Stop number 2 of the PWA Canary Islands summer series kicked off with a bang as Slalom X took center stage and the howling winds of Sotovento reached over 40 knots to provide some of the most spectacular and nail-biting racing we have ever seen.
WOMEN
The Women’s fleet completed a phenomenal 15 eliminations and Sarah-Quita Offringa put on a clinical performance, winning 9 out of the 15 races. This granted Sarah-Quita an incredible 26th world title, repeating her dominance from 2025 and leaving her exhausted but elated and ready to do battle in Freestyle the very next day.
Having been close to pulling out of the event after the insane winds of the first day, Sarah-Quita doubled down and clicked into her incredible ice-calm contest mode for the rest of the event, at one point winning 6 back to back eliminations. She found out that she had mathematically ruled out anyone else having a chance to win the event during the middle of the final day of competition and had this to say about the event:
“It’s insane. I really didn't see this coming at the beginning of the week. I didn't think I could even finish the event, but here we are. It's really cool. I got more determination and motivation as the event progressed and today things started to click. It feels insane to win the event. Now I can relax.”
At only 15 years of age, Bobbi-Lynn de Jong enjoyed one of her best professional racing events ever, battling with seasoned veterans to claim an incredible 5th place finish.
MEN
In the Men’s fleet, the action was intense and every one of the 12 eliminations filled with a mixture of radical action, carnage and flip-flopping lead changes. Maciek sailed excellently, showing blistering speeds and managing the changing conditions and extremely challenging courses with skill and determination.
He was leading the rankings for much of the event, having got off to an incredible start with 2 bullets and 2 second places in the first 4 races but then had an unfortunate run of mishaps, a dropped jibe while in 2nd place in elimination 6, a collision with another sailor in the semi final of elimination 7 and then an explosion on hitting a piece of chop while leading the final of elimination 9 culminated in the end of Maciek’s chances to win the event, showing how exciting and unpredictable Slalom X is, and highlighting why we all love it so much.
It was a bitter pill to swallow for Maciek as the event win was well within his reach, but he came out of the event a happy man with this to say about the 4 days of action:
“The best windsurfing contest I’ve ever been a part of for sure! 🤩 Amazing, challenging and variable conditions, different courses with all sorts of challenges, 12 eliminations, the physical and mental battle, 4 super prepared ready to win fast hungry guys battling for every centimeter and absolutely no room for error. 🔥 I think I might be happier for windsurfing and the show we put on then for my own result 😅 A podium is of course good, but I always measure success against the potential so I’m leaving just a little hungry 😋 But also with some memories I will never forget 🙌🏼 Thank you to my sponsors and to every single one of you here for the incredible support!! 🙏🏼🤙🏼”
Nico Prien also had an excellent event, battling through his own mishaps and ups and downs but showing great consistency, making it to 7 out of 12 finals and finishing the penultimate elimination in 2nd place to earn himself an 8th place overall in the event. Nico also loved the racing and had this to say about the event:
“Super happy to have been part of this epic event where we, once again, pushed the sport to the limit. The @pwaworldtour delivered a great show to the world and showed why this is most epic sport you can do and follow.
Personally, lots of ups and downs - but hey, the life gives a lot of waves …and the waves give a lot of life. 😉
Happy to improve from my 10th in Fuerteventura last year to an 8th his year - and even more happy to use the last day to show my strengths!!
Thank you everyone for the motivation and nice words throughout the whole week. Means so much!!
On to the next one. 😎”
Pierre Macquaert had a solid event too, improving round over round, making it to the final in the last elimination and finishing 7th to put himself up into 13th overall for the event.
Congratulations to everyone who took part in making this an incredible show. The organization and event production crew showed just how amazing this sport is to watch and take part in and the riders went next level in the challenging winds. Next up - Freestyle at its finest!!
