One-stop Youth Wingfoil World Championships to crown winners in FreeFly-Slalom and Surf-Freestyle
GWA Youth Wingfoil World Championships La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain
29 June-2 July, 2023
The GWA is preparing for the year’s biggest event for up-and-coming young wingfoilers with one-stop world championships in FreeFly-Slalom and Surf-Freestyle to be staged in La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain.
The GWA Youth Wingfoil World Championships that run from 29 June to 2 July will crown Boys’ and Girls’ winners in the U14, U16 and U19 age groups in both disciplines.
This will be the first year that the world champions will be crowned at a one-stop event. It will be run during the European school holidays to give as many as possible wingfoil young guns the chance to compete.
La Palma is a great watersports hub offering prime conditions for both disciplines. Playa de Santa Cruz, located on the east side of the island north of the harbour, will be the location’s competition spot. It boasts consistent north-easterly winds that will ensure the young riders can push wingfoiling to new levels.
The Spain Wingfoil League is the event’s organiser, thanks to the support of the Santa Cruz de la Palma City Council and the Cabildo de La Palma, public institutions that have helped to make it possible.
Riders will be able to register to compete in the GWA Youth Wingfoil World Championships using a new app found here. To be eligible for each age category, the young athletes must be below the age threshold for the whole of this year.
For instance, to gain entry to the U14 age group, the rider must be 13 years old or below for the whole of 2023. For U16, they must be 15 or below all of this year, and in the U19, they must be 18 or less all throughout this calendar year.
It seems likely that Spain’s wingfoil sensation, Nia Suardiaz, will be on hand to defend her titles. Still just 16 years old, she holds the U19 crowns in Surf-Freestyle and Surf-Slalom, now renamed FreeFly-Slalom.
Another 16-year-old, Chris MacDonald (USA), will also almost certainly be eager to defend his U19 Surf-Freestyle world title in La Palma.
But France’s Malo Guénolé, 17, the reigning senior GWA Wingfoil Surf-Freestyle World Champion, will probably pose a big threat to the young American. The French teenager is also the U19 GWA Youth Wingfoil Surf-Slalom World Champion and will be keen to make it a repeat in FreeFly-Slalom.
It promises to be an enthralling contest in La Palma as wingfoiling’s rising stars battle for honours. Join us and follow all the action here.
words: Ian MacKinnon
images: Antonio Herrera Trujillo
