Leonard Nika is an Italian-Albanian rider born in 1987 and currently living in Portugal. He began surfing at age of 10 when his family moved from Torino to Rome near the coast in Italy. After competing in surf competitions around Italy for many years, it wasn’t until 2008 that Leonard was introduced to SUP.

Now, Leonard is a SUP mogul across both surf and race. He is an extraordinary 7 X Italian champion, 4 X European Race Champion and ranked third in the APP Paris Stop in 2018. When he is not dominating in global competitions, Leonard runs his own Paddlesurf school in Peniche alongside his brother Claudio Nika and with a never-ending list of titles, we can be sure that Leonard’s students are in capable hands!