1988-2019
The Pantín’s championship was born 31 years ago when surfing wasn’t as known as now in Spain; although many people were already surfing in Galicia.
In Galicia, the first surf club was created in November 1987. Vicente Irisarri, Carlos Bremón, Gonzalo Barro, Carmen Aguilar and Fernando Montalvo, were the founders. Almost at the same time were born the Ocean Surf Club, the Aquasurf store and the Pantín Classic. The final aim was to create an event which was at the same level as others organized in France, Australia, California o Hawaii.
Eight world champions have competed in Pantín: Tom Curren, Mark Ochiluppo, C.J. Hoodgood, Damien Hardman, Sunny Garcia, Joel Parkinson, Gabriel Medina and Sofia Mulanovich. In 1999, the Pantín’s test already had 200 surfers (56 from Australia) and an amount of 25,000 supporters watching the victory of Joel Parkinson (the best surfer ever).
In 2000, the first female WQS in Spain took place in Pantín.
In 2008 the Praia de Pantín Club became the only organizer and in 2009 the Pantín Classic was elected as the best sports event in Galicia by the Xunta.
Already in 2010 Pantín became, together with the Azores, the only beach in Europe where a 6-star WQS male and female event was developed at the same time.
In 2019, the championship goes on and for the first time in its history will be a QS 10,000 test.