Sarah-Quita Offringa
By winning the 2019 Mercedes-Benz Aloha Classic, Sarah-Quita Offringa becomes the first woman in over two decades to claim the Women’s PWA World Championship, aside from the legendary Moreno twins, who have won women’s wave sailing contests for over 20-years. Offringa started the year with two third places in Gran Canaria and Tenerife, but then won in both Sylt and Maui. The contest in Maui was important to win to claim her first wave world title.
Sarah-Quita Offringa on winning her first PWA Wave World title: “Honestly, this one feels totally different from any other title I’ve previously won. Wave sailing was a challenge, still is a challenge and this year we’ve had so many different conditions with completely different conditions. The race for the title has been really tight, so that makes it so much sweeter to win this title. Actually, I didn’t really expect it to happen this year so I’m super happy!”
With this Wave world title, Offringa completes a career grand slam. She has already won 12 Freestyle and 4 Slalom world titles and has now 17 world titles in total.
Philip Köster
With the last event of the year on Maui, Philip Köster wins in the end his 5th PWA World Championship at just 25-years-old.
Philip Köster speaks after officially becoming the 2019 Men’s PWA Wave World Champion: “Yeah, honestly this one feels different. This title has been a lot of work honestly. I didn’t win any events this year, which is what makes it different from the other times. Otherwise, I’m super, super happy that I made it. It’s also kind of nice to have done okay at the Aloha Classic. Before now I hadn’t actually won a heat here, so I’m stoked to have passed through a heat at the Aloha Classic. It’s really nice to finish the year here and I’m also pleased to have made it a bit further in the contest this time around. So yeah, just really happy about it!”
Big congrats to both of you for an amazing year on tour!
Photos by John Carter/PWA
Words by PWA/Sarah-Quita Ofringa/Philip Köster
