Our ranking of the 15 best windsurfers of all time, led by Björn Dunkerbeck, Robby Naish and Antoine Albeau, with world titles and Olympic medals.
Windsurfing has two worlds that rarely meet: the professional tour of the PWA, where wave, freestyle, slalom and speed titles are decided, and the Olympic board classes that have been part of the Games since 1984. This list ranks the best from both, men and women together. Each profile gives the discipline, country, birth date and the titles that matter, followed by the best windsurfer in each category and the names that just missed the cut.
How We Ranked the Windsurfers
- World titles: PWA world titles in wave, freestyle, slalom, racing and speed, and world titles in the Olympic board classes.
- Olympic medals: gold, silver and bronze in the Olympic windsurfing events since 1984.
- Records and longevity: speed records and how many seasons a windsurfer stayed at the top.
- Influence: what a windsurfer changed in the sport, from new disciplines to the popularity of windsurfing in their home country.
Tour professionals and Olympic sailors are hard to compare, so world titles carry the most weight and Olympic medals come next. The Moreno twins share one entry because their careers can hardly be told apart. The order is our own judgment, not an official one.
The 15 Best Windsurfers at a Glance
| # | Windsurfer | Discipline | Career |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Björn Dunkerbeck | Racing, slalom, wave and speed | World titles 1988 to 2001 |
| 2 | Robby Naish | Racing and wave | World titles since 1976 |
| 3 | Antoine Albeau | Racing and speed | World titles since 1994 |
| 4 | Sarah-Quita Offringa | Freestyle, slalom and wave | PWA tour since 2003 |
| 5 | Alessandra Sensini | Olympic board classes | Olympics 1996 to 2008 |
| 6 | Daida and Iballa Ruano Moreno | Wave | World titles since 1999 |
| 7 | Philip Köster | Wave | World titles 2011 to 2019 |
| 8 | Nikolaos Kaklamanakis | Olympic board classes | Olympics 1992 to 2008 |
| 9 | Dorian van Rijsselberghe | Olympic board classes (RS:X) | Olympic titles 2012 and 2016 |
| 10 | Barbara Kendall | Olympic board classes | Five Olympic Games |
| 11 | Stephan van den Berg | Olympic board classes | 1980s to 1992 |
| 12 | Lee Korzits | Olympic board classes | World titles 2003 to 2013 |
| 13 | Gollito Estredo | Freestyle | PWA tour since the early 2000s |
| 14 | Gal Fridman | Olympic board classes | until 2008 |
| 15 | Charline Picon | Olympic board classes | Olympics 2012 to 2024 |
#1 Björn Dunkerbeck
- 🏄 Discipline: Racing, slalom, wave and speed
- 🎂 Born: July 16, 1969
- 🌍 Country: Spain
- 🏆 Career Highlights: 42 PWA world titles (a record), 12 straight overall titles from 1988 to 1999, 7 wave titles, freestyle title 1998, speed title 1994
Dunkerbeck is the son of a Dutch father and a Danish mother, but he grew up on the Canary Islands and sailed for Spain under the sail number ESP-11. He dominated the professional tour from the late 1980s through the whole of the 1990s. Racing was his strongest discipline, but he was also a champion in the waves.
He won the PWA overall world title every year from 1988 to 1999 and the race title in the same years and again in 2001. He added seven wave titles, the 1998 freestyle title and the 1994 speed title, 42 PWA world titles in all, more than anyone else.
#2 Robby Naish
- 🏄 Discipline: Racing and wave
- 🎂 Born: April 23, 1963, in La Jolla, California
- 🌍 Country: United States
- 🏆 Career Highlights: 24 windsurfing world titles, first world title at 13 in 1976, kiteboarding world champion in 1998 and 1999
- 🏛️ Hall of Fame: PWA Hall of Fame (2002)
Naish won his first windsurfing world title in the Bahamas in 1976, at the age of 13. He went on to win 24 world titles in windsurfing and became the first real star of the sport. He has appeared in films, videos and countless magazine stories since then.
He is also seen as a pioneer of kiteboarding and stand-up paddleboarding. He won the kiteboarding slalom world title in 1998 and the slalom and jumping titles in 1999. He was inducted into the PWA Hall of Fame in 2002.
#3 Antoine Albeau
- 🏄 Discipline: Racing and speed
- 🎂 Born: June 17, 1972, in La Rochelle, France
- 🌍 Country: France
- 🏆 Career Highlights: 24 world titles in different disciplines, outright sailing speed record in 2008 (49.09 knots), 52.05 knots at Lüderitz in 2012
Albeau has won 24 world titles in different windsurfing disciplines since 1994, as many as Robby Naish. He was born in La Rochelle on the French Atlantic coast. His records on the speed canals made him the best known speed sailor of his generation.
On March 5, 2008, he set the outright world sailing speed record for any wind powered craft with 49.09 knots on the speed canal at Saintes Maries de la Mer. That beat the 48.70 knots set by Finian Maynard at the same spot in 2005. In November 2012 he raised his record to 52.05 knots on the Lüderitz canal in Namibia.
#4 Sarah-Quita Offringa
- 🏄 Discipline: Freestyle, slalom and wave
- 🎂 Born: July 4, 1991, in Oranjestad, Aruba
- 🌍 Country: Aruba
- 🏆 Career Highlights: More than 25 PWA world titles in freestyle, slalom and wave (as of 2026), first title in 2008
Offringa started on the PWA tour in 2003 as a child from Aruba and won her first freestyle world title in 2008. In 2010 and 2011 she won the freestyle title again and added the slalom title in 2011.
In 2019 she won her first wave title as well, which made her a world champion in three different disciplines. As of 2026 her PWA profile lists 29 world titles, 17 of them in freestyle.
#5 Alessandra Sensini
- 🏄 Discipline: Olympic board classes
- 🎂 Born: January 26, 1970, in Grosseto, Italy
- 🌍 Country: Italy
- 🏆 Career Highlights: Olympic gold (2000), silver (2008) and 2 bronzes (1996, 2004), several world titles
Sensini won a medal at four Olympic Games in a row. She took bronze in Atlanta in 1996, gold in Sydney in 2000, bronze in Athens in 2004 and silver in Beijing in 2008. No other woman on this list has four Olympic windsurfing medals.
She raced in three different Olympic board classes, the Lechner A-390, the Mistral and the RS:X, and won world titles along the way.
#6 Daida and Iballa Ruano Moreno
- 🏄 Discipline: Wave
- 🎂 Born: Twin sisters from Gran Canaria, Spain
- 🌍 Country: Spain
- 🏆 Career Highlights: More than 20 PWA world titles between them
The Moreno twins grew up on Gran Canaria and ruled women’s wave sailing for well over a decade. Iballa won the first world title for the sisters in 1999, and a PWA profile later credited the two with 21 world titles between them. Daida led the women’s wave fleet through most of the 2000s.
The sisters have campaigned for equal prize money for women on the tour.
#7 Philip Köster
- 🏄 Discipline: Wave
- 🎂 Born: March 5, 1994, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
- 🌍 Country: Germany
- 🏆 Career Highlights: 5× PWA wave world champion (2011, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2019)
Köster is a German windsurfer who was born and raised on Gran Canaria. He won the PWA wave world title in 2011 at the age of 17. A year later he defended it.
He won his third title in 2015. After a serious knee injury he came back to win the fourth in 2017 and the fifth in 2019.
#8 Nikolaos Kaklamanakis
- 🏄 Discipline: Olympic board classes
- 🎂 Born: August 19, 1968, in Athens, Greece
- 🌍 Country: Greece
- 🏆 Career Highlights: Olympic gold (1996) and silver (2004), 3× Mistral world champion (1996, 2000, 2001), lit the Olympic cauldron in Athens in 2004
Kaklamanakis sailed at five Olympic Games in a row from 1992 to 2008. He won gold in Atlanta in 1996.
He won three Mistral world titles, in 1996, 2000 and 2001. At the opening ceremony of the 2004 Olympics in Athens he lit the Olympic cauldron. A few days later he won silver at those Games, behind Gal Fridman of Israel.
#9 Dorian van Rijsselberghe
- 🏄 Discipline: Olympic board classes (RS:X)
- 🎂 Born: November 24, 1988, in Den Burg, Netherlands
- 🌍 Country: Netherlands
- 🏆 Career Highlights: 2× Olympic champion in the RS:X (2012, 2016)
At the London Olympics in 2012, raced at Weymouth, he had built such a lead over Nick Dempsey after the ninth race that the gold was certain. He only had to start the remaining races.
Four years later in Rio de Janeiro he won the RS:X a second time. Two Olympic golds in a row is the best Olympic record of any male windsurfer on this list. He has since retired from racing.
#10 Barbara Kendall
- 🏄 Discipline: Olympic board classes
- 🎂 Born: August 30, 1967, in Papakura, New Zealand
- 🌍 Country: New Zealand
- 🏆 Career Highlights: Olympic gold (1992), silver (1996) and bronze (2000), five Olympic Games
Kendall won Olympic gold in Barcelona in 1992, silver in Atlanta in 1996 and bronze in Sydney in 2000. In all she competed at five Olympic Games.
Her brother Bruce is also an Olympic gold medallist.
#11 Stephan van den Berg
- 🏄 Discipline: Olympic board classes
- 🎂 Born: February 20, 1962, in Hoorn, Netherlands
- 🌍 Country: Netherlands
- 🏆 Career Highlights: Olympic champion in 1984 (Windglider), world champion in 1983
Van den Berg won the world title in 1983. A year later, at the Los Angeles Olympics, he won the gold medal on the Windglider in the first Olympic windsurfing event. It made him the first Olympic windsurfing champion.
He then turned professional and missed the 1988 Games as a result. He returned to the amateurs for Barcelona in 1992 and raced the Lechner A-390.
#12 Lee Korzits
- 🏄 Discipline: Olympic board classes
- 🎂 Born: March 25, 1984, in Hofit, Israel
- 🌍 Country: Israel
- 🏆 Career Highlights: 4× world champion (Mistral 2003, RS:X 2011, 2012, 2013), first Israeli with two world titles in any sport
Korzits won her first world title in the Mistral at 19, in Cádiz in 2003, and became the first Israeli woman to be world champion. Then came years without a major medal.
She returned in 2011 with the RS:X world title in Perth, which made her the first Israeli with two world titles in any sport. She won again in Cádiz in 2012 and in Búzios in 2013. At the London Olympics in 2012 she finished sixth.
#13 Gollito Estredo
- 🏄 Discipline: Freestyle
- 🎂 Born: 1989, in Porlamar, Venezuela
- 🌍 Country: Venezuela
- 🏆 Career Highlights: 9× PWA freestyle world champion, titles including 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2018
José Estredo, known as Gollito, grew up in El Yaque on Margarita Island.
He has won the PWA freestyle world title nine times, the ninth in 2018. That makes him the most successful man in PWA freestyle history.
#14 Gal Fridman
- 🏄 Discipline: Olympic board classes
- 🎂 Born: September 16, 1975, in Karkur, Israel
- 🌍 Country: Israel
- 🏆 Career Highlights: Olympic gold (2004) and bronze (1996), Mistral world champion (2002), first Olympic champion of Israel
Fridman won bronze at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. In Athens in 2004 he won gold ahead of Nikolaos Kaklamanakis. It was the first Olympic gold medal in the history of Israel.
Two years before, he had won the Mistral world title in Pattaya, Thailand. His first name, Gal, means wave in Hebrew.
#15 Charline Picon
- 🏄 Discipline: Olympic board classes
- 🎂 Born: December 23, 1984, in Royan, France
- 🌍 Country: France
- 🏆 Career Highlights: Olympic gold (2016), silver (2020) and bronze (2024), world champion (2014)
In 2014 she won the RS:X world title in Santander. In Rio de Janeiro in 2016 she won the Olympic gold.
She added silver in Tokyo and bronze in Paris in 2024, a medal at three Games in a row. Only Alessandra Sensini on this list has more Olympic windsurfing medals among the women.
Best Windsurfer in Each Category
If you want one name per category, these are our picks.
| Category | Windsurfer | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Overall and racing | Björn Dunkerbeck | 12 overall PWA titles in a row, 1988 to 1999 |
| Speed | Antoine Albeau | Speed records of 49.09 knots (2008) and 52.05 knots (2012) |
| Men’s wave | Philip Köster | Five PWA wave titles |
| Women’s wave | Daida and Iballa Ruano Moreno | More than 20 world titles between the twins |
| Freestyle | Gollito Estredo | Nine PWA freestyle titles |
| All round | Sarah-Quita Offringa | World titles in freestyle, slalom and wave |
| Olympic | Dorian van Rijsselberghe | Two Olympic golds, 2012 and 2016 |
Honorable Mentions
Six more windsurfers who came close.
- Kiran Badloe: Dutch windsurfer who won the last Olympic RS:X gold in Tokyo and the RS:X world title in 2019, 2020 and 2021.
- Nick Dempsey: British windsurfer and the first man with three Olympic windsurfing medals: bronze in 2004 and silver in 2012 and 2016. World champion in 2009 and 2013.
- Marina Alabau: Spanish windsurfer who won the RS:X at the London Olympics in 2012 and the world title in 2009.
- Jason Polakow: Australian wave sailor who won the PWA wave title in 1997 and 1998 and founded JP Australia.
- Kevin Pritchard: American who won his first PWA world title in 2000 and the PWA wave title in 2006.
- Josh Angulo: Wave sailor who won the PWA wave world title in 2009 and later organised the wave World Cup in Cabo Verde.
More About Windsurfing
- History of windsurfing
- Windsurfing lingo and slang
- Windsurfing equipment list
- Common windsurfing injuries
- Windsurfing quiz
- Windsurfing Instagram captions
FAQ
Who is the best windsurfer of all time?
In our ranking it is Björn Dunkerbeck, ahead of Robby Naish and Antoine Albeau. Dunkerbeck has won 42 PWA world titles, more than anyone else, including 12 overall titles in a row from 1988 to 1999.
Who are the top 10 greatest windsurfers?
Our top 10 is Björn Dunkerbeck, Robby Naish, Antoine Albeau, Sarah-Quita Offringa, Alessandra Sensini, Daida and Iballa Ruano Moreno, Philip Köster, Nikolaos Kaklamanakis, Dorian van Rijsselberghe and Barbara Kendall.
Who has won the most windsurfing world titles?
Björn Dunkerbeck, with 42 PWA world titles. Among women, Sarah-Quita Offringa leads with 29 titles as of 2026, across freestyle, slalom and wave.
Who is the fastest windsurfer?
Antoine Albeau set the outright sailing speed record with 49.09 knots in 2008 and raised his record to 52.05 knots at Lüderitz in Namibia in 2012.
Who won the first Olympic gold medal in windsurfing?
Stephan van den Berg of the Netherlands, at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, on the Windglider board.
Who is the most successful Olympic windsurfer?
Dorian van Rijsselberghe won two Olympic golds, in 2012 and 2016. Alessandra Sensini won four Olympic medals, one of each color plus a second bronze, and Nick Dempsey was the first man to win three.
Who is the most famous windsurfer?
Robby Naish. He won his first world title at 13 in 1976, went on to win 24 world titles and helped build kiteboarding and stand-up paddleboarding.
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