Windsurfing’s elite at Roses Bay
The World Windsurfing Championship – Catalonia-Costa Brava Grand Prix brings the world’s finest windsurfers to the Roses Gulf from 9th to 14th June.
MARCH 2014
From 9th to 14th June, the waters of the Roses Gulf and the beach of the La Ballena Alegre campsite, in Sant Pere Pescador, hosted the Catalonia-Costa Brava Grand Prix, one of the slalom events on the Professional Windsurfers Association (PWA) World Tour.
The world’s top windsurfers have taken part in the event (64 racers in the men’s category and 16 in the women’s), enjoying the area for six days together with hundreds of local enthusiasts.
The event was held in Sant Pere Pescador, on the beach situated in front of the La Ballena Alegre 2 campsite. In parallel to the World Championship, the Surf Alegre gathering was held on the weekend of 13th and 14th June, together with a another gathering of Volkswagen camper vans, which brought together hundreds of enthusiasts from Catalonia, the rest of Spain and Europe.
The World Windsurfing Championship – Catalonia-Costa Brava Grand Prix 2009 was organised by the Professional Windsurfers Association (PWA) together with the Secretariat General for Sport of the Catalan Government, the Provincial Council of Girona, the Patronat de Turisme Girona Costa Brava, Turisme de Catalunya, the town councils of Roses, L’Escala and Sant Pere Pescador, La Ballena Alegre 2 campsite, the Catalan Sailing Association, the Surf a Vela magazine, Volkswagen, Oxbow Surfwear and Meteosim.
The winners of the Catalonia-Costa Brava Grand Prix in each category were: Antoine Albeau (France), men’s category, and Valerie Ghibaudo (France), women’s category.
Windsurfing, with an estimated 12 million enthusiasts in Europe, is associated with nautical tourism and contributes to the diversification of tourism products in the counties of Girona and to making the area a year-round destination.
The Costa Brava brand raises its international profile:
The hosting of the World Windsurfing Championship – Catalonia-Costa Brava Grand Prix was a magnificent opportunity to promote the Costa Brava and the Centenary, making it possible to raise the international profile of the area and position it as one of the top European nautical sports destinations.
In this respect, and given the benefits to be reaped by the destination through hosting this event, the Patronat de Turisme Costa Brava Girona committed to the Championship by providing 14,502 euros in sponsorship money.
The Costa Brava brand and the Centenary logo were prominently on display throughout the competition in the village zone (promotional stands area) and on the beach of Sant Pere Pescador in the form of a series of flags. Furthermore, racers also displayed the Costa Brava on their backs and the brand was present on promotional posters, event promotion programmes and other support material. Furthermore, the Patronat put a tourism information point in place, shared with the towns of Roses, L’Escala and Sant Pere Pescador.
The many media and press outlets present during the competition provided broad coverage of the event and gave international publicity both to the activity and the destination.
The Costa Brava Centenary trophy awarded to the racers from furthest away:
As a novelty in this 11th championship, and as part of the commemoration of the Centenary of the Costa Brava, the Patronat de Turisme awarded Costa Brava Centenary trophies to the racers in the men and women’s categories who had come from furthest away. The racers who received the trophies were: Jesper Orth, from Australia, and Ayaz Suzuki, from Japan.
