WOO Worlds 2026 Is Live — Ride for Your Country, Fund Rescue

The countdown on wooworlds.com is live: WOO Worlds 2026 starts 12 September and runs a full month, through to 11 October. It's a country-versus-country competition open to kiters, wingers and windsurfers everywhere — you enter with a donation, ride your normal sessions, and your results roll up into your country's total.

There's no entry fee in the usual sense. Every rider puts in a suggested €20 minimum, and that pot funds the volunteer crews and coastguards who go looking for people when a session goes wrong. Last year's edition pulled in 6,000+ riders across 104 nationalities — this year the countdown clock is already ticking.

Your country against the world

Pick the flag you ride for — wherever you actually live, that's allowed — and your sessions start counting automatically through the free WOO app. There's nothing to submit by hand: ride, and your results land on the right leaderboard the same day.

It's genuinely open to all three disciplines. Kiteboarders, wing foilers and windsurfers are all riding for the same national totals, across the same five boards, for the same month.

Where the money actually goes

This isn't a ticket price — it's a donation, and it's split two ways once transaction fees come off. 80% goes to the International Maritime Rescue Federation, the umbrella body for 160+ rescue organisations in more than 50 countries. The other 20% stays local as a prize pot, paid 50/30/20 to the top three countries' own national rescue services.

On top of that, every session you post is a lottery ticket — any discipline, any board. Random entrants win prizes from WOO Worlds' partners at the end of the month.

Five boards, five ways to place

All five run for the whole month and all five are open to kite, wing and windsurf. Most of them work off a smartwatch or your phone's GPS — only Highest Jump needs an actual WOO sensor on the board.

Chasing Highest Jump? Here's what you actually need

Four of the five boards will count from a smartwatch or your phone already sat in your pocket. Highest Jump is the odd one out — it only registers off a real WOO sensor mounted on the board, so if that's the one you want a shot at, you need the hardware first.

The WOO 4.0 Sensor is the one to get — it works across kite, wing and windsurf, and once it's mounted your sessions land on the leaderboard with nothing to submit by hand. The Duotone Big Air Handle is worth knowing about too: it's built with a WOO housing moulded straight into it, so the sensor clips in rather than getting strapped on as an afterthought — it's back in stock now.

If you're kitting out for Big Air specifically, this season's Duotone Rebel SLS is built for exactly this — a proper big air freeride kite with the power to get you up there in the first place — paired with the Duotone TS Big Air SLS board, the board of the King of the Air. Sizes are limited on both, so don't hang about if you want one before the competition starts.