From Iquique to the World Stage: Isidora Bultó Makes Waves for Chile at ISA 2025

Chile’s 16-year-old Isidora Bultó made her mark at the 2025 ISA World Surfing Games, advancing through early rounds and inspiring a new generation of surf talent.

In the brash, starved mindset of International Surfing Association championships the kind of gritty underdog story that causes a ripple through the lineup is Isidora Bultó. Hailing from Iquique, Chile, the 16-year-old ignited the women's open at the 2025 ISA World Surfing Games at Surf City, El Salvador, as the sole woman from Chile to qualify and one to watch for in the years to come.

The competition attracted a global draw of roughly 291 surfers in total. That is guys and girls from divisions combined, but the draw size is evident and tells a lot about pressure and heat throughout every round of the girls' open.

Bultó finished one of the first heats in women's competition and made it through with an outing that turned heads, not just because she was wearing the Chilean flag but because of style and elegance. In her heat round she recorded a 9.60 wave to make it through. That score put her ahead of one of the other women in the heat and progressed her to the second round of competition.

She continued surfing round by round until she had made it into the second elimination round but saw her campaign cut short prior to the quarter-finals. (The exact round of elimination was the Round of 24 in her division.) Although she wasn't able to make it to the medal rounds, reaching past the first elimination and representing Chile in that deep pool already qualified as a career milestone.

The remainder of Bultó's story is her age and journey. Earlier this year in 2025, she was South American under-16 champion, showing the same tenacity. She is a promising competitor from Chile on the ISA competitor list. In a contest that saw old-school veterans dominate, the Iquique-born girl held her own and laid down some nasty digits on the board.

To Chilean surfing, its importance cannot be overstated. World-class potential has been built in Chile in more recent times but opportunities for women at the world's top levels are minimal. Bultó's bid puts her in the vein of the mold-breakers, not yet to the dais, but to the door where the best receive the arrivals.

To satisfy curious readers, yes indeed the competition scale was gigantic: official advance copy reported "nearly 300 athletes from 61 countries".

For Open women's competition alone you could conservatively estimate that there were more than 100 women roughly competing, though the number of female surfers alone isn't counted in available public overview. Official Finals Day report confirms 12 still competing (six women), which is an indication of multiple rounds of elimination previously.

So in short: Isidora Bultó competed for Chile in the women's Open division at the 2025 ISA World Surfing Games. She faced a strong lineup of roughly 290–300 total participants from 61 nations. She got eliminated before the last six women remaining, so she didn't receive an invitation to Finals Day, but being a national team member signals her breakthrough and Chile's investment in up-and-coming talent. She is one of the new generation of surfer girls from Chile emerging and making international reputation on the sport's global scene.

While the raw numbers aren't taking podiums this time, the news is good: a young Chilean surfer paddling out among nearly three hundred surfers, exchanging waves and scorecards, and racking up priceless heat miles. The next time she competes in an ISA draw the El Salvador experience quite possibly may reward her later on in rounds, wiser strategy, and even Finals Day appearance in public sight.