With stateside attention focused the start of the P1AquaX season that kicked off this past weekend on Lake Pontchartrain, as well as regional racing with AJSA, Wild West Watercross, East Coast Watercross, NatuiWater Racing and Great Lakes Watercross, its easy to forget that there is top-level racing going on outside the US.
Case in point: The four pillars of the UIM-ABP Aquabike World Championship: the single event Endurance World Championship, the World Championship Circuit, the single-event Offshore World Championship, and the European Continental Championship Circuit.
The location for the 2025 UIM Aquabike Endurance World Championship has been confirmed as Pangururan on Samosir Island, located in Indonesia’s Lake Toba. The village is the gateway to Samosir Island and boasts a newly completed waterfront which offers breathtaking views of the volcanic hills that define the Lake’s landscapes. Pangururan will already be familiar to those who took part in last year’s Endurance World Championship, where the locality served as a base for races that took place throughout Lake Toba.
Following the success and popularity of the venue, this season will see racing take place in Pangururan itself, establishing it as the heart of the Endurance Championship in Lake Toba. As with last year, the paddocks will be assembled in Pangururan, with racing then taking place conveniently close by.
As the local organizer, InJourney Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) is working closely with H2O Racing to ensure the successful delivery of the event, while also promoting Lake Toba as a world-class destination for sustainable water-based tourism and international sporting events. Riders will be battling it out for this year’s Endurance title across three days of racing for this year’s single-round Championship. Registration takes place on Tuesday, August 12, followed by two Moto races per day on the 13th, 14th, and 15th respectively. The 2025 Endurance World Champion will then be crowned on Friday the 15th, closing out this season’s Championship.
Pangururan will also serve as the base for the first round of the Aquabike Pro-Circuit World Championship, the Grand Prix of Indonesia, held August 16/17, featuring Runabout GP1, Ski Division GP1, Ski Ladies GP1 and Freestyle events.
The second round of the Aquabike Pro-Circuit World Championship, the Regione Sardegna Grand Prix of Italy, will take place October 17-19, in Olbia, a coastal city in northeast Sardinia, Italy. The city is known for the medieval San Simplicio basilica, and for cafes dotting central squares like Piazza Matteotti. On the palm-lined waterfront to the east, the Museo Archeologico di Olbia has exhibits ranging from Nuragic artifacts to Roman warships. The hilltop Nuraghe Riu Mulinu is an archaeological complex with views of the Gulf of Olbia. The town lies on the shore of a large bay, with a road separating the town from the harbor. The third and final round of the circuit, the Grand Prix of Qatar, will take place Oct. 30 – Nov. 1 in Doha.
The Aquabike World Championship round scheduled to take place in Torre dell’Orso, Puglia, from 26 to 28 September 2025, will be held as an exclusive event dedicated to the Offshore category, and will serve as the single Offshore round of the World Championship.
The decision was made jointly by Aquabike Promotion and the FIM (Italian Powerboating Federation), in agreement with the local organizer, who opted to focus on highlighting the unique excitement of the Offshore discipline, taking into consideration the logistical characteristics of the venue and the region’s continued high tourist season.
“We carefully evaluated all available options,” stated the local organizing committee, “and we believe that focusing on the Offshore category—with its powerful visual and technical impact—is the best choice to deliver a thrilling show for spectators and to showcase the natural beauty of Torre dell’Orso. Our priority is to create a high-quality event that respects the local environment while engaging both fans and newcomers in a true celebration of sport.”
FIM President Giorgio Viscione also expressed his enthusiasm about the opportunity to give greater exposure to a discipline that is often underrepresented: “Offshore is a high-adrenaline, visually striking category within Aquabike, and it truly deserves more spotlight. This dedicated round finally puts Offshore at center stage. In this way,” Viscione added, “the race in Torre dell’Orso—together with the Olbia event taking place two weeks later, which will feature all Aquabike classes and categories, will position Italy at the heart of this sport, offering fans a full and unforgettable show.”
The Torre dell’Orso event is set to be a unique opportunity for both spectators and riders to experience the best of Aquabike Offshore in one of the most stunning coastal settings of the Puglia region.
And finally, the European Continental Championship Circuit, which kicked off May 30 – June 1 at the Grand Prix of Poland in Jeziorsko, central Poland, where the French trio of Jessica Chavanne, Mickaël Poret and Jérémy Perez dominated the afternoon’s action and secured victories in the Ski Ladies GP1, Ski Division GP1 and Runabout GP1 categories and Roberto Mariani took the victory in Freestyle. At the second round, the Grand Prix of Mira, Portugal on July 4-6, attendance kept pace with the robust turnout at round one, with approximately 100 riders registered. Jeremy Perez again took first in Runabout GP1, Felix Helgeson took the win in Ski Division GP1 and Sofie Borgstrom took the top podium spot in Ski Ladies GP1.
The third round of the European Continental Championship Circuit will be the Grand Prix of Hungary, scheduled for August 1-3 in the historic city of Gyor, located on the Moson arm of the Danube.
August’s Grand Prix of Hungary will also host a flurry of World Championship events alongside the packed European Championship racing schedule
Beyond the dozen European Championship races, Hungary will see action in the Ski Juniors GP3.3, GP3.2, and Runabout Junior GP4 World Championship categories.
Junior riders will join a whole host of Ski Division and Runabout categories on the challenging course off Zámoly Beach at an old quarry lake in Győrzámoly, near Győr. As was the case in 2024, Freestyle entrants will take part in their eye-catching somersaults, flips and on-water programmes from a spectator viewpoint on the Danube-Rába confluence in front of the Kossuth Bridge in the town centre.
Before that, the Warta River in the town of Jeziorsko – situated in the Łódź Voivodeship in central Poland – will host the opening round of the European Championship on May 30th-June 1st. There will be classes for Ski Division GP1, GP2, GP3 and GP4, Ladies GP1, Juniors GP3.3/GP 3.2, Ski Juniors GP4, Runabout GP1, GP2 and GP4, Veterans GP1, Junior GP4, Ladies GP4 and Freestyle.
The series then heads to the Portuguese coastal town of Mira on July 4th-6th for another action-packed weekend of action before the remaining two rounds in Hungary and France.
Mira is a municipality in the central district of Coimbra and is well known for its beautiful beaches, tourism, agriculture and fishing industries. Last year, Mira hosted the final round of the series.
The Allier River in Vichy will host the Grand Prix of France, the final round of the European Continental Championship, and this race meeting on September 5-7 will also determine the winners of the Runabout GP1, GP2 and GP3 winners in the stand-alone European Endurance Championship which will start two days prior on September 3. The French race will feature all the traditional Ski Division and Runabout classes, in addition to the Freestyle programme, with several riders expected to take part in both the Endurance and Circuit elements of the hectic racing weekend.
