The PWA has released their 2018 provisional tour calendar with 9 confirmed and 4 pending events (2017 had 11 announced tour stops and 9 happened).
Slalom is the discipline with the most confirmed events, 6 for the men and 3 for the women. The wave riders will see 3 events plus one qualifier for men and 4 events for women. And for the freestylers 2 PWA events are scheduled for men and women at the moment. The freestyle ladies got a second event to their 2018 event calendar.
Foiling events aren’t decided yet, what’s a kind of a surprise because there were rumors about a full foiling tour about one year ago. Maybe the foiling trend didn’t take off like expected. The Denmark Slalom event in Hvide Sande is off the calendar and France did not return to the calendar, whether La Torche or Marseille and New Caledonia takes place every second year only.
The PWA tour will start in April 2018 with a ladies wave event and a men’s PWA wave qualifier in Morocco. In May the first slalom events in Japan and South Korea will follow. The freestyle sailors still have some time left to prepare for their first events. The men wave riders will have their first event on Gran Canaria in July. The female freestylers will have their first event in Portugal mid June and the freestyle men at the end of July in Fuerteventura. Unfortunately two men freestyle events didn’t make it on the calendar, although there were rumors about an event in Viana do Castelo or Pozo Izquierdo.
The Portugal event has had to be downsized from the expected 3 discipline event due to budget restriction on the organizers side. The event will now be a full Slalom World Cup, but with the addition of a women only Freestyle World Cup at the same time. Fuerteventura will have split dates as usual, with the Freestyle taking place first from 26th to 30th July and the Slalom taking place from 30th July to 4th August. The events that will have foiling alongside Slalom for 2018 are not finalized yet. We are still working on this with our event partners and will let you know more information as soon as possible. (PWA)
2018 PWA main calendar (provisional)
- MOROCCO, Moulay Bouzerktoune | 01.04. – 7.04.2018 | Wave Women World Cup & Men World CupQualifier (starts on 27.03.) |
- JAPAN, Yokosuka | 10.06. -15.05.2018 | Slalom Women & Men | World Cup
- SOUTH KOREA, Jinha Beach | 19.05. – 24.05.2018 | Slalom Women & Men | World Cup
- COSTA BRAVA, Sant Pere Pescador | 05.06. – 10.06.2018 | Slalom Men | World Cup
- PORTUGAL, Viana do Castelo | 13. – 20.06.2018 | Slalom Women & Men, Freestyle Women | Grand Slam
- GRAN CANARIA, Pozo Izquierdo | 15.07. – 21.07.2018 |Wave Women & Men | World Cup
- FUERTEVENTURA, Sotavento | 26.07. – 30.07.2018 | Freestyle Women & Men & 30.07. – 4.8. 2018 Slalom Men | Grand Slam
- TENERIFE, El Cabezo | 5.08.-11.08.2018 | Wave Women & Men | World Cup
- GERMANY, Sylt | 28.09. – 7.10.2018 | Slalom Men, Freestyle Men, Wave Women & Men | Super Grand Slam
Possible additions in 2018
AUSTRIA, Lake Neusiedl | 27.04. – 01.05.2018 | Freestyle Men | World Cup- TURKEY, Alacati | August TBC | Slalom Women & Men | World Cup
- HAWAII, Maui | 28.10. – 10.11.2018 | Wave Women & Men | World Cup
Fuck the PWA. Go to the efpt or the gfb.
Wow, intelligent posting…
No problem if we gonna have an amateur sport only?? Progress, sustainability,…
Rather help developing the professional structures instead of just criticizing!
how to do that then ?
Eftp has almost the same level and is of course professional
i agree with the previous comments and think that the PWA is becoming more and more ridiculous…. they don’t seem to be able to provide enough events. especially for freestyle. Whereas the EFPT held 4 events in 2017 the PWA held only 2 AND implemented a rule that the top 12 PWA riders could only attend ONE EFPT event…. i mean come on guys, whats that all about? windsurfing is such a great sport and the main aim should be to get more people involved in it! not fighting over rules whatsoever. imagine the EFPT getting an additional event in… Read more »
For me the PWA freestyle “tour” makes no sense any more. Things are put on real thin ice. Take the guys training hard all year around to ride competition which is based so much on luck. It really doesnt feel accurate to pull an overall ranking from this two events and then call all sponsorship deals based on that? At that point I would not recommend to any kid to join the PWA competitive scene. I think it sucks more and more year by year. Other than that Windsurfing ride itself is demmmm good and gets just better and better.… Read more »
Why aren’t there more freestyle events? I can’t belive that slalom is so much more popular!
All people that i know are interested in freestyle or wave sailing and not in slalom, ok i guess that isn’t really represantativ. but come on, i don’t belive the difference in popularity is as big as it looks in the pwa calendar!
Or is there so much more slalom gear selled?
selection bias based on your way to live windsurfing, unfortunately, I add. Slalom is by far the most sold gear, ’cause generally people do not/cannot get enought skilled to wave or enought addicted to freestyle, as probably me and you are.
Freestyle events :/