Surf-Freestyle’s 2025 season climaxes in Spain after three hard-fought tour stops
GWA Wingfoil World Cup Gran Canaria
5-8 August, 2025 | Playa El Burrero
The ambitions of current Surf-Freestyle world champions, the US’s Chris MacDonald and Spain’s Nia Suardiaz, of third successive world titles, are hanging by a thread heading to the climatic finale in Gran Canaria, Spain.
Both top the rankings after three stops, but their margins are slim to almost non-existent and any slip at the GWA Wingfoil World Cup Gran Canaria, which making its debut at El Burrero, could prove fatal to their dreams of a hat-trick of titles.
Suardiaz, still just 18, has won world titles in all the wingfoil disciplines multiple times. But with only one Surf-Freestyle win this season at the opening stop at Mondial du Vent, Leucate, France, the Spaniard is under pressure like never before.
MacDonald has two wins from three World Cups to his name, but his points’ lead is wafer-thin, with a clutch of younger rivals breathing down his neck eager to capitalise on the slightest misstep.
The finely-poised battles promise a thriller of a finale for the 2025 title in the notoriously-windy spot of El Burrero. It is set to kick-off after registration and practice on the first of the four competition days.
Gran Canaria, the host of wingfoil Big Air world championships for the past two seasons, is to crown the 2025 world champions because of uncertainly over the final stop scheduled for Jericoacoara, Brazil, in December. If that stop goes ahead, the results will count to the 2026 season.
Notoriously windy
A big roster of 23 men, accompanied by 14 women, from 12 nations around the world, are warming at Playa El Burrero, the third successive year that Gran Canaria has hosted a GWA World Cup.
It is a mark how important Gran Canaria regards major international sporting events as a driver for windsports’ tourism, and El Burrero just north of the windsurfing mecca of Pozo Izquierdo, is a notoriously windy spot during European summer months.
“Sport is essential to promoting the island which is why we support these fast-growing disciplines with strong global reach,” said Antonio Morales, Gran Canaria council president. “We’re looking at an estimated economic return of €10 million, and a potential global audience of 26 million people.”
The battles for the crowns could not be closer after the drama that unfolded at the third stop at Sotovento on the neighbouring Canary island of Fuerteventura just a few days ago.
World champion Nia Suardiaz failed to reach the final and finished joint fifth overall. The new sensation of the women’s tour, Germany’s Marie Schlittenbauer, just 15, burst on to the scene to claim her first victory at only her second World Cup.
Pushing new levels
Schlittenbauer, who had taken the third podium spot at her senior debut in Tarifa, Spain, blew the field away with a perfect 10-point score in the final in Fuerteventura for a Combo, Palau to Palau, a move that until then was the preserve of the men’s fleet. She had pushed women’s wingfoiling to a new level.
The German teenager sits fourth in the rankings, some way back from the leaders as she did not compete at the opening stop in Leucate. But with the chance to discard the worst result after four stops, Schlittenbauer is still in the hunt for the title if she can win in Gran Canaria and Suardiaz finishes third or worse.
Spain’s Mar de Arce also won her first World Cup in Tarifa and sits second in the rankings. But she was nursing a shoulder injury in Fuerteventura and finished off the pace, though a discard for her also keeps her in with a shout for the title.
Men’s world champion Chris MacDonald got his second win of the season Fuerteventura. But ahead of the victory there, he had twice been defeated by rookie, the Dane Benjamin Castenskiold, just 14, who finished second overall.
In his first season on tour Castenskiold opened with a fourth place and won in Tarifa, where MacDonald’s early exit proved costly for him. Both are neck-and-neck, though the American’s potential discard is more valuable, giving him a slight edge. Still, it could be a cliff-hanger finish to the season
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words: Ian MacKinnon
images: Lukas K Stiller
Spot Info: Playa El Burrero, Gran Canaria
Weather
The weather in Gran Canaria, Spain, during August, ranges around 25-30°C with sunrise around 07:15 and sunset at 21:00.
Wind and water
August is a great month for wind in Gran Canaria. The wind regularly blows 20-25+ knots, coming from the north/north-west at El Burrero, which blows cross-onshore. The water is choppy with kickers rolling in with the swell. Water temperature is 23-24°C, so bring a shorty or summer wetsuit.
