Playa Surf CBbC Hotel Tenerife El Médano Windsurf Grand Slam
After a short hop, skip and a jump from Fuerteventura, we are back, this time coming to you live from El Médano, Tenerife, between 1st-10th August as the Men’s Slalom X fleet prepare for their second and final battle of the season, while the Men’s and Women’s world title race continues to gather pace. Tenerife has been a regular stop on the Wave World Tour since 2011, but this year’s edition has an added twist with racing returning to El Médano for the first time since 1996.
El Médano is situated on the southeast coast of Tenerife, just a few minutes away from the airport, which makes it an ideal spot to head to on a forecast from Europe. Furthermore, its beautiful sandy beaches are blessed with glorious sunshine, regular trade winds and pumping waves year round, which makes Tenerife a windsurfers’ haven - and not just for wave heads either as there are different spots, offering a variety of conditions in close proximity to each other.
Slalom X
Men’s
After an incredibly close first few days of racing in Fuerteventura, reigning world champion, Pierre Mortefon (FMX Racing / NeilPryde), clicked into top gear to claim a dominant victory after winning four of the last five eliminations. Things will be a little bit different in Tenerife with the Frenchman racing on NeilPryde, so it’ll be interesting to see how he adapts to life on different sails, but given his pedigree he’ll still start as the favourite and should be full of confidence. Another victory here would guarantee Mortefon the Slalom X world title for the second year running.
Of course El Médano is a location that many of the world’s top racers are accustomed to with many of them participating in the TWS’ winter training here, so it’s unlikely anyone will really have a home advantage, so to speak. However, Matteo Iachino (Starboard / Severne Sails / Z Fins), who finished second in Fuerte after only finishing outside the top four once in 12 eliminations, plus Maciek Rutkowski (JP / NeilPryde), who finished third in Fuerte after leading in the early stages, have spent years training here, so they may have a trick or two up their sleeve. The same goes for Jordy Vonk (Duotone Windsurfing), but there are question marks about just how fit he will be after a nasty wipeout in Fuerte, which saw the Flying Dutchman knocked unconscious and having to retire from the competition before the final day with a shoulder injury.
Elsewhere, the Bonairean duo of Taty Frans (Point-7 / Z Fins) and Amado Vrieswijk (Future Fly / Point-7 / Z Fins), who finished fifth and seventh respectively in Fuerte, will be hoping for another strong showing here. Tenerife is likely to have much lighter winds than Fuerte, so with that in mind Vrieswijk only registered a 6.0m as his smallest sail in Fuerte, which means he has a 7.8m at his disposal here.
If Bruno Martini (I-99 / S2Maui / Z Fins) can get off to a quicker start in Tenerife compared to Fuerteventura, then the Italian is a genuine podium contender. Martini was up against it from the word go in Fuerte, but still managed to finish 6th overall with a superb fightback and he’s definitely one to keep an eye on.
Other names to watch out for include; Germany’s Nico Prien (JP / NeilPryde), fin aficionado Jimmy Thieme (PATRIK / PATRIK Sails), the Netherlands’ Ingmar Daldorf (Tabou / GA Sails), the French contingent of Cedric Bordes (Severne / Severne Sails), Alexandre Cousin (PATRIK / PATRIK Sails), Pierre Macquaert (JP / NeilPryde), Sacha Fortune (Duotone Windsurfing), who qualified for his first Winners’ Final in Fuerte and Lohan Jules (AV Boards / S2Maui), while Scotty Stallman (Tabou / GA Sails) will also be battling for a place in the top 16 and beyond.
Wave
Women’s
Last year Tenerife witnessed some of the highest performance wave riding we’ve seen on the World Tour with the world’s best female wave sailors continuing to push each other to the next level, which should make this year’s event as equally as intriguing.
Lina Erpenstein (Severne / Severne Sails) is the defending event champion having claimed a brilliant victory here in 2024, but the German’s preparations for Tenerife have been massively hampered after suffering a Lisfranc torsion while competing in Chile earlier this year, which also forced her to miss Gran Canaria. Erpenstein is back in the lineup for Tenerife, but this may still come a little too soon to see her charging for the top.
Sarah-Quita Offringa (Starboard / NeilPryde / Maui Ultra Fins) comes into Tenerife off the back of just securing another two world titles - taking her total haul to 27 and counting - and the Aruban is currently leading the Women’s Wave rankings - though she is even on points with Alexia Kiefer Quintana (Duotone Windsurfing). Last year Offringa suffered a rare non-podium finish here as she just missed out in fourth place, so she’ll be keen to rewrite the slate on that one as she looks to keep control of the world title race heading into the back half of the year.
With the emphasis usually more on wave riding than jumping in Tenerife, Kiefer Quintana will be a major threat again with her silky wave riding skills. The 20-year-old was hampered by a shoulder injury in Gran Canaria, which impeded her jumping slightly, so she should thrive in Tenerife’s predominantly riding conditions as she looks to keep her podium streak going - currently six on the spin.
There’s a solid lineup preparing to compete in Tenerife with 25 women currently registered for the event, so there are too many names to mention, but also watch out for local girl Maria Morales (Goya Windsurfing), Belgium’s Sol Degrieck (Severne / Severne Windsurfing), who landed aerials and a taka in Gran Canaria, Poland’s Justyna Sniady (Flikka / North Sails), Switzerland’s Pauline Katz (Severne / Severne Sails) and the United Kingdom’s Cori McFarlane (Simmer / Simmer Sails), who impressed with her wave riding in Pozo.
Men’s
Marc Paré (Simmer / Simmer Sails / MFC) enters the third 5-star stop on the Wave Tour ranked third overall after finishing second in Chile and fourth in Pozo. The Spaniard made a winning return from injury here last year, but will face a much sterner test this time round if he is to defend his event title as last year Tenerife was only a 4-star event, so there were some big names missing. Having said that, Paré is now a genuine world title contender and he’ll be eager to secure the top spot on the podium to reduce the gap to current World Tour leader - Marcilio Browne (Goya Windsurfing / MFC) and Philip Köster (Severne / Severne Sails), who is just 625 points ahead of him in second.
Browne has been at his superlative best so far this season registering three victories and a second place from the four events he has entered and he deservedly leads the world rankings by 2,500 points. The Brazilian will once again be a firm favourite here, as will Köster, who won last time out in Pozo and has won several times in Tenerife, but neither of them have competed here since 2019, which may open things up a little - especially depending on what conditions prevail.
Julian Salmonn (Naish / Naish Sails) calls Tenerife home and the German will look to use his home waters to his advantage again over the next 10 days. Salmonn secured the final place on the podium here in 2024 and will be a major threat again with his local knowledge of El Cabezo and wave riding prowess. Meanwhile, like Salmonn, Dieter van der Eyken (Severne / Severne Sails) is another sailor who calls Tenerife home as well and will be another name to watch.
Victor Fernandez (Duotone Windsurfing) is always a major threat here and boasts a great track record claiming three Tenerife victories in 2015, 2016 & 2018, while he hasn’t finished outside the top three here (when there has been an event) since 2012.
Other names to look out for include; Marino Gil (JP / NeilPryde), who is currently ranked fourth in the world rankings and finished fourth here last year too. Liam Dunkerbeck (Duotone Windsurfing), who claimed fifth here in 2024, Ricardo Campello, Alessio Stillrich (Bruch / Bruch Boards) and Miguel Chapuis (Flikka / North Sails).
Tenerife features an extremely strong fleet and depending on what kind of conditions we get there are several other names that can throw their names into the top 10 and beyond conversation - particularly if the emphasis shifts to wave riding - some of which include; Morgan Noireaux (JP / NeilPryde / Black Project Fins), Camille Juban (AV Boards / S2Maui), Antoine Martin (Quatro / Goya Windsurfing / MFC), Moritz Mauch (Simmer / Simmer Sails), Robby Swift (JP / NeilPryde), Adam Warchol (Quatro / Goya Windsurfing / MFC), Takumi Sugi (Tabou / GA Sails / Black Project Fins), plus the French trio of Baptiste Cloarec (RRD / RRD Sails) Arthur Arutkin (Flikka / GUNSAILS / Black Project Fins) and Jules Denel (Tabou / GA Sails) to name a few.
Looking Ahead
Unfortunately, the forecast for the beginning of the week looks pretty dire, but the good thing is that with such a long holding period there is still plenty of time for that to change. However, based on the current forecast it does look like we’ll be looking at action in the latter part of the week and with so much competition to get through we may be looking a Single Eliminations at best in the Men’s and Women’s Wave and a couple of eliminations in the Slalom X, which means there will be absolutely no room for error. The Youths’ and Masters’ fleets are also in attendance in Tenerife.
You can stay up to date with all of the developments from Tenerife — including the live stream, elimination ladders, entry list, images and live ticker simply by clicking HERE and scrolling to the bottom of the page.
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