Gran Canaria Pro-Am SUP challenge '19, i risultati

Perfect waves and great show at the Gran Canaria Pro-Am.
The Gran Canaria Pro-Am, 4^th and last event of the APP world tour, has delivered this past week-end some amazing action in perfect waves of Las Palmas dominated by the impressive Brazilian Wellington Reis and the local legend Iballa Moreno. With a 3^rd place at this event, the TahitianPoenaiki Raioha ends 2019 season by winning his first APP world title in a very emotional moment.

After one long day of competition for Round 1 and 2 at the main break of La Cicer in solid 6 ft+ wave conditions, the local organization of Björn Dunkerbeck Team and APP crew decided to move for the week end the tents and the british double-decker bus with judges and live webcast, in front of the reef break El Lloret, located 400m west on the other side of the long jetty. This spot has delivered last year some epic conditions for the last day of competition and all the athletes were frothing to get the same kind of waves with a nice long period swell approaching.

The answer came on Saturday morning with some very solid 8-10ft righthaders peeling along the reef for more than 300m with very soft winds. Round 3 and 4 were launched at 9am and saw some crazy rides with impressive commitment from the all riders really happy to surf this wave again. The show was on during the whole day with incredible drops and very spectacular maneuvers. One of the most expected heat of the day saw the 2012 World Champion Leco Salazar playing his A-game against the Hawaïan talented rider Mo Freitas. The Brazilian competitor uses his very sharp and powerfull backside surfing to take advantage and get his ticket to the ¼ finals. Last year winner and leader of the ranking Poenaiki Raioha also made a huge demonstration of his talent to the week-end crowd of Las Palmas and secured his qualification for the next round. World champion 2018 Sean Poynter, Spanish Guillermo Robello, APP number 2 Luis Diniz and his very impressive Brazilian fellow Wellington Reis and French team-mates Benoit Carpentier and Clément Roseyro also won their match ups and will have the privilege to surf on the final day.

Two champions crowned in perfect waves

The swell has dropped a little bit during the night but has got cleaner with off shore light winds and everyone was amazed Sunday morning by the quality of the waves at El Lloret break reminding a lot last year perfect sunday. Poenaiki Raioha wass the first in action and got one step closer to world title by defeating the young goofy footer Roseyro while the Brazilian contingent Wellington Reis, Leco Salazar and Luis Diniz continue their road to final with incredible backside demonstrations that put Poynter, Carpentier and Robello out of the competition. The semi-finals were launched immediately and, in one of the most competitive heats ever witnessed on the APP World Tour, Poenaiki and Wellington Reis go blow for blow on the perfect right hand point break. Despite having a 9.4 in his score line, the Tahitian rider was unable to get past the local rider from Sao Paulo who surfs at his best level and signs a mindblowing performance. This elimination meant that the Title Race between Luis Diniz and Poenaiki would go on, and leaves the rider from Papaeno in the unenviable position of waiting to see next heats what happened.

Fortunately for the young Tahitian, he wasn’t going to have to wait long, as a late surge from Santos Local Leco Salazar knocked out fellow patriot Diniz securing his berth in the Final and give a well deserved 2019 APP world title to Poenaiki. After achieving very close for several years now, the stars have finally aligned and Poenaiki is sitting on top of the World. The whole crowd amounced in front of El Lloret, were celebrating with laughs and yell the new champion while, in a very emotional moment, he lets the pressure go and went in his grandfather’s arms in tears. After 9 years and the tour with a first appearance at 13 years old in the legendary Sapinus Pro, Poenaïki has reached his goal by clinching the APP World Title.

The competition was not over yet as the 100% Brazilian final is so promising and was launched in pumping conditions. From beginning to the end, Wellington Reis put on a performance for the ages, posting a perfect 10 and a 9.4 to dominate his battle against Leco Salazar and get his first APP event victory with an incredible surfing. It was an extremely well deserved victory for the talented Brazilian who finished his successful season with a well deserved 2nd place overall for 2019 and he probably will now set his sights on the 2020 World Title, that’s for sure !

Iballa Moreno, the queen of Gran Canaria

After a slow start in the first part of the season, 2018 World Champion Iballa Moreno came back really strong in the Barbados event with a great 3^rd place and was definitely one of the favorite for this last event of the year organized at home in Gran Canaria. We still have in mind her awesome level of surfing at El Lloret last year and strengthened by the support of her family and friends, Iballa put on stellar performances through the rounds, with great scores. After a great Round 3 win against Shakira Westdorp and very solid semi-final against the talented young Peruvian Vania Torres, she gets her spot for the final where she will have to challenge the newly crowned World Champion Izzi Gomez on what looks like a re-match of last year final.

Conditions are almost as perfect for this Sunday but the scenario of the heat was the exact opposite as the Canarian Local dominated the whole battle, taking the biggest set waves with great combination of manoeuvers securing her an amazing win in front of her crowd. She returned to the beach to be greeted by friends and family, representing the host venue of Gran Canaria in incredible fashion here once again, with a victory that catapults her up into 2nd place finish Overall for 2019. What an incredible achievement for this Canarian local, and while she is no stranger to World Championship Tour victories (having won multiple Windsurfing World TItles over the years), but this victory in front of a home crowd and in such great conditions, is definitely one to savor.

The consolation final also shows how the level of women SUP-surfing has increased over the last years with a very nice backhand top turn demonstration of the Peruvian Vania Torres who took advantage of the Brazilian Gabi Sztamfater carving great on her front hand. With their round 3 loss, the American Fiona Wylde and the Australian Shakira Westdorp end the season with a 4^th and a 5^th place respectively.

Maximilian Torres won the Junior contest

The under 18 competition was launched just after men and women finals with waves of El Lloret still firing. The level and the ease of those young riders was simply unbelievable and the whole crowd was cheering loud on each wave surfed. Revealed to the world in February at the first event of the season at Sunset, the Porto-Rican Maximilian Torres shows one more time his incredible talent and won the high level junior final heat against Spanish Juan De los Reyes and Fernando Serra Perrez and French Arthur Lemenn. Those 4 riders showed the future of stand up paddle surfing and closed this amazing non-stop day of competition by the best way possible.

Gran Canaria Pro-Am Race in playa Las Canteras

The Gran Canaria Pro-Am is not only about SUP-surfing as Sunday was also organized in Las Palmas an inaugural Technical Race format with inflatable Boards. Amateurs and Elite riders met on the sunny morning in Las Canteras, on the same beach as La Cicer main spot of the event, but further east, where the outside rock barrier breaks the swell and makes an awesome flat water playground suitable for everyone. The competitors started from the beach for a 10 km course with 5 laps inside this lagoon with very strong pace and lots of glide on their inflatable race boards. In a very spectacular battle against his fellow patriot Carsten Kurmis and his dad Fridjof, the young german Maui Sach took the lead and keep pushing hard till the finish line to secure a great win in this first inflatable world games Race format. Also participating on the junior and main event in SUP-surfing contest, the local young Waterman Liam Dunkerbeck, son of the legendary windsurfer Björn Dunkerbeck, showed again his huge versatility and won the junior (under16) Race with impressive paddling. From beginners to pros, everyone had some good fun together on the water and challenged themselves on this new very promising race format, confirming, once again, the great performance of the inflatable boards nowadays. With very easy carry proprieties they have, that fit perfectly for people to come by plane to a place like Gran Canaria, race and enjoy the journey. This format has definitely a great future and will grow each year.

That’s a wrap for this 2019 Gran Canaria Event that has became in less than 2 years with amazing surf conditions, one of the favorite venue for the whole world tour competitors, who really loves the waves, the organization and the very relaxed atmosphere of Las Palmas. The hardest part is now to wait 12 more months to see if the canarian surf breaks will be on fire once again !

APP Gran Canaria Pro-Am Results:

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