Benoit Carpentier secures a long awaited victory in the SUP longboard division to be crowned 2024 World Champion

Benoit has been at the forefront of the development of SUP longboarding for many years now, driving board design with his sponsor Starboard and helping to define the direction of Stand Up longboarding as one of the fastest growing surfing formats. However, after two years of pushing for the Title in this division, Benoit was finally able to achieve his goal today with a strong performance to earn him the World Championship Crown.

However, he had to overcome some formidable talent and stand out performances to achieve the victory, with perhaps the toughest battle coming in the semi finals against the Brazilian, Leo Gimenes, who pushed him right to the very end for the win.

The two favorites coming into this event ended up meeting in the Final: the recently crowned World Champion for Performance Stand Up Paddling and reigning SUP Longboard World Champion Taka Inoue and Benoit Carpentier. 

Taka posted excellent to near perfect scores throughout the day, clearly positioning himself as the man to beat, with some of the most radical hang 5’s and 10’s we have ever seen, but in the Final, was unable to find the scores he needed to overcome the Frenchman, much to the delight of the Carpentier entourage.

While the surf was small today, it provided a valuable testament to SUP Longboard’s appeal and versatility, and the clean walls allowed the surfers plenty of high scoring potential. As the APP continues to define the competitive direction for this dynamic format, this event clearly illustrated its growth and popularity, with a full field of athletes stepping up to do battle.

Kaede Inoue secures her unprecedented third consecutive World Title in the SUP Longboard division 

The Inoue’s performance at this 5th edition of the Gran Canaria Pro-Am is one for the record books: with one of the siblings present on every single podium except for the U21 Boys division (because Taka is over 21). The elder of the two sisters, Kaede, continues to assert herself as a dominant force on Tour, securing her 3rd consecutive World Title in the SUP Longboard division to add to her 2022 World Title in Performance SUP.

Having to settle for 3rd in the performance SUP division behind her younger sister, there was no way Kaede was going to let this Title slip through her hands. With dominant performances from the outset, Kaede was able to reach and then dominate the final ahead of the young up and coming Spanish talent, Julieta Rodriguez who has had an excellent event.

Kaede’s smooth transitions and linked together rides saw her consistently posting excellent scores and extremely high heat score totals, and the final was no different, as she put together two solid rides to secure the World Title for 2024.

In 3rd equal was Camille Dubrana from France who put on a great performance throughout this final event and Kaede’s younger sister and winner of the U21 World Title Sakura Inoue.

A big congratulations go out to all our competitors for putting on a spectacular show throughout this event.

That’s a wrap for an action packed week of spectacular Stand Up Paddling at the 2024 Gran Canaria Pro-Am

Gran Canaria has once again delivered and the 5th edition of the Gran Canaria Pro-Am is now in the books. While we didn’t see the pumping surf of previous years, we did see great conditions for the World’s Best to provide a spectacular showcase of Stand Up Paddling at its very best.

From the high performance divisions of Stand Up Paddling at El Lloret’s righthand point break to the ideal SUP Longboard conditions at La Cicer, the two venue approach allows the APP to showcase the diversity of the sport and highlight the island of Gran Canaria as a World Class destination for the sport.

We are excited to continue this legacy as we build up to a 3 event schedule for 2024 to be announced shortly that will once again culminate in this prestigious World Championship Final here in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria at the end of the year.

A big thank you to all our partners for this year’s Gran Canaria Pro-Am, from Turismo de Gran Canaria, Instituto Insular de deportes de Gran Canaria, Ayuntamiento de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to Turismo de las Islas Canarias. Thank you also to Volkswagen, 7island Film, Poema del Mar, waterspeed app and Red Bull for their support and as always, our longtime event partner Dunkerbeck SUP.