Tradition and Exotic
In addition to organizing the world championship, the PWA world cups have the function to make this sport popular and to draw a perfect image of windsurfing- spectacular actions in front of dream landscapes. Some of the world cups, like Pozo Izquierdo on Gran Canaria or Sylt in Germany have been in the program for many years. 2007 the impressive number of 190.000 spectators celebrated the 24th anniversary of the giant event on Sylt. The trophy money here is the highest which shows clearly that Germany is an important market. Therefore it is acceptable that the waves are smaller and less tidy than for example at the first world cup of the year on the Cape Verde Islands, where the best surfers cut incredible high waves in epic conditions.

Venue Places
In a mixture of destinations, which proved to be successful for a long period and dream landscapes, the PWA world cup team 2007 toured from February to October to Sal on the Cape Verde Islands (which probably went down in history as the best world cup of all times), Portugal’s panoramic beach Guincho with its powerful waves, the Canarian strong-wind territory Pozo Izquierdo and the mostly unknown Ibiraquera in Brazil. The slalom tour even took the surfers to Ulsan in Korea, the Costa Brava on Spains Peninsula as well as to the Canarian Islands Fuerteventura and Lazarote and Alacati in Turkey. At the end of each year, the participants of the three PWA disciplines (wave, freestyle and racing) meet for the final in Sylt/Germany. In 2007 there were two further stops on the wave tour, Tiree Island in Schottland and Maui, the Mecca for windsurfing.

The Constructors Championship

A lot of manufacturers from the windsurfing sector pay an annual fee to support the PWA World Tour. The more awareness the PWA tour gets, the better the brands can vice versa promote their equipment. They also take advantage of the professional environment of the World Cups to test their boards and sails in extreme conditions and to emphasize their quality by competing with other brands. The PWA can partially reward the suppliers’ financial help with the Constructors' Championship. In a point system, comparable to that of the Formula 1, based only on the competition placements of the riders, sail and board manufacturers compete for victory each year. After all, windsurfers also enjoy discussing about which are the best brands and models and might then make a buying decision.

The World Champions 2007

Wave men: Kauli Seadi (BRA)
The Brazilian sunnyboy has revolutionized windsurfing. With the experience of a Freestyle vice world champion the titleholder has now won the crown jewel Wave in a spectacular manner with his innovative surfing style again.

Wave women: Iballa Moreno (ESP)
Often eternal bridesmaid behind her twin sister Daida due to injuries, the beautiful Spanish was now, as the year before, appointed best Wave surfer of the world for the second time in a row.

Freestyle men: Marcilio Browne (BRA)
The 18-year-old Marcilio „Brawzinho” Browne counts as a young gun on the international World Cup circuit. He tricked his way to the world champion in the trendy Freestyle discipline with awesome acrobatics.

Freestyle women: Daida Moreno (ESP)
The most successful windsurfing woman ever with 14 World Tour victories once more dominated her rivals in Freestyle. In a competition that seemed tougher than ever with new, aspiring stars such as Sarah Quita Offringa, she proved that the next world champion would have to beat her first.

Slalom 42 men: Antoine Albeau (FRA)
The bearish Breton is simply undefeatable in Slalom. At the World Tour, he took hold against the legendary Dunkerbeck and Pritchard once more. He even won the traditional event Defí Race in France against more than 700 competitors. Unfortunately this didn’t bring him points for the PWA ranking.
 

Slalom 42 women: Karin Jaggi (SUI)
Karin Jaggi, the Swiss windsurfing clockwork, has been fighting for the title in all female disciplines for years and coined the women tour along with the Moreno twins. The routinier has once more proven that she is still too young for the scrap heap.

Contructors championship boards: Starboard

Constructor championship sails: North Sails

Links

The association: PWA

The diciplines:

Wave

Freestyle

Racing

The tour: PWA tour calendar 2008

Find complete portraits of the champions here.

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