Quatro Maui Pro Preview - First 5-Star of 2026: the title race begins at Ho'okipa
by International Windsurfing Tour 24 Mar 09:11 PDT
30 March - 3 April 2026
Quatro Maui Pro - First 5-Star of 2026: the title race begins at Ho?okipa © International Windsurfing Tour
The unified PWA WWT World Wave Tour is proud to announce the return of the Quatro Maui Pro, the opening 5-Star Major of the 2026 WWT season.
Set against the dramatic backdrop of Ho'okipa Beach Park — the spiritual home of windsurfing — this year's event promises to be nothing short of historic. The world's best wave sailors will descend on Maui's iconic break, armed with motivation, momentum, and unfinished business.
Ho'okipa is not just another contest venue. It is the heartland of the sport. To win here is to plant your name among the greatest who have ever sailed a wave. And in 2026, the stakes could not be higher.
The big guns are out in full force
As the first 5-Star World Cup event of the season, the Quatro Maui Pro carries maximum 100% ranking points — and maximum pressure. Every top ranked sailor on the World Wave Tour knows that a strong result here sets the tone for an entire season. The field reads like a who's who of the sport's greatest.
On the men's side, reigning World Wave Champion Marc Paré of Spain arrives determined to defend his crown, while 4 x world champion and last year's Maui Pro champion Brazil's Marcilio Browne will be hungry to reclaim the title at the break he knows so well. Germany's Philip Köster — five times a world champion and one of the most explosive wave sailors alive — is always a threat wherever he competes, and Spain's three time world champion Víctor Fernández brings the kind of experience and power that demands respect at any Ho'okipa event.
Then there are the Ho'okipa specialists, riders for whom this break is home and who have made it their hunting ground. Hawaii's Morgan Noireaux and Bernd Roediger between them hold seven Aloha Classic titles — four and three respectively — and both know every reef, every swell angle, every shift in the trades. Guadeloupe's Camille Juban, a two-time Aloha Classic champion sailing for France, and fellow Guadeloupian Antoine Martin — the 2019 Aloha Classic winner and one of the most explosive talents on tour — clearly showing that the men's draw that has no soft spots.
The women's field is equally formidable. France's Marine Hunter arrives as last year's Maui Pro champion and a rider on the rise, while Germany's Lina Erpenstein brings deep world tour experience and a relentless competitive drive. Hawaii's legendary Angela Cochran — four-time Aloha Classic champion and one of the defining figures in women's wave sailing — joins the fray once again, a living testament to what longevity and mastery at Ho'okipa looks like. And the next generation is already knocking loudly on the door: Belgium's Sol Degrieck, the teenage powerhouse who shocked many with her run at the world title last season, and Australia's teenage sensation Sarah Kenyon, freshly crowned Junior World Champion, are among a cohort of young riders on rapid ascent who have the established names looking over their shoulders.
This is merely a snapshot of the talent pool descending on Maui. The full entry list underlines why the Quatro Maui Pro, as the opening 5-Star of the season, sets the standard for everything that follows. With over 100 of the world's best wave riders were going to enjoy quite a show.
Morgan Noireaux and Sarah-Quita Offringa: two champions, one historic moment
At the conclusion of the 2025 season, something remarkable happened at Ho'okipa. On the same day, at the same event, both Hawaii's Morgan Noireaux and Aruba's Sarah-Quita Offringa claimed their fourth Aloha Classic titles — independently equalling the all-time records held by legends Robby Naish and Angela Cochran. Two competitors. Two records equalled. One extraordinary afternoon at the break that makes the legends..
Noireaux and Offringa now arrive at the Quatro Maui Pro as the sport's reigning Aloha Classic champions, carrying the momentum of a historic 2025 season final into the first major event of 2026. Their mastery of Ho'okipa's powerful waves is unmatched on tour, and both will be immediate contenders from the opening heat.
For every other competitor in the field, the message from 2025 is clear: to win at Ho'okipa, you must first find a way past two of the greatest windsurfers this sport has ever produced.
Kai Lenny: the ocean polymath returns
Kai Lenny is among the most celebrated watermen of his generation — equally at home charging Jaws or competing at the highest level of professional windsurfing. His ultimate ambition in the sport remains an Aloha Classic title, contested each October when Ho'okipa delivers the large, powerful swells that make that event the most prestigious in windsurfing.
2026 presents Lenny with something new. For the first time in his career, two WWT 5-Star Majors are being held in his own backyard. With the WWT season title determined by each athlete's best four results, those who can accumulate maximum points close to home carry a distinct strategic advantage. Lenny knows these waves as well as anyone alive. He knows this crowd. He knows this wind.
What he does with that advantage will be one of the season's most compelling stories to follow.
Maui: the world's premier windsurfing destination
The Quatro Maui Pro reflects a vision championed by Francisco Goya, whose commitment and leadership have been instrumental in bringing a second WWT 5-Star Major back to Ho'okipa in 2026. Maui has long been the spiritual home of professional windsurfing — a status earned on the water across decades — and the return of a spring 5-Star Major to the island is a significant moment for the sport.
Ho'okipa has a storied spring tradition stretching back to 1982, when the original Maui Grand Prix first put the break on the world map. Through the decades that followed, a succession of title sponsors — most notably the long-running O'Neill Invitational, followed at various times by Chiemsee, DaKine, Jeep and others — kept a spring world cup event alive at Ho'okipa sporadically until the mid 2000's. The last confirmed spring PWA world cup here was in April 2005. The Quatro Maui Pro marks the return of that tradition after over two decades.
"Maui has not seen a spring event since the PWA event in April 2005, two full decades ago. It is great to have it back on the schedule. If one goes back into the history of wave events at Ho'okipa, some of the most memorable competitions were held in the spring during the long standing O'Neill Invitational, which ran from the early 80s to the mid 90's. DaKine, Chiemsee, and even corporate sponsors like Jeep sponsored events at Ho'okipa in the spring. Maui always comes alive with abundant energy as we see the world's best windsurfers take to the water and challenge the elements." — Kai Katchadourian
"Maui is the heartland of this sport," said WWT Commissioner Simeon Glasson. "Having two 5-Star events here in 2026 is a statement about where professional windsurfing is heading — and it wouldn't be possible without Francisco Goya's extraordinary dedication to this island and this sport."