After the winter break, Foil Slalom is set to make a spectacular return to our screens as the best racers in the world prepare to battle it out on the beautiful French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe for the 2025 Riviera Guadeloupe PWA Windsurf World Cup (22nd-26th April), which is an exciting new addition to the calendar. 

Located in the French Caribbean, Guadeloupe, consisting of five islands, is a tropical paradise boasting pristine white sand beaches, incredible turquoise waters and most importantly, from a windsurfing point of view at least, reliable trade winds, which make it a world class spot for windsurfing. With winds generally in the 15-20 knots range the stage is now set for Foil Slalom to make an adrenaline fuelled return after the winter hiatus. All that’s left to do is see who the main players are, then you can sit back, relax and let Ben Proffitt guide you through the best of the action via the PWA live stream - for what should hopefully be an exciting five days of racing. 

Foil Slalom

Women’s 

As the reigning world champion Justine Lemeteyer (PATRIK / PATRIK Sails / PATRIK Foils) will start the new season as the top seed and will therefore be favourite in Guadeloupe. The 22-year-old was in devastating form last year, registering two event victories from three events, while she finished second in the other. Lemeteyer will be hoping to hit the water flying on her new gear having transferred to PATRIK over the winter. 

Lemeteyer’s most obvious threat would normally be Marion Mortefon (PATRIK / PATRIK Sails / PATRIK Foils), who is the current vice-world champion, but she will be absent from proceedings in Guadeloupe as she is currently expecting a baby. That opens the door for 2023 world champion, Blanca Alabau (WeOne / Severne Sails), while Lina Eržen (Starboard / S2Maui / Starboard Foils) should also be a major threat having won her debut event in Japan in 2023, while she completed the podium in Japan in 2024 In what was her only appearance of the season. 

Elsewhere, 15-year-old Bobbi-Lynn De Jong (Starboard / NeilPryde) will be hoping to battle for the podium positions after finishing fourth overall in 2024, as will former youth vice-world champion Mae Davico (PATRIK / PATRIK Sails / PATRIK Foils) and Femke van der Veen (Starboard / Severne Sails), while rising talent Tess Sermet (NeilPryde) completes the lineup. 

Men’s 

Pierre Mortefon (Phantom / Phantom Sails / Phantom Foils) will start the opening event of the season as the favourite in Guadeloupe. The Frenchman almost didn’t put a foot wrong during the 2024 season, culminating in both the Foil Slalom and Slalom X world titles, as he never finished outside of the top two at any of the three Foil Slalom events. Mortefon will be hoping to continue that rich vein of form and incredible level of consistency as he looks to make a strong start to his title defence. 

However, he will face a stern test to make that happen as there is a stacked lineup in Guadeloupe and as we’ve seen over the last few seasons the standard is currently incredibly high across the fleet with almost any sailor capable of qualifying for Winners’ Finals. There are a couple of very noticeable absentees though in the form of Johan Søe (PATRIK / PATRIK Sails / PATRIK Foils), who won both of the events he attended in 2024, and last year’s world No.3 - Enrico Marotti (JP / NeilPryde) - which will make things slightly easier. 

Amongst the favourites will be last year’s vice-world champion, Daniele Benedetti (Duotone Windsurfing). The Italian won his maiden event on the World Tour in 2024 to take the world title race to a decider in Japan before just losing out, but he’ll want to make sure he keeps his name in the world title conversation early on in the season. Benedetti also transferred to Duotone Windsurfing over the close season, so it’ll be interesting to see how he adapts to his new gear. 

Elsewhere, former two-time world champion Matteo Iachino (Starboard / Severne Sails) will also be hoping to make a solid start to the season as will the likes of; 2023 vice-world champion Amado Vrieswijk (Future Fly / Point-7 / Z-Foils), who has moved to Point-7 over the winter, former world champion, Maciek Rutkowski (JP / NeilPryde), flying Dutchman Jordy Vonk (Duotone Windsurfing), and Nico Prien (JP / NeilPryde). Unfortunately though his compatriot, Michele Becker (PATRIK / PATRIK Sails / PATRIK Foils), has had to withdraw from proceedings due to a back injury. Meanwhile, if things click into gear then Bruno Martin (JP / NeilPryde / AL360 Foils), who finished third in Sylt last season, can also be a major contender. 

With Guadeloupe being in the French Caribbean there is obviously a strong French presence in the fleet - they make up just under half of the lineup - so there will be plenty of French hopes for the local crowd to get behind, namely; Alexis Mathis (Tabou / GA Sails), Cedric Bordes (Severne / Severne Sails / PATRIK Foils), William Huppert (PATRIK / PATRIK Sails / PATRIK Foils), Alexandre Cousin (PATRIK / PATRIK Sails / PATRIK Foils), Pierre Macquaert (JP / NeilPryde), Benoit Merceur (Starboard / Severne Sails) and Lohan Jules (AV Boards / S2Maui / PATRIK). 

Elsewhere, the likes of John Soukos (WeOne / Challenger Sails / F4 Foils) and Cyril Evrard (PATRIK / Challenger Sails / PATRIK Foils) - both 21 - Scotty Stallman (Tabou / GA Sails / F4 Foils), Hugo Sjoberg (Tabou / GA Sails) - both 23 - will be continuing to try and climb the ladder. 

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

Schedule For Day 1: (All Times GMT-4)

- Registration: 09-11am - Skippers’ Meeting: 13:00

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Photo Credit: Native Pictures