King of the wind and the EFPT champion decided

by Hanna Poschinger on 8 Nov 2012 The last day of the final tour stop of the European Freestyle Pro Tour (EFPT) 2012 saw the crowing of the King of the Wind and of the European Freestyle Champion.

Just as forecasted, the wind didn't really start to fill in on the final day here at Weymouth. After discussions of starting either another single elimination or to run a big move supersession, most of the riders seemed to be quite happy with the decision from race director Tom Hartmann, who called it a day around noon. For the reason that many of the competitors had to travel home by car we also decided to advance the prize giving ceremony to 3.00pm.

This time we would not only announce the event winner for the Centaur King of the Wind, but also the overall 2012 European Champion. This year really proved itself as a successful one for the EFPT. After the debut in Austria with the first ever European tow in championship, we've seen every tour stop with good wind. Sigri started off in August with flat water and moderate wind, France fully kicked in with over 40 knots and wavy onshore conditions and England delivered different wind speeds with flat to choppy water. In general we can say that whoever managed to do well in all of those conditions is well worthy of the overall title!

Even though the fight for the title of the EFPT champion 2012 was a hard one from the start, with top riders like Davy Scheffers, Youp Schmit (JP/Neilpryde), Andraz Zan (F2/F2) and Adrian Beholz (Sailloft) already getting involved in the three Style Area Cup in Sigri. The level was already high and the likes of Dieter Van der Eyken (Starboard), Rick Jendrusch (F2) and Tonky Frans were all missing at that point.

Before the event in France started the outcome for this year was still open, yet we've seen familiar faces amongst the top five after every single and double elimination so far. The battle on the last events was not so easy as all the riders tried their best to climb up the ranks. However, as many predicted way back at the start of the season, 20 year old Dutch sailor Davy Scheffers became the new European champion.

Davy impressed with a lot of style, power and diversity in all kinds of conditions and always seemed to have his head screwed on. Like this he managed on this tour what he couldn't yet achieve on the world tour, losing hardly any heats that he sailed. However, after he lost against Belgium pro rider Van der Eyken in France and 'only' finished in third place, Scheffers succeeded at the Centaur King of the Wind.

We caught up with Davy about taking the event victory and the overall title:

'Ever since I got into professional windsurfing it was always a dream for me to become European champion one day. What I reached today shows me that you can get everything you dream of as long as you keep going for it and work hard. I really like the EFPT because I can travel here with my friends, we are all really close and the sessions on the water are a lot of fun even though it is competition. I am in this sport because I love it and not for the money side of it. I want to keep up the spirit of this tour and hope that we will have even more stops next year!'

Dieter Van der Eyken (Starboard), who jumped on board of the EFPT at the second stop in France, managed to secure second at the grande finale in the UK and as a result he also became vice European champion for 2012. He declared how stoked he was about the second place and that he will hopefully be able to follow the whole tour around next year to chase up the European title!

Third place at the King of the Wind went to Adam Gavriel from Israel who constantly worked his way up to the top from one event to the other where he finally ended up on the podium. Yet it wasn't enough to reach the overall top three for this year. The overall third place went to Adrian Beholz (Sailloft) from Germany who always convinced with a lot of routine and consistency throughout all of his heats, leaving many competitors no chance to advance. He seemed to be very happy about his ranking in the top three and already confirmed his participation for the 2013 tour!

In general a lot of positive feedback has been received by the team behind the European Freestyle Pro Tour and of course the organisation team around top freestyler from the UK, Adam Sims. It was highly appreciated by the riders how much effort Adam put into this event to make it happen. Starting off from scratch only two months ago he managed to organise a worthy final event at a great venue, a big tow in night session with a countless amount of spectators and a diversified social program ranging from acoustic concerts in traditional English pubs to big party nights run by Globalshots.

The EFPT team would like to thank Adam Sims, Sam Burnett and their team for this event and all the riders who travelled with us to this and all the other venues of this season! It has been a great time with you all and we are looking forward to work, windsurf and travel with you next year European Freestyle Pro Tour website