Manuel Selman was born in 1989 in Vina del Mar, Chile. He was introduced to a range of sports at an early age and excelled in athletics, before developing a passion for extreme sports including skateboarding, BMX, motocross, and snowboarding.

His life however took a different turn when in 2001 aged 11 years old his family went to live in the Dominican Republic. Here he found his true passion, surfing, and just three years later he traveled to the ISA World Championships to represent Chile for the first time.

The powerful goofy footer started competing on the Qualifying Series in 2011 and over the next decade remained Chile’s highest-ranked surfer. While he never threatened to make the CT, he remained a consistent and reliable performer. He was considered especially dangerous whenever the waves were powerful and clean.

In 2021, 17 years after first representing Chile, Selman secured his Olympic selection at the Tokyo 2020 Games through his results at the 2021 ISA Games in El Salvador. It represented an incredible achievement for the journeyman and a well-deserved accolade for one of Chile’s best ever surfer.

Instagram: @manuelselman