Windsurfing Party Begins in Pozo Izquierdo
The show returns to Pozo Izquierdo Beach for the 35th edition of the Gran Canaria Windsurf World Cup, which is the fourth event of the PWA 2023 World Cup in Waves and the second stop in Slalom, with the participation of over 150 competitors.
The action will begin this Saturday, July 1, once the participants complete the registration process between 10:00 and 11:00 on the beach. At 10:30, windsurfers will be welcomed by the authorities, including the Spanish Minister of Tourism, Héctor Gómez, accompanied by the authorities of the Gran Canaria Island Council and the Santa Lucía de Tirajana City Council.
After the reception and registration by the participants, the organizers will have a customary meeting with the windsurfers, and then they will hit the water around 11:00, provided that the conditions are favorable at that time. At 19:00, the opening ceremony of the event will take place in the tent installed on Pozo Izquierdo Beach, which will be open to the general public. From 22:30 onwards, the audience will enjoy a concert by the Canarian singer-songwriter Kilian Viera.
The Windsurfing World Cup event can be followed through a live streaming broadcast on the official PWA website and its Facebook channel, allowing anyone who cannot be physically present at Pozo Izquierdo to enjoy the spectacular nature of this sport from any corner of the world.
Apart from the on-water competition, the Santa Lucía de Tirajana City Council is collaborating with the event’s organization to ensure that attendees can enjoy various activities, such as gastronomic tastings, workshops for children, and top-level musical performances.
Key players of the Gran Canaria PWA World Cup 2023
This 35th edition will once again feature the participation of Daida and Iballa Ruano, who together have won 29 world titles. In this edition, as was the case in the previous edition in the Wave discipline, their main rival will be Aruban Sarah-Quita Offringa, the reigning champion in the Waves category of the PWA in 2022, who finished third in the last two editions at Pozo Izquierdo. In Slalom, notable competitors include the French athletes Marion Mortefon, Justine Lemeteyer, and Delphine Cousin.
As for the men’s competition this year, the main protagonists will be Brazilian Ricardo Campello and the French athletes Baptiste Cloarec and Antoine Martin, who lead the overall rankings in the PWA Waves category. The “home of Windsurfing,” as Gran Canaria is already called, will also see the presence of local riders such as Phillip Köster, the 2022 champion at Pozo Izquierdo, Liam Dunkerbeck, Marino Gil, and Michael Friedl. In Slalom, the key figures will be the Polish rider Maciek Rutkowski, the Frenchman Pierre Mortefon, and the Englishman Will McMillan.
The PWA Windsurfing World Championship is sponsored by the Gran Canaria Island Council, through the Departments of Sports and Tourism; the Tourism Department of the Government of the Canary Islands; the Santa Lucía de Tirajana City Council; as well as private companies such as Red Bull, Windsurf Journal, DailyDose.de, Jaklar, Poema del Mar, Loro Parque Foundation, Seven Island Film, Surf Magazin, Volkswagen, WS, WIND, SURF, Waterspeed, AS Acción, among others
