Spain's Marc Paré Rico won the 43rd Aloha Classic in Hawaii, strengthening his position atop the World Windsurf Tour rankings as he defends his 2025 world title. The event, held at Ho'okipa Beach Park on Maui from October 19–30, is considered the most prestigious in wave windsurfing, where competitors use waves as launch ramps for aerials and rotations judged similarly to surfing. Paré Rico's victory came in a tight final against several former champions, and he now leads the tour by 6,410 points heading into the season-ending event in Chile from November 14–29.
The win was a statement of intent for the 2025 world champion. In the semifinals, Paré Rico defeated Brazil's Marcilio Browne, a four-time world wave champion, in tricky, shifting conditions. He combined aerials, a full 360-degree turn on the wave face, and a goiter—a backward rotation initiated from the top of the wave—to score 13.82 and eliminate Browne. Earlier, Germany's Philip Köster, a five-time world wave champion and world No. 2, was eliminated in the quarterfinals in imposing four-to-five-meter waves. For a rider who won his first world title just a year ago, beating opponents with nine world titles between them signaled his growing dominance.
In the final, Paré Rico recovered from several early falls with a clean 360 on the wave and then brought the crowd to its feet with a perfectly executed air taka and a powerful hit against the lip. Those maneuvers put him ahead in the final minutes, a lead he held to win by just 0.05 points over Maui's Bernd Roediger, who posted the best single-wave score of the final, a seven-point taka on a large set wave. Roediger, winner of the Maui Pro earlier this season, moves up to third in the rankings, 7,500 points behind Paré Rico, but is expected to discard a low 2,500-point result from a lower-tier event in Puerto Rico. That means Roediger can still be crowned world champion if he wins in Chile and Paré Rico finishes outside the top five.
The women's world title will also be decided in Chile, with France's Marine Hunter winning in Hawaii and sitting just 15 points behind Germany's Lina Erpenstein. Germany's Maria Behrens remains mathematically in contention. In the junior division, Spain's Javier Escribano Toribio, the 2025 boys' junior world wave champion, won the Junior Boys division ahead of Greece's Jason Papanikolaou and France's Raphael Dumesnil.
This season marks a major transformation for professional windsurfing. Earlier this year, the Professional Windsurfing Association and the International Windsurfing Tour merged to create the World Windsurf Tour, a single circuit that has expanded beyond its traditional European base to include events in Hawaii, Fiji, Australia, and Chile. A new five-star competition system means all events count toward the world ranking, opening the title race to new contenders. "Unifying the sport under a single circuit was aimed at giving all riders a fair opportunity to fight for the world title," said Simeon Glasson, World Windsurf Tour director. "This season, both titles will be decided at the last event, with new contenders in the mix."
For fans and industry observers, the unified circuit and the close title races—decided at the final event in Chile—highlight the heightened competitiveness and global reach of the sport. Replays and live broadcasts are available at worldwindsurftour.com, and high-resolution images from the Aloha Classic can be viewed here. The news was originally distributed by NOTICIAS NEWSWIRE.
