2023 EFPT Geneva - Caers becomes the first ever European Foilstyle Champion
by Freestyle Pro Tour 10 Oct 2023 05:29 AEDT
The first ever European Foilstyle podium! 1st Yentel Caers, 2nd Lennart Neubauer, 3rd Steven Van Broeckhoven © PROtography Official
Yentel Caers (JP/NeilPryde) becomes the first ever European Foilstyle Champion after the last day of competition in Geneva saw no wind.
There was still plenty of action though, with a Tow-In super session where all the riders got one last chance to push to their absolute limits with the exceptional setup that the Tropical Corner provides for this discipline. Read all about the winners of the super sessions in the full account of the last day below.
The 2023 EFPT Geneva was set to crown the first official Foilstyle European Champion. Hoping for some suitable conditions, the Foilstyle fleet was excited to battle it out for the title. With Balz Muller (Severne) entering, everybody was also hoping to see how the most prominent innovator in this discipline would do in competition. Unfortunately, with no suitable conditions in the event window, the final rankings were set based on the results of the EFPT Vieste earlier this year. Yentel Caers performed impeccably there, which meant he now became the official 2023 EFPT Foilstyle Champion. Lennart Neubauer (Starboard/Severne/Maui Ultra Fins) came in second with Steven Van Broeckhoven (Starboard/Gunsails) in third. Check the full 2023 Foilstyle Ranking here.
The focus of the final day was therefore on the Tow-in. A Super Session was planned within the 4 Airstyle categories, with a winner-takes-all prize fund for each of them. Who was going to impress the most on this final opportunity?
In the Combo category, it was no other than Lennart Neubauer. The 2021 Tow-in European champion chained together 4 Funnels to come out on top.
In the Regular category it was back to business as usual for Yentel Caers. The freshly crowned Foilstyle European Champion threw down a Double Air Culo to win the category.
Next up was the all new Style category. Hugely successful in the Tow-in final the day before, everyone was excited to see the riders focus on style in the air. The category was also joined by the women, where Lisa Kloster (MB-Boards/Sailloft) went for a Shaka... while taking her hand of and showing the crowd a Shaka! The judges approved of her hang-loose style and awarded her the win. In the men it was fellow German Freestyle Battles regular Foivos Tsoupras (Duotone/Maui Ultra Fins) who was most stylish. Taking some inspiration from Sam Esteve's perfect 10 the day before, he threw himself into a beautiful Double Air Rotation, while releasing his clew hand. Pointing up straight into the sky, seemingly showing how much higher he wants to go, he once again become the crowd favourite.
Last up, as always, the Send-it category. With no limits applying, the riders can try to go all-out. A stand-out rider, already for most of the competition, was Andreas Roessler (JP/NeilPryde). The Austrian showed off some incredible guts, and even had some of the other riders questioning their bravery. Just check out the insane Shove-It Gutter Flip like rotation above. However, taking the Send-it prize was brit Jamie Howard (Severne) who rotated through a SamAir (2,5 air rotation) reaching a height we not have seen before in Tow-in.
The biggest send in the women came by Maaike Huvermann (Severne), who went for another Double Air Funnel, similar to the one that landed her the event win, and 10 points, the day before. To top off the session, she swapped her gear and invited Lisa Kloster on board for the first ever tandem Tow-in run. Speeding towards Tropical Corner, the two cannonballed off to appropriately close off the 2023 EFPT Geneva.
The Freestyle Pro Tour would like to wholeheartedly thank the event organisers for their efforts in creating this exciting freestyle windsurfing event in the Swiss capital of Geneva. The tour cant wait to be back next year!