January
The transfer merry-go-round traditionally spins particularly fast around the festive season. Contracts expire, flowery thank-you notes are posted, along with the highlights of the collaboration. Shortly afterwards, the new sponsor is announced - often with a reel that has already been filmed - along with the assertion that the material feels great and that they can hardly wait to finally get out on the water. This is the usual procedure, which makes it all the more noticeable when it presumably didn't go quite so smoothly. Alessio Stillrich did not want to comment further on his departure from Simmer Style, but asked not to be associated with the brand any longer. Well, yes. Things went much more smoothly for Liam Dunkerbeck, who was signed by Duotone, certainly one of the biggest transfers of the winter. Patrik also made big purchases, signing world champion Justine Lemeteyer and foil prodigy Johan Søe, among others.
Another traditional theme in January is boot, which presented a completely new look for the surf hall in 2025. Instead of the somewhat outdated wooden huts, there is now an industrial look, with steel containers as stands and black suspended walls. A little gloomy at first glance, but quite stylish overall. What was happening in the hall was much more important anyway: there was windsurfing freestyle, wingfoiling, SUP and wakeboarding on the pool, as well as the world premiere of the new Surf Foil Tour. All accompanied by a fantastic atmosphere and cheering spectators. Unfortunately, boot was unable to keep up with the action in terms of new products, with fewer and fewer exhibitors coming to Düsseldorf in January.
february
Cold and cloudy at home, but Caribbean warm for the surf test team: February is traditionally the month for the big freeride test, once again at the paradisiacal spot of Pigeon Point on Tobago. For three weeks, freemoving sails, freeride boards and freeracing sails were meticulously tested and compared, along with a whole host of accessories such as shoes, harnesses and more. Only our colleague Manuel had a less pleasant time: he had to test winter gloves in single-digit temperatures on the Baltic Sea - but someone has to do it...
March
Only the tough get...on the water: March started with a grandiose carnival weekend in Hanstholm, where quite a few revellers slipped into their atmospheric black full-body wetsuits. Things were similarly rustic in Scotland with legendary photographer John Carter and Timo Mullen, who embarked on a curious road trip - always with John's wife breathing down his neck, expecting his husband back in time for Sunday dinner.
April
The PWA reorganised itself this year, and alongside Tour Manager Katrine Kock-Frandsen, Spaniard Alberto Zschiesche was introduced as the new CEO. More events, better marketing and more presence - these were the unsurprising goals that Alberto formulated in a surf interview a few days after his introduction. But just three months later, the Zschiesche era was already over: his "professional commitments outside the PWA" were too great, according to the press release, meaning that the new beginning that had just been presented was already over. Instead, Willy Losa was hired as Sales & Marketing Manager. The hope of giving the World Cup new momentum remains for 2026.
Away from the chaos of the officials, the World Cup in Chile unfortunately came with a damper for Lina Erpenstein: after her runner-up title in the previous year, the Kiel native wanted to attack in 2025, but was stopped by a foot injury in Chile. However, Erpenstein was able to end the season on a positive note with second place on Sylt. The racers flew to Guadeloupe for the first foil event of the season, where Matteo Iachino and Justine Lemeteyer laid the foundations for their world championship titles.
May
May is surf festival month! This year there was the full programme with plenty of sun and sufficient wind, at least on Saturday - so the somewhat rainy start to the final day hardly mattered. In addition to Racer of the Sea, the German Freestyle Battles and Dennis Müller's Kids Camp, the Saltwater Kids Academy with Björn Dunkerbeck was also present on the south beach this year, offering a surfing course to droves of children. With the support of the German Armed Forces, the older ones were able to get a taste of windsurfing or try their hand at pump foiling. Most of the visitors naturally rushed to the mountains of brand new test equipment that the manufacturers had brought to Fehmarn. The eye-catcher par excellence was the retro board from HiFly, which the surf editors immediately grabbed for a test.
surf editor Manuel Vogel had a very special appointment in May: he met with Schleswig-Holstein's Environment Minister Tobias Goldschmidt in Kiel to talk to him about the Baltic Sea Protection Action Plan and its impact on windsurfers, wingfoilers and stand-up paddlers. There should be corridors off Fehmarn, but not in Hohwacht Bay, Goldschmidt said at the time. There have been no further developments since then...
June
The next extraordinary trip followed in June. But instead of travelling to the meeting in Kiel by bike, he took a flight of more than ten hours to Thailand. At the invitation of Cobra, Manuel was able to take a look at the world's largest surfboard production facility and accompany all the production steps - from moulding and laminating to the final quality control!
Big tours were the order of the day in June: at the beginning of the month, SUP racer Bastian Grimm showed the film about his crossing of the Fehmarn Belt. In the surf interview, he talks about the challenges of the "only" 22-kilometre route from Denmark to Fehmarn: "A ship that you see on the horizon and think is still a long way off is there a minute later. That would have been impossible without an escort boat. Our boat was in constant contact with Fehmarn Belt Traffic, monitoring the situation and guiding us through."
The legendary windsurfing race across the Atlantic, on the other hand, was less challenging because of traffic than because of the distance from Newfoundland to Great Britain and the rough North Atlantic. Organiser Louie Hubbard wrote a book about the 1998 race and told us in an interview: "This race was actually impossible. But we did it."
Part 2 of the surf year in review will follow soon!
