2025 Citroën Windsurf World Cup Sylt

The World Cup Sylt is one of the biggest and longest running windsurfing events on the planet. Featuring all of the three main disciplines, 200,000 spectators on the beach, and some of the most extreme conditions The Sylt World Cup is one not to be missed. Westerland can be very tough in onshore winds to get out, due to the shore break. From 3-4m big waves with lots of power to small choppy waves. 3m tide. Be aware of long rock lines (ca. 20m into the sea) every 100-200m from Westerland to Kampen. You can't see them during high tide! But they are marked with a sign on the beach. Strong current when it's coming from South or North.

- You can see a list of the Foil Slalom sailors registered equipment HERE.

Das war Tag 3:

Day 4: A brief flurry of wind sees Men’s Foil Slalom Elimination 3 whittled down to top 16, while we take a look at the Waterspeed Challenge thus far

Day 4 of the 2025 Citroën Windsurf World Cup Sylt started with light winds and beautiful sunny skies, but as the morning progressed the wind slowly increased, which allowed Elimination 3 to get underway in the early afternoon in 6-14 knots. With the breeze on the marginal side the sailors were left reaching for their biggest equipment, but even in the light winds the top sailors were still able to crack the 30 knots barrier to once again highlight the efficiency of the foil. Unfortunately, the wind shut down just before we were able to complete Elimination 3, so results are as they were at the start of the day.

Men’s

Foil Slalom

Current event leader Johan Søe (PATRIK / PATRIK Sails / PATRIK Foils) made no mistake in the opening semifinal of Elimination 3 as the Dane won Heat 5 ahead of Pierre Mortefon (FMX Racing / NeilPryde), William Huppert (PATRIK / PATRIK Sails / PATRIK Foils) and John Soukos (WeOne / Challenger Sails), who booked his place in his first Winners’ Final of the season.

Meanwhile, the second semifinal needed to be rerun after the wind dropped after the third gybe on the first attempt. In the end, Jordy Vonk (Duotone Windsurfing) managed to claim the victory, while Maciek Rutkowski (JP / NeilPryde) and Matteo Iachino (Starboard / Severne Sails), who were both in the qualifying positions when the original heat was cancelled, also qualified. However, the same can’t be said for Fabien Wolf (Starboard / Severne Sails) or Amado Vrieswijk (Future Fly / Point-7) as both men failed to qualify for the top eight for the first time this week. Current world No.3 - Alexandre Cousin (PATRIK / PATRIK Sails / PATRIK Foils) - was the other man to benefit from the rerun with the Frenchman securing the last qualifying spot into the Winners’ Final, which is his first top eight result of the event.

Waterspeed Challenge

Søe and Mortefon in Numbers

Distance

Just as on the first day of racing, Johan Søe was once again the first sailor on the water today and the 22-year-old ended up covering over 50% more distance than Pierre Mortefon with the Søe covering 61.77km today compared to Pierre Mortefon’s 40.17km.

Top Speed

In terms of top speed there’s very little to split the two sailors. Mortefon narrowly edged the max top speed stats today, hitting 30.6 knots compared to Søe’s 30.2 knots, while over a 10 second average there is even less separating them with Søe recording a 10 second split of 30 knots, while Mortefon averaged 30.2 knots. So while Søe may not have a clear top speed advantage he’s clearly making up a lot of ground through the turns as he originally trailed Mortefon in Heat 5.

If you’d like to know the stats behind your session, as well as compete against the fastest sailors in the world, you can do so simply by downloading the Waterspeed App, which is available on both iOS and Android:

- Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/watersp…ts/id1234093389

- Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/det…rspeedapp&hl=en

The good news is that the forecast for Tuesday has improved slightly, so there’s definitely a decent chance of more racing tomorrow with 10-16 knot east-southeasterly winds predicted for most of the day. First up on the agenda will be completing the finals from Elimination 3 before hopefully progressing into Elimination 4 - when the discard comes into play. The Foil Slalom skippers’ meeting has been called for 10am (GMT+2) tomorrow morning with a first possible start at 11am again.

The Wave fleet will once again have a Lay Day, while the Freestyle fleet will be given another announcement at 12pm.

Looking Ahead

Slightly further down the line, Friday is currently looking like it has the potential to be a Freestyle day with 20-27 knot south-southeast winds, while Saturday could then conjure up some wind and waves with the current forecast calling for 2.5-3 metre waves and winds up to 30 knots.

You can stay up to date with all the latest developments from Sylt — including live stream, elimination ladders, entry list, images and live ticker simply by clicking HERE and scrolling to the bottom of the page.

Also if you don’t already, be sure to follow us on our Social Media Channels:

- Facebook: @PWAWorldTourWindsurfing

- Instagram: @pwaworldtour 

- LinkedIn: @PWA - Professional Windsurfers Association

- YouTube: @pwaworldtour

Current Ranking 2025 Citroën Windsurf World Cup Sylt - Men’s Foil Slalom

*After 2 Eliminations

1st Johan Søe (DEN | PATRIK / PATRIK Sails / PATRIK Foils)

2nd Matteo Iachino (ITA | Starboard / Severne Sails)

3rd Pierre Mortefon (FRA | FMX Racing / NeilPryde)

4th Fabian Wolf (GER | Starboard / Severne Sails)

5th Maciek Rutkowski (POL | JP / NeilPryde)

6th Amado Vrieswijk (NB | Future Fly / Point-7 / Z Foils)

7th William Huppert (FRA | PATRIK / PATRIK Sails / PATRIK Foils)

8th Daniele Benedetti (ITA | Duotone Windsurfing)

9th Bruno Martini (ITA | I-99 / S2Maui)

10th Alexis Mathis (FRA | Tabou / GA Sails)

BTW, in eigener Sache:

Leider stellt die PWA die Tagesberichte nicht mehr in der Form zur Verfügung, wie in den letzten Jahren.

Keine Ahnung, warum.

Das war Tag 6:

Day 6: Superb Søe cements place at top of Foil Slalom leaderboard with another bullet and a second place

On paper Day 6 of the 2025 Citroën Windsurf World Cup Sylt looked as though it would be another lay day, however, as we all know, anything can happen when it comes to windsurfing and sure enough the wind turned up unannounced to allow a further two eliminations of Foil Slalom to be completed in the best conditions of the event thus far, though most sailors remained on their bigger gear. Defending event champion, Johan Søe (PATRIK / PATRIK Sails / PATRIK Foils), now has a stranglehold over the event after another hugely successful day consisting of a bullet and a second place.

Men’s

Foil Slalom

Johan Søe (PATRIK / PATRIK Sails / PATRIK Foils) started the day with a four point lead over Matteo Iachino (Starboard / Severne Sails) and after the latest two races have been completed the Dane has seen that lead reduced to three points. However, that doesn’t quite tell the full story as Søe has now cemented his place at the top of the leaderboard as he is now currently discarding a second place - after producing a superb comeback in Elimination 3 - while he signed off today in style by earning his second bullet of the event. The 22-year-old has recorded two bullets and two second places in the opening four races and looks as though he will be incredibly difficult to stop from retaining his event title.

Iachino had made the perfect start to the day as he rattled off his second bullet of the week to close to within 2.7 points of Søe, but in Elimination 4 the Italian needed another big result to discard his sixth place from the opening race. Iachino does discard that sixth place, but unfortunately it only replaced by a fifth, which means he now faces a mountain to climb in order to try and overhaul Søe. However, in the grand scheme of things, it was another solid day of work for Iachino and with his main world title rival - Pierre Mortefon (FMX Racing / NeilPryde) dropping out of the top three - it’s certainly advantage Iachino in terms of the world title at the moment.

Aside from the top two, Maciek Rutkowski (JP / NeilPryde) is the only other sailor to have qualified for every Winners’ Final thus far, and after recording a solid second and a sixth place today, the Pole jumps into third place.

Mortefon started the day in third place, but drops to fourth at the close of play after making a couple of uncharacteristic gybing errors. The Frenchman dropped his second gybe in the Winners’ Final of Elimination 3, before also dropping his final gybe in the semifinals of Elimination 4 when in the qualifying positions, which meant he missed out on the top eight for the first time this week. Mortefon is currently four points behind Rutkowski and it’ll be crucial for him to try and claw his way back into the top three to remain as close to Iachino as possible heading into the world title decider in Japan in November.

After finishing fourth in Elimination 4, Amado Vrieswijk (Future Fly / Point-7 / Z Foils) discards his tenth place from the previous elimination to move level on 14 points with Mortefon. The Bonairean gains one place from the overnight rankings - currently fifth.

Fabian Wolf (Starboard / Severne Sails) made a brilliant start to the event with a third and a fourth place, but couldn’t quite maintain those impeccable results today as the German missed out on both Winners’ Finals. However, the 27-year-old was still able to win the b-final of Elimination 3 and is still ranked in sixth place after the opening four eliminations as he chases his first top ten result on the World Tour.

William Huppert (PATRIK / PATRIK Sails / PATRIK Foils) continues to sail extremely consistently with the Frenchman recording a fifth and a seventh place today, which sees him ranked 7th, while Jordy Vonk (Duotone Windsurfing) breaks into the top ten - 8th. Vonk’s teammate - Daniele Benedetti (Duotone Windsurfing) - recorded his best result of the season thus far in Elimination 4 - third - as he starts to show more of the form that saw he become vice-world champion in 2024.

The top ten is now completed by John Soukos (WeOne / Challenger Sails) with the young Greek gaining nine places today after qualifying for both Winners’ Finals and recording a brilliant fourth and sixth place as the 21-year-old enjoyed his best day to date on the World Tour. Meanwhile, Bob van de Burgt (PATRIK / Point-7) also qualified for his first ever Winners’ Final in Elimination 4.

The forecast for Thursday looks as though there could be more racing on the menu with winds of up to 19 knots currently predicted during the afternoon. Skippers’ meetings times can be found below: (All times GMT+2)

- Foil Slalom 10am - first possible start 11am

- Freestyle 10:15am - first possible start 11am

- Wave 10:30am

Current Ranking 2025 Citroën Windsurf World Cup Sylt - Men’s Foil Slalom

*After 4 Eliminations (1 Discard)

1st Johan Søe (DEN | PATRIK / PATRIK Sails / PATRIK Foils)

2nd Matteo Iachino (ITA | Starboard / Severne Sails)

3rd Maciek Rutkowski (POL | JP / NeilPryde)

4th Pierre Mortefon (FRA | FMX Racing / NeilPryde)

5th Amado Vrieswijk (NB | Future Fly / Point-7 / Z Foils)

6th Fabian Wolf (GER | Starboard / Severne Sails)

7th William Huppert (FRA | PATRIK / PATRIK Sails / PATRIK Foils)

8th Jordy Vonk (NED | Duotone Windsurfing)

9th Daniele Benedetti (ITA | Duotone Windsurfing)

10th John Soukos (GRE | WeOne / Challenger Sails)

Das war Tag 7:

Day 7: Matteo Iachino and Johan Søe continue to exchange bullets, but it’s the young Dane who is on the cusp of victory after latest three eliminations

As promised the forecast delivered on Day 7 of the 2025 Citroën Windsurf World Cup Sylt, which saw three more Men’s Foil Slalom eliminations completed in glorious sunshine and the strongest winds of the event so far (10-16 knots), which allowed most of the sailors to change down both front wing size and sail size, while the swell also started to pick up to add another ingredient into the mix, which on the whole produced plenty of exciting racing. However, as has been the case during the opening two days of racing, Johan Søe (PATRIK / PATRIK Sails / PATRIK Foils) and Matteo Iachino (Starboard / Severne Sails) continue to trade bullets, but with his superior discards, it is Søe who looks set to defend his event title.

Men’s

Foil Slalom

Johan Søe started the day with a three point lead over Matteo Iachino (Starboard / Severne Sails), but after missing out on the Winners’ Final of Elimination 5 after dropping his opening gybe in the semifinals, the Dane saw his lead reduced to just 1.7 points with Iachino taking full advantage of the situation as the Italian secured his third bullet of the event.

However, after a temporary blip, it was back to business as usual for Søe as he quickly hit back with consecutive bullets to build, what is surely now an unassailable lead, as after seven eliminations he is currently discarding a second and a ninth place and holds a 5.3 point advantage at the top of the rankings.

This season there has now been 10 eliminations completed and Søe and Iachino have split all of them with Iachino winning 60% of the time and Søe 40% of the time.

After making the perfect start to the day, Iachino couldn’t quite keep the momentum going to really keep the pressure applied to Søe, as he pushed a little bit too hard in the Winners’ Final of Elimination 7 when trying to discard a sixth place, which ultimately resulted in an eighth place and losing vital ground to Søe. However, as discussed yesterday, the event title may be out of reach, but the 36-year-old is currently strongly positioned in the overall rankings with his main world title rival - Pierre Mortefon (FMX Racing / NeilPryde) - currently back in fourth place.

Maciek Rutkowski (JP / NeilPryde) maintained his fine form here as he recorded his third second place of the event in Elimination 5, while he also recorded a fourth and an eighth place, which he currently discards from the last race. Rutkowksi currently holds a three point advantage over Mortefon as he aims for his first Foil Slalom podium since Gran Canaria in 2023.

Mortefon was leading the opening race of the day in the early stages and headed to the fourth and final gybe in second place, but went down after being distracted by the media boat. That was the only blemish on his card today though as he bounced back with a solid second and third place in the next two races, though given the forecast, he’s likely to lose valuable ground in the world title race to Iachino.

Amado Vrieswijk (Future Fly / Point-7 / Z Foils) remains in fifth place with the Bonairean experiencing a somewhat topsy-turvy day. The 29-year-old began by recording his best result of the event thus far - second in Elimination 5 - but then having qualified for four out of the five Winners’ Finals, he crucially missed out on the next two, which all but ends his bid for the podium here. Vrieswijk was able to win both b-finals for maximum damage control.

William Huppert (PATRIK / PATRIK Sails / PATRIK Foils) produced another very solid display of sailing to stay sixth in the overalls. The Frenchman has qualified for all but two Winners’ Finals and is yet to finish worse than tenth in the seven eliminations completed.

Meanwhile, John Soukos (WeOne / Challenger Sails) continues to go from strength-to-strength. On the opening day of racing the young Greek suffered two quarterfinal exits, but after today the 21-year-old has now discarded both of those results. Soukos qualified for his first Winners’ Final yesterday, and after that there’s been a real transformation in his results - qualifying for four finals in a row, which has seen him deservedly climb the leaderboard. After another fine day, Soukos is now ranked seventh.

The top ten is currently completed by Daniele Benedetti (Duotone Windsurfing) - 8th - Jordy Vonk (Duotone Windsurfing) - 9th - and Fabian Wolf (Starboard / Severne Sails), who is just about hanging on to the top ten after suffering two out of three quarterfinal exits today.

Elsewhere, Bruno Martini (I-99 / S2Maui / Z Foils) seemed to enjoy the slightly stronger winds as the Italian qualified for the top eight twice today, while Alexis Mathis (Tabou / GA Sails) earned his best result of the event thus far in Elimination 5 - third, as did Noah Vinther (PATRIK / PATRIK Sails / PATRIK Foils), who finished fifth in Elimination 6.

With only a couple of days of competition to go, it now looks as though our attention will change to Freestyle on Friday and Waves on Saturday with the wind expected to pick up tomorrow. Whether the wind is strong enough in the morning will remain to be seen, but certainly by the afternoon it looks as though the Freestyle world champion could be decided with WindGuru currently predicting 17-29 knot south-southeast winds during the afternoon. The Freestyle fleet will have their skippers’ meeting bright and early at 07:30am (GMT+2) with a first possible start at 08:00am. Meanwhile, the Foil Slalom fleet will be given an announcement at 10am and the Wave fleets at 14:00.

You can stay up to date with all the latest developments from Sylt — including live stream, elimination ladders, entry list, images and live ticker simply by clicking HERE and scrolling to the bottom of the page.

Current Ranking 2025 Citroën Windsurf World Cup Sylt - Men’s Foil Slalom

*After 7 Eliminations (2 Discards)

1st Johan Søe (DEN | PATRIK / PATRIK Sails / PATRIK Foils)

2nd Matteo Iachino (ITA | Starboard / Severne Sails)

3rd Maciek Rutkowski (POL | JP / NeilPryde)

4th Pierre Mortefon (FRA | FMX Racing / NeilPryde)

5th Amado Vrieswijk (NB | Future Fly / Point-7 / Z Foils)

6th William Huppert (FRA | PATRIK / PATRIK Sails / PATRIK Foils)

7th John Soukos (GRE | WeOne / Challenger Sails)

8th Daniele Benedetti (ITA | Duotone Windsurfing)

9th Jordy Vonk (NED | Duotone Windsurfing)

10th Fabian Wolf (GER | Starboard / Severne Sails)