Joss Alabi

Professional stand up paddle surfer for El Salvador, host of the Waveswell retreats, and founder of Mar de Sueños.

Nearly three Olympic cycles competing
Country Brand Ambassador since 2017
Central American SUP champion

Joss Alabi holding her board on the beach at golden hour

Who I am

A woman with strong values, and a board

Hey there, it’s your wave riding pal, Joss. For the past decade I have proudly represented El Salvador as a professional paddle surfing athlete.

I was raised in a family of athletes, which put me inside the world of sport and its principles before I could choose otherwise. In 2011 I decided to chase surfing. Before I could, I needed the fitness for it, so I trained hard, and my competitive streak took over from there.

I have a bachelor’s in Business Economics and an MBA specialising in the sports industry. That combination is not an accident. My love of sport runs deep, it is in my blood, and I saw early what it can do to a life. So I made it my mission to spread that as far as it will go, starting in El Salvador and, who knows, maybe further.

The story

From a rowing boat to a paddle board

In 2012 I was invited onto the national rowing team, and in that same year I became the top ranked rower in El Salvador, taking national titles and international medals.

Then life did something better. In 2013 I got the call to join the national surf team, and became the first ever female representative for El Salvador in Stand Up Paddle. Riding those waves was like nothing I had felt before, and I have not really stopped since.

Since 2017 I have been a Country Brand Ambassador for El Salvador, and for the first two years I was the only representative from the sports field. In 2018 I joined the Global Shapers Community, a World Economic Forum initiative that connects young leaders around the world. Alongside competing, a lot of my work is public: television, radio, magazines, and talks for schools, NGOs and companies.

Somewhere in all of that I founded Mar de Sueños, a social enterprise built to join my sports career to my actual life purpose: changing lives through sport, by passing on values and virtues that carry into everything else. Waveswell is the next phase of that, and it is how Mar de Sueños becomes something that funds itself.

Joss Alabi coming out of the water in an ISA World Championship jersey with her fist raised

What I actually teach

High performance is not only for athletes

What separates a Waveswell week from a surf camp is the hour that happens out of the water. Across nearly three Olympic cycles I was coached, and mentored by career development coaches, in a specific toolkit: meditation, visualisation, breathing, how you set an objective and how you hold it.

Most of my guests are between 55 and 75. They already know these tools, because they ran teams and companies for decades. What they forgot is that the toolkit was never only for work. When they stopped working, they stopped being high performance people, and the frustration shows up in the water long before they can name it.

So I read what I see. How you approach a wave is how you approach most things. Once we have said that out loud, we can change it, and then your body starts letting you do things it had quietly decided were finished.

See how a week works

The record

Competitions and recognitions

Two Olympic cycles fully, and most of a third. World Championships, Pan American Games, Bolivarian Games.

2012
El Salvador Rowing Single Skull champion, and top ranked rower in the country in her first year on the national team.
2013
Called into the national surf team and became the first ever female representative for El Salvador in Stand Up Paddle. Bronze at the Bolivarian Games.
2014
Silver at the Bolivarian Games. World Championship in Nicaragua, finishing in the global top 10.
2015
World Championship in Mexico.
2016
First place at the Bolivarian Games, and national recognition for sporting success from the President of El Salvador.
2017
Named Country Brand Ambassador for El Salvador, and for the first two years the only representative from the sports field. World Championship hosted by Denmark.
2018
Top 6 at the Pan American Surfing Games. Joined the Global Shapers Community, a World Economic Forum initiative, in the San Salvador hub.
2019
Top 7 at the Pan American Games in Lima. World Championship hosted by El Salvador. Second worldwide in a digital SUP competition.
2020
World Championship in Puerto Rico.
2022
Winner of the Sayulita Open in Mexico, and qualified for the Pan American Games.
2023
World Championship athlete in France. Top 9 at the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile.

2024 to 2026 pending
The most recent results and the full medal count are being added.

Trust

Brands and institutions I have worked with

Powerade Bayer UNICEF Disney Kotex Marca País El Salvador Comité Olímpico de El Salvador FESASURF Hurley Vijosa Arteria Estudio

What it is for

Mission, vision, values

Mission

To inspire Salvadoran youth, and eventually the world, to become better versions of themselves and to keep chasing their dreams, by breaking boundaries through education, happiness, peace and integrity.

Vision

To be an agent of positive change as a professional SUP athlete of El Salvador, capable of representing and inspiring my country and the world, and of transforming not only society but the sports and tourism industries through my own ventures.

Values

Professionalism. Teamwork. Solidarity. Leadership. Optimism. Perseverance.

Come and meet me

The easiest way to know if this is for you is to ask

Write to me. I would rather tell you honestly that a retreat is not the right fit than have you fly here and find out.

jossalabi@waveswellretreats.com See the retreat