Mercedes-Benz Aloha Classic

November 1, 2019 Created by Chris Yates

Day 5: Sarah-Quita Offringa Claims Her Maiden Wave World Title | Philip Köster Wins 5th World Crown At The Age Of Just 25 & Antoine Martin & Mariah Andrés Win Respective IWT Titles

The final competition day at the 2019 Mercedes-Benz Aloha Classic started with a beach clean at 9am with @lovetheseaplasticfree, which is a global non-profit organisation based in Maui aimed a bringing awareness and support about the environment.

After the beach clean, the fifth day was relatively calm with the swell dropping in size - just overhead high in the sets - and light onshore winds meaning that the contest remained on hold for the morning and early afternoon with no real threat of ever becoming competable.

With the sailors officially released at 1pm that meant:

That by winning the 2019 Mercedes-Benz Aloha Classic - Sarah-Quita Offringa (Starboard / NeilPryde / Maui Ultra Fins) - becomes the first woman in over two decades to claim the Women’s PWA World Championship - aside from the legendary Moreno twins who have dominated women’s wave sailing for over 20-years. Offringa started the year with two third places, but then markedly stepped her game in both Sylt and Maui to reel off back-to-back wave event wins for the first time in her career and deservedly claims her first wave world title.

Sarah-Quita Offringa on winning her first PWA Wave World title: “Honestly, this one feels totally different from any other title I’ve previously won. Wave sailing was a challenge, still is a challenge and this year we’ve had so many different conditions with completely different conditions. The race for the title has been really tight, so that makes it so much sweeter to win this title. Actually, I didn’t really expect it to happen this year so I’m super happy!”

That is not only an incredible achievement for Offringa, who completes a career grand slam - having already won 12 Freestyle and 4 Slalom world titles, but it is also testament to the incredible level that both Iballa (Severne / Severne Sails / Maui Ultra Fins) & Daida (Severne / Severne Sails / Maui Ultra Fins) have set over the last two decades and their reign at the top is by no means over.

Daida dominated in Pozo earlier in the year, while Iballa finishes the year as the vice-world champion having won the world title for the last 5 years and was extremely close to winning this year’s title. If Iballa had have been able to hold on to her radical aerial in the final then the rankings may well have been reversed, but those are the fine margins that make the difference at the very top of the sport.

Justyna Sniady (Simmer / Simmer Sails / AL360) discards her result from Maui, but deservedly claims her place on the overall podium for the first time in her career - having finished on the podium in each of the opening three events.

Mariah Andrés (Fanatic / Duotone) and Arrianne Aukes (Fanatic / Duotone / Maui Ultra Fins) both discard their results from the Aloha Classic, which means Andrés wins the 2019 IWT Championship.

Men’s

With no further contest being complete that means that Philip Köster (Starboard / Severne / Maui Ultra Fins) wins his 5th PWA World Championship at just 25-years-old. Incredibly this is just the second year in which Köster did not win an event during the season since winning his first world title in 2011. The only other time that that has happened was in 2016 when he missed the final two events of the year. This time around it was his consistency that proved key with 3 podiums in Europe setting a solid base heading into Maui. Before this year’s Aloha Classic the German had never won a heat in Maui, but he righted that record this year and his 3rd place in quarterfinals here proved decisive as if he had finished 4th - Marcilio Browne (Goya Windsurfing) would’ve collected his second wave world title and third overall.

Philip Köster speaks after officially becoming the 2019 Men’s PWA Wave World Champion: “Honestly this one feels different. This title has been a lot of work honestly. I didn’t win any events this year, which is what makes it different from the other times. Otherwise, I’m super, super happy that I made it. It’s also kind of nice to have done okay at the Aloha Classic. Before now I hadn’t actually won a heat here, so I’m stoked to have passed through a heat at the Aloha Classic. It’s really nice to finish the year here and I’m also pleased to have made it a bit further in the contest this time around. So yeah, just really happy about it!”

Browne eventually ends the 2019 season as the vice-world champion - just 258 points shy of Köster and if he had found a way to advance into the top 4 here he would have been world champion. However, 2019 still represents a fantastic year for the Brazilian, who has now finished in the overall top 10 every year since his title winning year in 2013.

Meanwhile, Ricardo Campello (Brunotti Boards) finishes on the overall podium for the second consecutive year - 3rd.

Coming into the Mercedes-Benz Aloha Classic - Antoine Martin - was enjoying his best competition year to date on both the PWA and IWT, and the 26-year-old signs off 2019 in the best fashion possible by winning the prestigious Aloha Classic, which is also his first victory on the world tour. That victory here means Martin wins the IWT title for the second time in his career, whilst also recording his best result on the world tour to date - 4th overall.

We’ll take a full look at the results in the event summary.

If you are thinking about visiting Maui then make sure you check out North Shore Maui rental cars - windsurf cars, by windsurfers - Robby Swift (JP / NeilPryde / SWOX) & Marcilio Browne.

To stay up to date with all the latest developments from Maui — including the live stream, elimination ladders, entry list, images and live ticker simply click HERE and scroll to the bottom of the page.

Result 2019 Mercedes-Benz Aloha Classic - Women's

1st Sarah-Quita Offringa (ARU | Starboard / NeilPryde / Maui Ultra Fins)
2nd Iballa Moreno (ESP | Severne / Severne Sails / Maui Ultra Fins)
3rd Motoko Sato (JPN | Starboard / Severne Sails)
4th Lina Erpenstein (GER | Severne / Severne Sails)
5th Angela Cochran (USA)
5th Tatiana Howard (USA | Quatro / Goya Windsurfing)

Result 2019 Mercedes-Benz Aloha Classic - Men's

Result 2019 Mercedes-Benz Aloha Classic - Youth’s

1st Takuma Sugi (JPN | Tabou / GA Sails)
2nd Jake Schettewi (USA | JP / Hot Sails Maui)
3rd Takara Ishii (JPN | RRD / RRD Sails)
4th Zee Schettewi (USA | JP / Hot Sails Maui)

Overall Ranking 2019 PWA World Tour - Women’s Wave

1st Sarah-Quita Offringa (ARU | Starboard / NeilPryde / Maui Ultra Fins)
2nd Iballa Moreno (ESP | Severne / Severne Sails / Maui Ultra Fins)
3rd Justyna Sniady (POL | Simmer / Simmer Sails / AL360)
4th Lina Erpenstein (GER | Severne / Severne Sails)
5th Maaike Huvermann (NED | Starboard / Severne / Maui Ultra Fins)

Overall Ranking 2019 PWA World Tour - Men’s Wave

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