Update June 4, 2019: Klitmoller Cold Hawaii PWA World Cup cancellation
Unfortunately, the planned Klitmoller Cold Hawaii PWA World Cup has had to be postponed and will not take place in 2019. The event organizers have been forced to take this decision after expected funding failed to materialise and there was too little time to secure additional funding. The plans are to continue for the event to return in 2020.
Update February 18, 2019
The Portugal Grand Slam will not happen and the freestylers, both women & men, will lose an important event. Now the women will have two and the men three events only in their 2019 PWA season!! Of course the slalom sailors will also lose an event but they have enough events;-)
“Due to unexpected complications with the funding for the event, we have been left with no choice but to postpone the 2019 Portugal Grand Slam until next year. We know it will be a big disappointment to many of you who were looking forward to the event this year, but the indications are positive that it will go ahead in 2020. The final disciplines for the Korean PWA World Cup have been confirmed, with a full World Cup taking place, including Slalom for men and women, and foil for women only.” (PWA)
In January the PWA has released their 2019 tour calendar with 14 events, now there are 13.
“2019 looks set to be a bright, prosperous and exciting year on the PWA World Tour with 14 events currently in the pipeline, spanning 4 continents, across 4 disciplines (Wave, Freestyle, Slalom, Foil) – while further additions remain possible in Morocco, Turkey and China. With 2019 predicted to be the biggest year yet that the PWA World Tour has seen, the world’s best windsurfers will be battling it out for a total prize purse expected to break the €1,000,000 mark.” (PWA, January 2019)
In 2019 the PWA tour will start in April with a freestyle event in Bonaire and a slalom event in France. The wave sailors will have some more time to prepare for their first events on the Canaries in summer 2019. It’s confirmed that he men freestyle fleet will be reduced from 48 to 32 riders maximum size in 2019.
- more infos about the 2019 PWA men freestyle entry rules here
Further events in Morocco, Turkey and China are still in negotiation.
PWA Calendar 2019
- Bonaire – (9th-13th April) Freestyle men & women – completed
- France – (17th-22nd April) Slalom men & women – completed
- Japan – (10th-15th May) Slalom men & women and Foil men & women – completed
- Korea – (18th-23rd May) Slalom (Foil women only) – completed
- Costa Brava – (28th May-2nd June) Foil – completed
Portugal (15th-22nd June) Slalom, Freestyle, Foil- Gran Canaria (14th-20th July) Wave men & women – completed
- Fuerteventura (25th July-3rd August) Slalom men only (25th-29th July) Freestyle men & women (30th July-3rd August) – completed
- Tenerife (5th-11th August) Wave men & women – completed
- Hvide Sande (9th-14th September) Slalom men & women – completed
Klitmøller (17th-23rd September) Wave men
- Sylt (27th September-6th October) Wave men & women, Freestyle men, Slalom men, Foil men – completed
- Maui – (27th October-9th November) Wave men & women (in cooperation with the IWT) – completed
- New Caledonia (19th-24th November) Slalom men & women, Foil men & women – completed
My windsurfing home spot is Viana do Castelo. It is a shame that there is no PWA again.
The problem is that the local governamental office did a last decision to not support the event, so the private organizer has not enough money to support it.
SAD!!! Very SAD!! But politics are like this 🙁
Thanks much for the insider info Mario! Let’s hope for next year. It’s not a cheap thing to run a Grand slam event with 3 disciplines. It costs a lot. Are there any other sport events happening throughout the year? Surfing, bodyboarding, cycling, running…?
They could consider keeping only 1 or 2 discipline instead of doing a Grand slam…?
To bad 🙁
I was really looking forward to see the freestyler’s busting out Shiftys and double air moves in Portugal!
It’s just postponed, but would have been a great location for a freestyle World Cup! There is a chance it to see comeback of the event in 2020. Perhaps they should run a freestyle event only in Viana do Castelo. Grand slams are way harder to finance.
Beau calendrier, cette année pourrait etre un grand cru !
You have switched wave and slalom at Hvide Sande and Klitmøller in the list;)
Ups, thank you for the comment. Changed.
Yes! Make windsurfing great again!