Nadia Erostarbe qualifies for Paris 2024 Olympics; Spain's first surfing Olympic qualifier

Nadia Erostarbe qualifies for Paris 2024 Olympics; Spain’s first surfing Olympic qualifier

A surfer from a rugged land: Nadia Erostarbe on her gritty journey to make history for Spain

A surfer from a rugged land: Nadia Erostarbe on her gritty journey to make history for Spain

The Paris 2024 Olympian prefers a “simple life” but her adventures on the waves are anything but. Discover more about Nadia Erostarbe and the Basque surf community she proudly represents.

NadiaErostarbe’s family home inZarautz, Spainhas a garage that is packed to the ceiling with surfboards. Some are stacked up on wall hangers; others are held aloft on top of ceiling beams.

This is to be expected in a home where everyone surfs, but the sheer volume of gear can become a sore point between family members.

“My dad is a little bit mad at me because I have 80 per cent of the garage covered with my boards,” Erostarbe told Olympics.com with a laugh. “We have all kinds of boards, from paddleboard, longboard, soft top, and shortboard, all kinds.”

Growing up a two-minute walk from the beach in the Basque Country, Erostarbe’s first memories were of sand and water. She would play on the beach or ride herskateboardon the sidewalk nearby while her parents sunbathed on their towels or went out for a surf.

It was not long before they started taking their daughter on the waves as well.

“I started really young, around three, four years [old], because my parents surf, my sister surfs,” Erostarbe said. “They got me intosurfingbecauseit’s what they most love to doand they wanted to give that to me so I could enjoy doing it also with them.”

While her sisterJuneultimately detoured into free riding, Erostarbe found her stride in international surf competitions.

“I’m reallycompetitive with everything. I don’t care with what,” she said. “I feel like the younger sisters are always a little bit more competitive, and they always want to beat the older one. And I’ve been a competitive person for everything since I was a kid.”

Spanish surfing sisters Janire and Annette González-Etxabarri: California dreamin’ of LA28

Iconic Trestles Beach set to host surfing at LA28 Olympics

Relive the magic ❄️⛷️ Sign up free for full replays, highlights, and medal moments - anytime.

Nadia Erostarbe: From childhood on the waves to surfing for her community and country at the Olympics

Nadia Erostarbe is the first Spanish surfer to qualify for an Olympic Games and the first female from Spain to compete on the WSL Championship Tour. Her journey to those milestones began in Zarautz, a small seaside village in the Basque Country on Spain’s northern coast, where she learned to carve her first turns and met fellow young athletes who would later become her on-the-road family. Erostarbe shares how she narrowly missed out on a surprise qualification for Tokyo 2020, but had the motivation to book her spot on the Spain team for Paris 2024, with surfing held at the famous waves of Teahupo’o in Tahiti. She also explains why the Los Angeles 2028 Games are a new goal, and how she plans to target a medal at the iconic LA28 venue of Lower Trestles Beach in California, also known as Lowers.

Erostarbe started surfing on the junior tour in 2014, made it to the World Surf League Challenger Series in 2021, and got her breakthrough at the2024 ISA World Surfing Gameswhere she finished fourth and earned a ticket to theParis 2024 Olympic Games.

With this quota, she became the first Spanish surfer to qualify for an Olympic Games. Her teammatesJanire Gonzalez EtxabarriandAndy Crierealso got tickets, in the later heats.

Erostarbe went the furthest of the three Spaniards at Paris 2024, making it to the quarter-final where she fell to ultimate silver medallistTatiana Weston-Webbof Brazil. She was the only non-Championship Tour surfer to advance that far in the competition, tying for fifth place withTokyo 2020championCarissa Mooreand two-time world championTyler Wright.

When Paris 2024 bronze medallistJohanne Defaytook maternity leave in 2025, Erostarbe came on the WSL Championship Tour as a replacement. In 2026, she qualified for the Tour based on her top 7 finish on the Challenger Series.

Now in her third Olympic cycle and looking ahead toLos Angeles 2028, Erostarbe said she is no longer content just to be on the entry list – she is aiming for a medal too.

“I feel thatI belong at the Olympicsas much as other people, as much as the ones who won the medal at the last one, and I feel more confident,” Erostarbe said. “And I will do it for everyone, for myself, for all the community who follow me, for everyone from my family.”

A tight-knit community of Basque surfers

The Basque Country is a key surf hub in Spain. Friend-owned surf shops line the boardwalks along the mountainous coastline and legendary surf figures call the northern coastal region home.

Aritz Aranburu, the first Spanish surfer on the WSL Championship Tour, also hails from Erostarbe’s hometown whileJohnny Cabianca, long-time shaper for Olympic bronze medallist and three-time world championGabriel Medina, moved to Zarautz from his native Brazil.

Less than an hour’s drive from the birthplace of European surfing, Biarritz, the Basque Country offers more than 200km of coast that catches powerful Atlantic swells. But unlike its fellow Spanish surf destinations - The Balearic and Canary Islands, here the water turns frigid in the winter, adding an extra challenge for surf enthusiasts.

Erostarbe grew up immersed in Basque surf culture. Not only do her parents surf and their house is packed with boards and wax, but she was always surrounded by surfers. All but one of her teammates from the2025 ISA World Surfing Gamesare from the same region.

“We are five from the Basque Country and one from the Canary Islands,” Erostarbe said. “Ruben (Vitoria)is from the same hometown, and thenJanireandAnnette (Gonzalez Etxabarri), they live 10 minutes away.

“We’ve been travelling a lot together and we got to know each other better and we get to have more experiences together and this way I feel like we made a kind of little family in travel because surf is such an individual sport and such a solitary sport where you travel all the way to the other part of the world and maybe you’re by yourself, you have all of your family and friends at home, soto have this little family everywhere, it’s amazing.”

From the outside, Erostarbe and her teammates fit the typical surf aesthetic: tanned skin, sun-bleached blonde hair, and strong limbs that allow them to paddle against powerful waves. But there is often an edge to these Basque surfers as well, perhaps shaped by the rugged but beautiful landscape of their upbringing.

While surfing does not have a long history in Spain as it does in Hawaii or Polynesia, when the first surfboards arrived on the Basque shoreline from California in the 1960s, it felt like a homecoming of sorts. Just as theBasque fishermen and whalerssailed these waters for centuries before, Erostarbe and her teammatescontinued the traditionin their own way as they paddled out on their boards.

Most of the surfers on Spain’s team, including Nadia Erostarbe, hail from the Basque Country.

As for her ancestors, the sea is a place of joy but also hardship for Erostarbe. She felt that most acutely in 2024 when sheinjured her lower backbefore the final two stops of the Challenger Series. Unable to surf without pain, Erostarbe fell in the rankings and finished one spot from qualifying for the Championship Tour.

“I couldn’t surf. It hurt a lot.I almost couldn’t walk,” Erostarbe recalled. “The last two events, I knew I had to do well to qualify for the CT, and I was right there, fifth, watching every girl making it through, making it through. And me not even being able to surf.

“I finished sixth in the ranking. I didn’t qualify. At the beginning it was, ‘OK, nothing happened. I’m the same person. Another person qualified this time. Next year I will try the same’, but thenyou start to talk bad to yourself, get into a cycle, then you’re not able to surf, you’re not able to train. It was a pretty hard end of the year, which I think is the lowest I’ve ever been.”

After hitting multiple dead ends in her recovery, a trip to a talented osteopath finally cured Erostarbe’s back problems. She also managed to get on the Tour as a replacement for Defay. Thecall came two days before Pipeline Proin Hawaii and Erostarbe scrambled to get halfway across the world for that competition.

Her first call after receiving the news was to her boyfriendGuille Gutiérrez. The next was to Aritz Aranburu for advice. The fellow Zarautz native competed at Pipeline Pro in 2014 and helped Erostarbe pick her quiver for the trip.

Canada’sErin Brookshelped her secure accommodation for the first days and Erostarbe deployed her well-exercised planning skills to sort out the rest once on the ground.

“I do everything.I could be a (travel) agencyafter retiring from surfing,” Erostarbe said with a laugh. “There is a lot of work apart from going in your heat. You have to book all the flights, all accommodations, the cars, the food. You have to be a little bit of everything.”

In addition to training and competing, Nadia Erostrabe plans all her trips, including flights, accommodations, meals and car rentals.

Nadia Erostarbe’s new mental game

Erostarbe’s boyfriend is a big help on the trips. Not only is Guille Gutiérrez her coach, but he also helps the surfer with travel arrangements and to overcome any negative self-talk.

However, it is not only words of encouragement that Erostarbe wants to hear when things get tough. Her secret, she said, is to surround herself with people who are just as demanding as herself.

“For a Spanish girl, which I’m the first one to qualify for the CT, for most people I see at home, it’s like, ‘Oh, you already did it. Oh, you qualified. That’s it’. And I’m like,‘No, that’s not it! I want to do good’,” Erostarbe told us. “I feel like I have to surround myself with people who want me to do top 10 or top five, or whatever it is. So, work with people that for them it’s nothing (just) to be on the CT.”

Erostarbe’s experience on the Championship Tour has been a mixed affair. She did not advance beyond the Round of 16 in the first seven events, and there were moments when back-to-back losses in the first round dampened her spirits. But if there is one lesson she picked up on the circuit – where she surfs with both the Spanish and Basque flags on her jersey – it is to nourish self-confidence.

“I started believing more in myself,” said Erostarbe, who made a major breakthrough in May 2026 when she advanced to the semi-final of the Gold Coast Pro, beating Paris 2024 championCaroline Marksand top seedGabriela Bryanen route.

“It’sall mental here. I know everyone surfs good in these events, like in the Challengers, in the CT or in the ISAs. Everyone knows how to surf. Everyone knows how to get eight points or nine points or seven points. It’s more about who trusts more in themselves and who is strong mentally.”

Erostarbe was one heat win away from qualifying for Tokyo 2020. Earning the quota for Paris 2024 and her success since has helped to further bolster her confidence. Now in her third Olympic cycle, she is feeling even more ready for a stab at LA28.

The 25-year-old has already surfed atLower Trestles, the venue of the next Olympic surfing competition, and plans to return there in preparation for the Games.

But wherever she goes – jet setting around the world every season – the road always leads her back home to northern Spain.

“The first thing I do is I give a big hug and kiss to my mom, to my dad,” she said of her rituals upon returning to Zarautz. “Enjoy some time home, enjoy some basic things. Just have coffee in the morning with my mom and go to watch the waves and maybe have a surf. Basic things. I don’t really go for big things. I don’t like too many big things in life. Ilike a simple life."

Nadia Erostarbe advanced to the quarter-final at Paris 2024, the best result for a