GWA Surf Freestyle World Cup

Victory for 15-year-old Marie Schlittenbauer (GER) and Christopher MacDonald (USA)
Further top 3 placings for SUI, AUT, DEN, FRA

30 July 2025 - Marie Schlittenbauer, just 15 years old, from Germany, has won the Wingfoil World Cup on the Canary Island of Fuerteventura in the Surf-Freestyle discipline. The teenager, who learned wingfoiling on the lakes of Upper Bavaria and Lake Garda, is currently enjoying a comet-like rise to the top of this still young sport.

Schlittenbauer was a late entrant into this year's World Cup series, competing in her first World Cup in June and becoming U19 world champion in July. The victory in Fuerteventura is the first World Cup win for the 1.8-metre-tall 15-year-old. The world championship title is also within reach.

Schlittenbauer was not only significantly better than the reigning world champion Nia Suardiaz from Spain in the semi-finals. She also outclassed her competitors in the final. Second-placed Zara Maillard from Switzerland scored 15.61 points with her tricks, while third-placed Viola Lippitsch from Austria scored 15.37 points. Schlittenbauer was in a league of her own in the final with 26.50 points.

The men's final was much more closely contested. Until the very end, it was unclear whether 14-year-old Dane Benjamin Castenskiold who lives in Mexico or the reigning 19-year-old world champion Christopher Macdonald from the USA would come out on top. In the end, it was Macdonald who caught the right gust at the right time and secured victory against his younger challenger with 27.47 points to 25.60. Third place went to Manu Guenolé from France.

Wingfoiling is a relatively new sport in which a handheld wing and a board with a hydrofoil are used. In freestyle, the best tricks and jumps are judged. The riders compete against each other in a knockout system.

Further events in the World Cup series will take place this year in Gran Canaria and Brazil.

Top scores from Chris Macdonald and Marie Schlittenbauer

29 July 2025 - Reigning world champion Chris Macdonald made a strong statement today. After the first two World Tour stops in Leucate (1st place) and Tarifa (5th place), he is currently only fourth in the overall rankings and needs to score points here to keep his chances of overall victory alive.

And that worked out pretty well at Sotavento Beach. Although the American scored worse than the current World Tour leader Benjamin Castenskiold in his first heat and therefore had to take the slightly longer route through the intermediate round, Chris Macdonald really hit his stride there.

With 28.1 points, he achieved the highest score of the day, collected with a front flip frontside 360, backloop spin frontside 720 and an incredible frontside 1440, which he landed today as easily as others land a normal jump. This earned him the maximum score of 10 points.

The other riders in the current top 5 of the overall rankings, alongside 14-year-old Benjamin Castenskiold, Frenchman Axel Gerard and the two Acherer brothers Tom and Aleks from Austria, also scored in the 25 to 26 point range.

The women's contest also got underway, with two rounds completed. It was German wingfoiler Marie Schlittenbauer who scored the highest number of points in a heat today. With a backloop spin (Palau), backloop and backloop spin into frontside 360, the 15-year-old scored 17.58 points. None of the 16 participants have been eliminated yet, as the competition is being held in a so-called dingle elimination format, in which the losers of the duels also get a second chance.

Registration & Photo Session

28 July 2025 – As of today, the GWA Tour has stopped off at the Canary Island of Fuerteventura, where the wingfoil disciplines ‘Surf Freestyle’ and ‘FreeFly Slalom’ are on the agenda until Saturday. The line-up is impressive, with 28 men and 16 women competing in the freestyle contest and 22 men and 15 women in the slalom races.

The day started with registration and a short opening ceremony in the Carpa, the festival tent on Sotavento Beach. As the wind was already blowing strongly, a photo and video session was scheduled for 2:30 p.m., which also included tricks with parawings. A parawing demo race that had been originally planned did not take place today.

Monday was the last day of training before the competition begins tomorrow. The start is scheduled for 11 a.m., and there will also be a live stream (check out our video section).