Jon Hanna surfing “El Sunzal” in Surf City, El Salvador 2024.
By: One World Publishing
Panama Surf Association has confirmed that the former surf pro and national champion Jon Hanna will be representing Panama at the ISA World Masters Surfing Championship – for the men ages 40 years and older – in Surf CIty El Salvador October 18-25.
The venue for the 2024 ISA World Masters will be Playa El Sunzal in El Salvador’s Surf City – a right point break, similar to Jon Hanna’s home wave, “La Punta,” in Santa Catalina Veraguas, Panama. “It’s an honor for me to represent Panama again at the ISA World Masters and to be sharing waves with surf legends such as Tom Curren, Ben Bourgeois and many others,” shares Jon Hanna.
This will be the third ISA World Masters Surfing Championship for the 50-year-old attorney surfer and Panama real estate guru Jon Hanna, and while competitive success is admirable, the real achievement is in what he is doing currently for surfing in Panama that has really defined Jon Hanna’s impact on the sport. DST Surf Director Denisse Gonzalez shares: “Jon Hanna has been a tremendous support and advocate for promoting the surfing sport with his sponsorship of our DST Surf Competitions and the FORTE NATURALS Forte Sol junior surf series here in Panama. We have seen a constant increase in the number of juniors surfing and actively competing in the DST Surf Competitions thanks to Jon Hanna’s support and commitment to cultivating this sport amongst Panama’s youth.” Female founder and CEO of the Miami Beach based reef safe sunscreen FORTE NATURALS, Brianna Meighan shares, “We are grateful to be aligned with an iconic surfer like Jon Hanna in Panama and to be supporting junior surfers in making their dreams come true.”
Born and raised in Panama, Jon Hanna, his wife of nearly two decades and their two sons, William Hanna and Julian Hanna, share their time between homes in downtown Panama City and their beachfront paradise in Santa Catalina, Panama where he surfs with his sons almost daily. Santa Catalina is a sleepy, fishing village known for its epic scuba diving thanks to its close proximity to Isla Coiba in Coiba National Park. Located on a stretch of remote rural coastline in Panama’s Veraguas province, the quaint town of Santa Catalina has a little more than a thousand full time residents and its own unique version of luxury. “I call it ‘undercover luxury,’ explains the surfer and Panama real estate expert Jon Hanna. “We’re different from other beach communities in terms of luxury. We want to be out on the water, go diving, spearfishing, surfing and this is precisely what Santa Catalina, Panama is all about,” says Jon Hanna. Santa Catalina, Panama’s famous point break wave “La Punta” hosted the 2010 ISA Surf Masters World Championship. “It was my first time competing in an ISA Surf World Masters and to have hosted an ISA Surf World Championship literally in my backyard, and also to have had the opportunity to compete in it, was definitely a very special experience,” shares Jon Hanna.
The ISA Surf World Masters has not been held since 2013 and was last hosted in Ecuador. Nearly a decade later, El Salvador’s Surf City volunteered to host the iconic surf competition, adding the event to its ever-growing resume of surf events. Recently, El Salvador hosted a WSL Championship Tour event, the ISA Longboard Championship, the ISA Junior Championship, and the WSL Longboard Championship.
Consider watching Jon Hanna compete in the ISA Masters alongside surfers Tom Curren, Ben Bourgeois and Thomas Lange streamed Live on the official ISA Surf website.
Published by: Annie P.
