — Prone 2
• Jesse Billauer — Pacific Palisades, CA — Prone 2
• Quinn Waitley — San Diego, CA — Prone 2
• Ashley Bunting — Deming, NM — Prone 2
• Emily Purry — Portland, OR — Vision Impaired
• Joshua Loya — Santa Cruz, CA — Vision Impaired
• Forrest Weinberg — Los Angeles, CA — Stand 2
• Carter Hess — Panama City Beach, FL — Stand 2
• Jeff Munson — Corona del Mar, CA — Sit Waveski
• Chris Oberle — Oceanside, CA — Sit Waveski
• Alana Nichols — Reno, NV — Sit Waveski
• Parker Olenick — San Diego, CA — Prone 1
• Jacob Pacheco — Los Angeles, CA — Prone 1
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