# Case Study: The 10-Point Ride at ISA 2025

> 2025 ISA World Para Surfing Championships — silver medal, viral wave, and a step-change in commercial momentum.

- **Event:** 2025 ISA Worlds
- **Division:** Prone 1 (Unassisted)
- **Result:** Silver
- **Highlight score:** 10.00
- **Outcome:** Viral clip, sponsor enquiries, broadcast features

## The brief

Going into the 2025 ISA World Para Surfing Championships, Kai had already won back-to-back AASP world titles and the 2024 ISA Prone 1 crown. The expectation, internally and externally, was a defence. The pressure was real and so was the field — Australian Joel Taylor, in particular, was surfing as well as he ever had.

## What happened

Across the early heats Kai progressed cleanly, prioritising consistency over spectacle. By the time he reached the medal rounds, the contest had turned into a tactical chess match between Australia's two strongest Prone 1 surfers.

Then a set arrived that would become the defining moment of the event. Kai paddled into a steep, fast wall, drove through a vertical hit on the open face, and committed to a section most prone surfers wouldn't take. The judges scored it a 10.00 — a perfect ride. Within hours, the clip had been picked up by international surf media and was being shared across the broader sports world.

> One wave doesn't win the contest. But it can change which doors open the next morning.

## The result

- Silver medal at the ISA Worlds — narrowly behind Joel Taylor in a closely-judged final
- The most-shared single para surfing clip of the year
- Five new sponsorship enquiries in the week following the event
- Mainstream broadcast features in Australia and Europe
- Direct invitation to multiple speaking events on resilience and high-performance under pressure

## What it means for partners

The ISA 2025 silver is, on paper, a "second place." In practice, it generated more brand value, media attention, and partnership inbound than any single result in Kai's career to that point. The wave is now a permanent reference in the highlight reels every brief opens with.

Partners attached to Kai during 2025 received: organic mentions across a viral news cycle, broadcast logo placement in the international ISA feed, and follow-up content tied to the moment for months afterwards.