APP World Tour – Busan SUP Open 2023

Press Release: APP World Tour

Fernando Perez Serra: It has been an incredible weekend for the young Spaniard, winning the Sprint racing and he held his nerve to be able to secure an impressive 3rd place finish in what was a very technical and challenging distance race.

With adverse weather conditions through the first half of the day, competition was only able to resume by 3pm here on Day 2 of the Busan SUP Open, which while quite welcomed by the athletes to give them more time to recover from the previous day’s action, also allowed the tension to build in anticipation of competing.

However, Fernando was able to hold his own and take on the best of the best to finish in a solid 3rd place in the distance race, which combined with his win in the sprints makes him Overall Champion of the 2023 Busan SUP Open.

On his first trip to Asia, Fernando was able to secure his maiden victory on the Tour and establish himself as a major contender on the APP World Tour, now moving into second place overall behind 4x World Champion Connor Baxter.

There is clearly much more to come from this well rounded young talent from Cadiz, who is also an exceptional SUP Surfer, as we look forward to seeing him in action in the Gran Canaria Pro-Am taking place in November in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

Juliette Duhaime: She continued her dominance here in Busan, taking another convincing victory in a scaled back distance race (due to adverse weather delays), but showed she is without doubt the one to beat this year as one of the most well rounded athletes in the sport.

Juliette took off the start with intent, and had already built a solid lead by the first buoy, with the remainder of the field getting stalled in the shore-break allowing her to get an initial break. From there, she continued to power her way around the course to another convincing win for the 2023 season. 

She came into the event as World #1 and has only strengthened her lead. However with a discard sprint and long distance still to come into play and another couple of distance races and one sprint still to come this season, it is not over yet, as we anticipate an exciting end to the 2023 season.

Behind Juliette, was local distance stand out and winner of the Asian Championships held back in May in Seoul, Lim Su Jeong. While relatively new to Ocean racing, Lim Su Jeong is an impressive athlete with a multi-sport background, and clearly has a great future ahead of her. In 3rd place, was an elated Chloe Walkerdene from Australia.

Arthur Arutkin put on a stellar performance on Day 2 of the Busan SUP Open to take the distance win.

2018 World Champion Arthur Arutkin narrowly missed out on the final of the sprint racing in Day 1, but came back strong today to take victory in an incredibly technical distance race, besting the on form Rai Taguchi here in Busan.

Quiet and calculated, Arthur Arutkin is always right up there with the best of the best and never ceases to impress, and today was no different. Rai Taguchi came out of the gates strong at the start of the distance race to take a convincing lead during lap 1 of a 5 lap course.

Looking to take control of the race, Rai kept up an incredibly fast pace, but Arthur followed and kept close enough to be able to make a move when the opportunity arose by catching one of the better swell lines into the beach through the inside section. This enabled him to catch up to Rai and take the lead. From there, it was a battle for the lead through the remainder of the race, with Arthur maintaining pole position and eventually crossing the line in first.

A great performance from the accomplished waterman, earning him second overall for the event and moving up to 3rd overall on the APP World Tour after Stop #3.