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Teenager Nia Suardiaz imperious with triple haul of world titles
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Spain’s Elena Moreno crashes the party to land epic Wave crown
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Sensational Cash Berzolla raises surfing bar to take first world title
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Chris MacDonald lands back-to-back crowns to make it title double
The GWA closed out the 2024 season on a high in Brazil after handing out eight world championship crowns, most of them going to teenagers with off-the-charts performances that underscored wingfoiling’s insane progression.
With eight events on three continents, the young athletes from all over the globe fought for personal glory and national pride in four wingfoiling disciplines on a burgeoning international scene.
The coming 2025 season just around the corner promises to be bigger and better—with fresh concepts, new locations and old favourites that are becoming annual fixtures on the calendar’s 11 scheduled events.
It seems unfair to pick out any champion in particular, but once again it is impossible to look beyond the remarkable Spaniard, Nia Suardiaz, still only 17. This season she was utterly dominant and landed the FreeFly-Slalom and Surf-Freestyle crowns to make it back-to-back double world titles.
‘Crazy life’
Tarifa-based Suardiaz also won the Big Air title at the one-off world championship, in Gran Canaria, in July. She also took her first Wave event win and has designs on that crown too, hoping to make it clean sweep in all four wingfoiling disciplines.
“I never thought I was going to be competing at this kind of level,” said Suardiaz, reflecting on her journey to the titles. “I just started and got to the place of winning two world titles [last year]. It just seems so crazy to be living this life and I’m super-happy. For sure I’m going to continue training really hard. I feel the girls are coming for me.”
Spain’s Elena Moreno won her first world title in the pure surfing Wave discipline, which made its immensely successful debut on the tour last year. Moreno won the first event of the season, in Cape Verde, in February, in the greatest conditions the tour has experienced, when the Spaniard beat reigning world champion, Moona Whyte (USA).
Moreno went on to repeat her victory in Dakhla, Morocco, in October, when she saw off the challenge of the Netherlands’ Bowien van der Linden in the final. At the final stop in Ibiraquera, Brazil, where the tour made its its first appearance, Moreno was out in the semi-final, but did enough to take the overall world title.
‘Don’t have words’
“I’m super-happy to win the world title here in Ibiraquera,” said Moreno, right after her win. “It’s an amazing country. Really, I don’t have many words yet. I have to calm down a bit. I dedicate this to my brother and my family. I’m just so happy.”
The US’s Cash Berzolla, 18, also won the world title in Ibiraquera, though he too was out in the “lefts” at the quarter-final stage. Berzolla had taken second spot behind France’s Malo Guénolé in Cape Verde, after a final that was one for the ages. Berzolla set the matter right when he got the win in Dakhla.
“I feel amazing,” said Berzolla. “I didn’t do as well as I wanted [in Brazil], but in the grand scheme of things I couldn’t be happier and I’m stoked to take the win for the overall championship. It’s a ‘left’, with port winds [here]. It’s a little bit different for me which is what I think got me hung up in the quarters.”
The US’s Chris MacDonald, also 18, won back-to-back Surf-Freestyle world titles, to add to the Big Air crown secured in Gran Canaria. MacDonald took three Surf-Freestyle event wins from the first three stops—in Leucate, France, and the Spanish calls at Tarifa and Fuerteventura.
‘Super-stoked with title’
The victories, clinched with epic performances that put MacDonald in a class of his own, meant that he also had the title in the bag even before the closing stop in Jericoacoara, Brazil, where he lost out to a new kid on the block, Austria’s Tomas Acherer, 17.
“I’m super-stoked to get my second world championship title,” said MacDonald. “To clinch it after three wins in a row is just amazing. Unfortunately I didn’t get my best result [in Brazil]. It was pretty hard to be ‘regular’ in the ‘goofy’ kickers.”
Italy’s Francesco Cappuzzo made it consecutive world titles when he landed the crown in Jericoacoara. Cappuzzo won the season’s first two stops in Leucate and Fuerteventura and did enough to don the crown with his third place finish in Brazil.
“I made it,” said Cappuzzo. “It was really a tough one. I would say [Brazil] was the hardest event of the year so far; maybe the hardest one of the last two or three seasons, because everything came down to the last heat. It’s amazing. There’s so much emotion. It’s so much harder to confirm the win second time around.”
edit / words: Ian MacKinnon
images: Svetlana Romantsova
GWA Wingfoil Surf-Freestyle World Championship 2024
Men
1 Christopher MacDonald (USA)
2 Axel Gerard (FRA)
3 Tomas Acherer (AUT)
Women
1 Nia Suardiaz (ESP)
2 Mar de Arce (ESP)
3 Bowien van der Linden (NED)
GWA Wingfoil FreeFly-Slalom World Championship 2024
Men
1 Francesco Cappuzzo (ITA)
2 Julien Rattotti (FRA)
3 Bastien Escofet (FRA)
Women
1 Nia Suardiaz (ESP)
2 Kylie Belloeuvre (FRA)
3 Mar de Arce (ESP)
GWA Wingfoil Wave World Championships 2024 results
Men
1 Cash Berzolla (USA)
2 Malo Guénolé (FRA)
3 Finn Spencer (CAN)
Women
1 Elena Moreno (ESP)
2 Nia Suardiaz (ESP)
3 Bowien van der Linden (NED)
GWA Wingfoil Big Air World Championships 2024 results
Men
1 Christopher MacDonald (USA)
2 Malo Guénolé (FRA)
3 Bastien Escofet (FRA)
Women
1 Nia Suardiaz (ESP)
2 Mar de Arce (ESP)
3 Maria Behrens (GER)
