January 28, 2025
by Betsy Ray

The 2025 season starts with a splash


The 2025 sprint season kicked off last weekend in a pool in Dusseldorf. An indoor pool may not sound like the most exciting location for a race, but the SUP event made a splash as part of the larger Düsseldorf Boat Show. “Düsseldorf Boot” is the world’s largest yacht and watersports show with over 200,000 visitors from 120 countries. And really, when the outdoor temperature has dropped below freezing, the lakes are solid, and the rivers have little icebergs floating down them, where could be better for the athletes than a toasty warm pool facing off their biggest rivals in head to head sprint technicals?

Susak Moliniero and Katniss Paris faced off head to head in the pool at the first EuroTour event of 2025. Photo courtesy of EuroTour, by @marioentero

In the EuroTour’s first sprint races in 11 years, the racers faced off head to head in a bracket format, sprinting 65 metres down the pool to a buoy, turning left or right depending on their starting side, then sprinting back. The distance fits easily into the typical sprint racing range of 100-250m, and including the buoy turn tested the racers’ technical skills, making for more exciting viewing. Unfortunately the event didn’t offer a livestream, but between the race and the athletes, there’s just enough videos on social media to inspire FOMO in the fans who didn’t make it in person.

Alba Frey celebrates her win with bubbly, alongside the rest of the Top 4 Elite Women: Mariecarmen Rivera, Katniss Paris, and Susak Moliniero. Photo courtesy of EuroTour, by @marioentero

Mistake-free runs take Alba Frey to gold

It was the sort of racing where the tiniest mistake determined whether you won or lost, advanced or not. Only the perfect combination of sprint strength and technical prowess could win, and that’s exactly what we saw from the two gold medalist Spaniards Alba Frey and Manuel Hoyuela. It was Alba’s technical perfection that led her to a win in the semi-final against 2024 sprint world champion Katniss Paris (USA), who had just enough of a bobble on her buoy turn to let Alba get ahead. In the final, Alba faced Pan American champion Mariecarmen Rivera (PUR). Mariecarmen jumped off the start and immediately took the lead all the way to the buoy turn. But just as she was coming out of the buoy turn, Mariecarmen had a wobble and slipped into the water. Alba only needed her competitor to hesitate, and she was off to a win. Mariecarmen still came away with an impressive silver medal, but it may feel like a slightly disappointing finish for her after she was knocked off her board during the technical race at ICF world champs last November.

The intense bounceback of waves off the sides of the indoor pool created new challenges for everyone. Katniss Paris described the effects of the unusual setting on her racing: “As for the pool racing, it is rather strange. The chop is intense and I honestly struggled a bit to put out 85% of my normal power.” Brazilian national champion Eri Tenorio even described the pool conditions as “more choppy than a lot of ocean!” There may not be many pool races on the calendar so far, but these racers may be ramping up their training sessions in chop to prepare for the next one.

Katniss “Tiger” Paris, rounds the buoy turn. Photo by Marco Messingfeld via Katniss Paris

After her win in the 100m sprints at November’s ICF World Championships put her “dark horse” status in question, Katniss Paris proved in Düsseldorf that she’s not the underdog anymore. Fans will be hoping that she returns to Europe again soon. Katniss says she loves being called a “dark horse”, but that moniker is feeling out of date – she’s clearly come into her own as a top contender. Katniss prefers to be compared to a more dangerous animal: “I’m like a tiger breathing down your neck. Everyone knows what I can do now after worlds, they know more today, you can see it come… I’m coming for it all!”

Spaniard Susak Moliniero finished behind Katniss in 4th place, ahead of the Italian Cecilia Pampinella who has officially jumped up into the senior class this year. Cecilia has dominated the junior class, and it’s looking like her step into the senior category will be impressively smooth. The young racer said she’s happy with her performance in the pool: ““It was my first race as a senior with the world’s strongest sprint athletes and for this reason I’m happy with my 5th place. Now I know where to improve for future events!” The top eight women were rounded out with Juliette Duhaime (Argentina), Katrine Bergman (Denmark), and Elene Exteberria (Spain).

Manu Hoyuela was a force in the sprints. 2025 could be his best season yet. Photo courtesy of EuroTour, by @marioentero

Manu Hoyuela leads Spanish domination

The competition level was high in the men’s category as well, and showed the impressive depth of the Spaniards: they took first, second, and fourth place for elite men. Manuel Hoyuela (ESP) is an athlete on the rise across disciplines: in Sarasota, he took silver in sprint, bronze in the technical, and fifth in long distance. Taking gold in Düsseldorf on his birthday was the best possible way to start the new season. 

The nineteen year old Spaniard Ivan de Frutos Ruiz had a fantastic weekend, pulling off a silver medal ahead of some big names. Ivan has had some impressive finishes in regional races, and is looking toward the top at the world level. In Sarasota, he advanced to the quarter finals in sprints, but after this weekend it looks like he’s been putting in the work since then and could have a good season ahead. Unax Etxeberria, also part of the Spanish Team Parres, finished in fourth after beating Shuri “Shrimpy” Araki (JPN) in their head to head matchup.

Brazilian teammates David Leao and Eri Tenorio matched up against each other in the quarter finals, and Tenorio won before heading onto beat Unax for the bronze medal in an incredibly tight race. Christian “Polar Bear” Andersen from Denmark finished in 5th position after the smallest hesitation on a buoy turn against gold medalist Manu Hoyuela, and ultra paddling specialist Paolo Marconi (Italy) showed that he can still sprint with the best, finishing in 8th. 

Spectators from the Dusseldorf boot crowded around the pool to watch the elite men’s finals. Photo courtesy of EuroTour, by @marioentero

Full Results via EuroTour

A record-breaking year in California

Outside of Germany, the weekend featured more early season racing at the Hanohano Ocean Challenge in San Diego, California where 889 entries made it a record-breaking year for the longstanding event. Most racers paddled outriggers, with some on surfskis, but over 100 raced SUP with a few recognisable names at the top including Danny Ching, Bodie von Allman, Campbell, and Soryn Preston. Surski long course winner Aaron Small is still fresh off an impressive A Final race at the Paris 2024 Olympics with Jonas Ecker in K2, adding even more prestige to an already top tier event.

It’s only January, but 2025 is shaping up to be a big year of racing.

The start of the Hanohano Ocean Challenge was PACKED this year, some paddlers barely had space to move or stick a blade in the water. Photo via Hanohano Outrigger (Instagram).

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