The APP World Tour is back! Final adjustments to the 2021 Racing season are complete to ensure viability for traveling athletes & staff
(PRESS RELEASE) Ericeira, Portugal, Tuesday 22nd June: After several months of adjusting to the continuously changing global environment due to the Coronavirus Pandemic, the APP is proud to announce a full schedule of Racing Events for the 2021 season that will deliver World Class action and provide a viable series of World Championship Tour events for its global athletes to follow.
The Tour will kick off with Racing in October in the Hawaiian Islands for the first leg of the Tour. The Hawaiian Grand Slam will feature two downwind races and 2 surf sprints to kick off the 2021 Season with spectacular action right at the heart of the sport’s birthplace.
It will then be a trip across two Oceans to Europe for 2 high-profile stops to wrap the Calendar year (with Finals to be held in February 2022). The first is combined with the Surfing stop in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, with the Racing set to provide a comprehensive showcase of the World Championship Tour competition. This will then be followed by Paris, France for the annual pilgrimage to this iconic Race down the River Seine during the first weekend of December.
Due to the late start in 2021 to allow athletes and staff to be able to travel more freely and local hosts to recover from what has been a complicated time, the condensed season has spilled into the 2022 Calendar year, with an all new, exciting and groundbreaking Finals set for early February.
While some of the Host Venues on the provisional schedule are not included in the final line up for 2021 due to local and international restrictions, they are stepping up for multi-year commitments from 2022 on. This includes: Valencia (Spain), London (UK), Zug (Switzerland), Osaka (Japan), and San Diego (USA). All of these Cities opted to hold on until 2022 given the high profile nature of the Venues and the Festival build out planned. Stay tuned for a major announcement of the 2022 schedule due in October of this year.
For more on the Official Schedule announcement, and for build up to the 2021 APP World Tour Season, go to appworldtour.com and @appworldtour and click here to watch the teaser for the 2021 Racing Season
The APP World Tour Racing Schedule will deliver the most spectacular season of Racing yet
This year’s APP World Tour Racing Season has been split into 3 defined legs to allow athletes to be able to follow the Tour in its entirety and benefit from one of the most diverse line up of events yet on the APP World Tour.
With a renewed focus on downwind paddling, the return of celebrated Surf Sprint Racing Courses, and the introduction of all-new venues, the 2021 APP World Tour will not disappoint, for Athletes or Spectators. Here is the lineup:
- Hawaiian Grand Slam Race 1: Maui (Maliko Downwind & Ho’okipa Sprints): 14th – 17th October
- Hawaiian Grand Slam, Race 2: (Maui to Molokai Downwind & Oahu Surf Sprints): 16th – 24th October
- Gran Canaria Pro-Am, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain: 19th – 21st November
- Paris SUP Open, France: 3rd – 5th December
- World Championship Tour Finals: 10th – 12th February (2022)
For 2021, Athletes will be allowed one distance and one sprint racing discard for the season to calculate their overall result, meaning that their best four distances and best four sprints will determine their overall ranking.
By 2022, the major City Paddle Festivals will be back in full force, with exciting new venues and the return of popular venues such as Osaka and London as the World returns to normal, global travel issues ease and Cities are able to open up to mass public events.
In the meantime, we see 2021 as the ideal opportunity to reignite the passion of downwind paddling and sprint racing in the surf to deliver a World Class Sports Showcase to global audiences through live and post-produced broadcasts.
For more on the APP World Tour Racing Schedule and build up to the 2021 Season, please go to www.appworldtour.com or @appworldtour
Stay tuned this week for the formal announcement of APP World Surfing Tour action to consist of 3 World Class venues
The 2021 Season promises to be one of the most exciting yet for APP World Tour Surfers, as three World-Class venues are to be announced later this week, with the season to begin in November with two back to back dates and end in January with the return to the iconic Sunset Beach, on Oahu’s North Shore, with the dates now secured for the next 3 years (18th – 28th January).
Stay tuned for the formal announcement later this week and for all the latest from the 2021 APP World Tour as we build-up to the long-anticipated kick-off for the Surfing Season in November at www.appworldtour.com and follow us at @appworldtour