European Freestyle Expression champion crowned

by Hanna Poschinger on 28 Oct 2013 European freestyle Championship 2013 concluded today, Sunday 27th October, in France. Steven Van Broeckhoven (JP/Neilpryde) is crowned the new European freestyle champion for the third time. Van der Eyken (Starboard/Severne) takes second place whilst Adrian Beholz (Sailloft/Fanatic) holds his third place overall from last year.

As already expected, Sunday didn't deliver the right conditions for the double elimination of the European freestyle battle. With a lot of sunshine the beach was filling up fast throughout the day, so to keep the crowds entertained the organizers called for a tow-in best trick competition. Every rider who wanted to participate had an opportunity to show their best moves and try out new maneuvers in the two hours that the jet-skis were reserved for. After practicing in this discipline, during the last few days, and also a lot in general, there is always a request for new variations. With the successful use of a powerboat to create waves in Russia, the local organizers wanted to make this very impressive tow-in modification possible for the riders.

With France being the last stop for the EFPT in 2013 we also wanted to do something new and special and were thinking about ideas to bring the judges and riders closer together. Having former professional freestyle windsurfers in the team, the decision was madden a matter of seconds: all we needed were some riders for judging the supersession and some judges to do the tow-in. No need to tell that twice to Tom Hartmann or Jakub Kosmowski who were both a part of this tour for many years.

With the wake of the police boat tricks like paskos, big air-funnels, skopus and even forwards were possible. The riders surprised the crowd on the beach with the height and the speed of their moves. The trophy for the best trick in the tow-in supersession went to the Adam Sims (Patrik/Sailloft) from the UK who surprised many with a perfectly timed funnel into air-funnel off the wave, launching into the first funnel before the wake of the boat and then bouncing off the wake into a huge air funnel, which technically scored very high with the rider judges. On top of that he also spun round a forward loop which was quite the surprise for all the spectators and the riders themselves.

We went into the prize-giving for all the categories straight after the super-session. After Sims was announced the winner of the best trick in tow-in, the most Different rider was honored. Like on every event our tour partner Different Eyewear (www.different-eye.com) provided a pair of their top range sunglasses for one rider who performed something outstanding, and DIFFERENT, on the event. This time it went to Olivier Gouezo (Sailloft/Fanatic) from France, who entered one of his first international competitions ever and straight away finished fifth, always keeping a cool head even though he had to face experienced riders like Andraz Zan (F2/F2) and Max Rowe (North/Fanatic). It is definitely good to see young local riders entering the big competition scene through the European Tour.

It was the fifth addition of the EFE and the development is remarkable. This was also recognized by the local politicians that visited the event today and were also responsible for handing over the stunning trophies for both the event winners and the overall champions.

The results of the European Freestyle Expression 2013:
1st Steven Van Broeckhoven (JP/Neilpryde)
2nd Dieter Van der Eyken (Severne/Starboard)
3rd Adrien Bosson (North/Fanatic)

Adrien Bosson, local and son of the organizer stated: 'I am very happy about my first podium in an international competition and that I win the third place here at my home spot makes it even better! I know the conditions were not easy but everybody was giving their best and I hope I see you all next year.'

For the top three overall we didn't see many surprises after the event in Russia earlier this year:
1st Steven Van Broeckhoven (JP/Neilpryde)
2nd Dieter Van der Eyken (Severne/Starboard)
3rd Adrian Beholz (Sailloft/Fanatic)

Steven Van Broeckhoven who became European Freestyle Champion for the third time (2009,2010,2013) stated: 'I am really happy to be up here again. In 2009 I won the title for the first year and that was when it all started for me (…) Also now it's not easy to win the European title, as Dieter and the other guys are not easy to beat, so I am super stoked that I won it again this year.'