Netherlands World Cup - A little bit of everything

by Hanna Poschinger, EFPT on 13 Sep 2013 Day five at the DAM7 offered a little bit of everything for the riders and the spectators. The morning of day five here at the Zeil and Surfcentrum in Brouwersdam started off surprisingly sunny and the actual start for the second qualifying round was planned for 4.00 pm in the afternoon with the potential of also running the third qualification.

Just after the first skippers meeting though It looked like it would be another windy day and the last heats of the PWA men's double elimination managed to get underway, as well as some of the ladies. When the wind dropped around 5.00pm race director Tom Hartmann called the second tow-in fleet for duty.

After some practice runs with the jetski, where even a few girls joined in, we saw a strong tow-in fleet with finalist of the Chiemsee European Tow-In Championship in Podersdorf. A high performance was expected and could be observed especially from Max Matissek (North/Fanatic) from Austria who landed a clean double funnel in the first run and a superb flaka-shaka in his second run. Also Adam Sims (Sailloft/Patrik) from the UK seemed to be on a mission and went for double spocks in both runs eventually landing a perfect one in the end. This was especially honored by the judges and the other riders as no one is quite sure if it has ever been pulled in competition before. Björn Saragoza (Starboard) from Bonaire was one of the favourites and didn't disappoint landing safe flaka-shakas. Other than that we've seen tow-in specialist Julien Mas (Sailloft/Patrik) going for a skopu and a huge pasko, which he unfortunately couldn't land in the end.

Arrianne Aukes (RRD) from Holland was the only girl in fleet number two and even though she seemed to have some problems during her first attempt, she very nearly stuck a nice and fast funnel on the second run. Generally the interest from the girl's side seemed to be growing, especially during the last days, which was really good to see.

From fleet number two we'll see in the final:

1st Björn Saragoza (Starboard)
2nd Max Matissek (North/Fanatic)
3rd Adam Sims (Sailloft/Patrik)

Since the forecast for wind doesn't look too bad for the next days, sending out the third fleet just after the second was a decision to be on the safe side. Yoli de Brendt (North/Fanatic) who was a wildcard winner, unfortunately dropped out of the competition, opening the door for Tim Ruyssenaars from Holland. The young Dutch rider impressed with a very smooth burner in his first run and even seemed to be surprised by himself. Adrien Bosson (North/Fanatic) went for big moves like a flaka-shaka and a burner 900 whilst Gollito Estredo (North/Fanatic) scored with a huge air-funnell into burner. In his second attempt he wanted the flaka-shaka-shaka but couldn't quite make it, yet we know with which kind of level we'll be dealing with in no time. Yegor Propretinskiy (JP/Neilpryde) played it safe and landed a fully planing flaka and a flaka one-handed.

Vladimir Yakovlev (JP/Neilpryde) went for a triple funnel and for a no-handed burner, which was quite a risky and seemed to be quite unusual for the very technical rider from Russia. Even though some crashes looked quite bad all the riders also seemed to have a good time. Kiri Thode (Starboard), who is the winner of the PWA freestyle event here in Brouwersdam, managed to score some good points for a clean culo and a burner. Since local Rick Jendrusch (Starboard/Severne) didn't want to attend the tow-in due to injury, Yentel Caers (North/Fanatic) gratefully took his place and was throwing himself through burners and funnels. The end result of fleet number three was very clear though:

1st Gollito Estredo (North/Fanatic)
2nd Adrien Bosson (North/Fanatic)
3rd Kiri Thode (Starboard)

As the 10th rider in the final we'll see Youp Schmit (JP/Neilpryde) from Bonaire who had the highest score apart from the top three riders of each round.

The tow-in final will probably be run tomorrow evening considering the latest wind EFPT website