Gran Canaria Pro-Am: The Battle for the 2024 SUP Surf and Longboard SUP World Titles

Legendary windsurfer Bjorn Dunkerbeck invites you to the 5th edition of the Gran Canaria Pro-Am, part of the prestigious APP World Tour, from December 3-8 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Known for its perfect winter conditions and world-class waves, the event will crown the 2024 World Champions in both performance and longboard SUP surfing.

Reigning champions Luiz Diniz and Iballa Moreno will headline a star-studded lineup featuring past World Champions Benoit Carpentier, Kaede Inoue, Leco Salazar, and many more. Gran Canaria, with air temperatures of 20–25°C and consistent swells, offers the ideal setting for this thrilling competition.

42-time winsurf World Champion and 12-time consecutive PWA, Bjorn Dunkerbeck, brings his passion and expertise in watersports to showcase Gran Canaria’s incredible wave quality. Don’t miss your chance to witness the world’s best in action. Register now or watch live online—this is an event you won’t forget!

Hello Bjorn, from a legendary career in windsurfing to organizing a SUP surfing event, how did your personal connection with SUP surfing begin, and what drew you to this sport?

Hi Mathieu! Well basically Stand up Paddling is perfect to compromise with windsurfing because when there is no wind it’s good for paddling, and when there’s wind, it’s good for windsurfing. Having said I also enjoy downwinders, I enjoy going into the waves and I think it’s the perfect cross-training for windsurfing.

Can you share the origins of your collaboration with the APP World Tour and how this event has evolved?

The event began in 2018, ran again in 2019, took a break during the pandemic, and returned in 2022 and 2023, making this year’s edition the fifth. Gran Canaria Pro Am is an important part of the APP World Tour’s wave circuit. The event has consistently showcased the exceptional wave quality in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. It’s a fantastic way to highlight not only the waves but also the island’s incredible weather. With temperatures ranging from 20 to 25 degrees Celsius even in December, January, and February, it’s an ideal winter destination—something many people don’t realize.

Tristan Boxford (ed. the boss of the APP World Tour) and I have been close friends for 30 years, starting as professional windsurfers. I’ve always felt like an older brother and mentor to him. Back in the late ’90s and early 2000s, we collaborated on a Red Bull TV series called The Search, where we explored uncharted waters in pursuit of new waves and epic windsurfing spots.

Today, we’re still deeply involved in water sports. I host the Windsurfing World Tour in Pozo Izquierdo during the summer here in Gran Canaria and have worked with Tristan since 2018 to host the APP World Tour during the peak surf season in winter. The timing is perfect to highlight everything Gran Canaria has to offer, especially during the colder months in mainland Europe.

This year, with SUP surfing absent from the ISA SUP World Championships, do you feel this event will play an even bigger role, perhaps resembling a world championship final?

The APP World Tour has been the only body consistently crowning World Champions since 2010 for SUP Surfing, and are exclusively sanctioned and recognized as the Professional World Tour for the sport by the ISA, the IOC recognized federation for the sport of Stand Up Paddling and pathway to the Olympics (much like the WSL’s relationship to the ISA). All the World’s very best SUP Surfers have competed on the APP World Tour and battled it out for Titles since 2010.

While these past few years in the return from COVID, this event has ultimately been the single event for the Tour that crowns the sport’s World Champions, in 2025, we will see the return to a full Tour schedule that will once again culminate here in Gran Canaria at the end of 2025.

What have been some of the most memorable moments from the past four editions of the Gran Canaria Pro-Am?

I believe we have had memorable moments every single year. We have had great waves, big waves, very clean waves. We have also had longboard SUP event for the past two years.

It has also been exciting to see the youth Category grow to where in 2024, we will see a large number of U21 athletes stepping up to be counted on their pathway to a career in the sport. Having witnessed the rise of the likes of established Champions such as Kai Lenny, Benoit Carpentier, Mo Freitas, Bernd Roediger, Poenaiki Raioha, Riggs Napoleon among many others on the APP World Tour who all started in the mid teens on Tour along with the Women, Izzi Gomez, both Sakura and Kaede Inoue, Annie Starr, Lara Claydon and Skylar Lickle and many more, there is no doubt that the platform has provided a real pathway to a career in the sport

Can you give us a sneak peek into the lineup of participants this year—any notable athletes or fresh talent joining the competition?

Over and above the established Champions and the strong Brazilian contingent of defending Champ Luiz Diniz, 2012 World Champion Leco Salazar, 2019 Event Champion Wellington Reis and stand out performer Leonardo Gimenes, we will see the return of Marcio Grillo, from Maresias, one of the most proficient barrel riders in the Stand Up Paddle World who showed his potential over the years from Brazil to Hawaii. The French contingent means business, with Benoit Carpentier and Clement Roseyro headlining their team, along with a whole host of young talent taking on both Youth and Main event divisions. For the Spanish, Juan de Los Reyes has long been a threat, as well as Guillermo Robelo and the younger brother of Champion Racer Fernando Serra, Enrique Serra. The other stand outs of the last few years are Taka Inoue, who won the longboard division in 2023 and finished 2nd in the performance sup as well as the Peruvian standout, Sebastian Gomez, for whom a major result is well over due.

For the women, we will see the return of the local hero Iballa Moreno as well as 2022 World Champion Kaede Inoue, who continues to go from strength to strength as well as her sister, Sakura Inoue. But this year in particular, watch out for Luchy Cosoleto, who won at the ISA world’s last year and has finished 2nd and 3rd respectively in 2022 and 2023 and for whom a win is well overdue. Camille Dubrana from France has been on the rise over the last few years, and should be watched out for in particular in the longboard division where she turned heads in 2023, while APP World Tour veteran, Aline Adisaka is on great form right now and will as always be a major threat in this event along with fellow Brazilian, Gabi Sztamfater.

It is worth pointing out that we have direct flights from every main city in Europe, straight to Gran Canaria. It couldn’t be easier to get here!

What about Longboard SUP surf?

Longboard Surfing was introduced as a discipline by the APP back at this event in 2022 and repeated again in 2023, with Leco Salazar and Kaede Inoue winning the first edition and Taka Kaede Inoue winning last year. With prize-money on the line for this discipline in 2024, the line up has intensified, as has the level of competition, as we anticipate an exciting showdown for this fast growing discipline

Worth noting is that the APP World Tour team has spent time on refining guidelines around the longboard SUP discipline, that will help nurture the momentum that it has moving forward and define it as a distinguished category of surfing that is fundamentally different from traditional lonboarding, but also well differentiated from performance Stand Up Paddling. Concise outline of these rule definitions will be available at www.appworldtour.com and be posted at the event for athletes to refer to in order to ensure that they are surfing to the criteria and can earn the best points possible

Could you describe the event’s spot in Gran Canaria, including the typical conditions, water and air temperatures, and whether this location is surfable year-round?

The water is around 20 degrees. The air is between 20 and 25. We have North swells, we have NorthWest swells, we have North East swells, the best ones being between 4 and 8 foot because then the waves break really nice in both in our point of La Cicer and also in El Lloret where we have the finals of the Pro Men and women. It is a nice point break with a lot of power Depending on the direction of the wave there’s even a tube on the wave which is rideable both in surfing and SUP surfing.

I am hoping for a 6 to 10 foot for that one, because that’s really what would make a difference for this kind of waves.

For those interested in competing, how can they register, and what’s the registration deadline?

Registration is open of course you can sign up. Be quick. You can sign up on both our website or the APP World Tour.
Come and join us!

And for those who are not lucky enough to join us in Gran Canaria, you will be able to follow all the action LIVE here on www.totalsup.com, www.appworldtour.com or on the Facebook page of TotalSUP or APP World Tour.