Getting up early paid off this time. The skippers meeting at 5.30 was followed by the First heat at 5.50am. 48 Registered riders fought their ways through the single elimination at the Surf Worldcup Podersdorf. [more]
Only few spectators found the way to the beach that early in the morning. After the perfect beach weather at the weekend, today we had clouds, light rain and strong wind. As soon as the first riders went on the water no on seamed to care about the freezing weather. The level was super high from the beginning on.
Dutch rider Maarten van Ochten (JP/Neilpryde) proved that he fully recovered from foot injury he sustained last year. The tall rider impressed spectators and judges with his powerful style. He could kick out Julien Mas (Fanatic/North Sails), Leo Ray (Naish/Naish) and Quincy Offringa (Starboard/Severne), but was stopped by Bonaire kid Kiri Thode (Starboard/Gaastra) in his fourth heat.
Also Nicolas Akgazciyan (Starboard/Gun Sails) came, after his bad result from the Mondial du Vent, back on track. He nailed his tricks very stylish in front of the judges and made it up to the quarter finals. There he missed a few tricks and had to let 3 times PWA champion Gollito Estredo (Fanatic/North Sails) pass over him into the next round.
The final 4 was Steven van Broeckhoven (F2/Gaastra), who succeded over German warhorse Andre Paskowski (Fanatic/North Sails), Golltio Estredo, Taty Frans (Starboard) and Kiri Thode (Starboard/Gaastra). The EFPT champion van Broeckhoven against the PWA champion Estredo was one of the best heats in the competition, and, as many others, ended up in very close decision for the judges. The Belgian was, after his victory from the first EFPT event in Leucate, very self confident and took a lot of risk. His air Cana Brava close to the beach was according to sayings from spectating riders the best move of the competition.
Taty Frans succeded over Kiri Thode, and so the final was van Broeckhoven against Taty Frans. The wind conditions started to become a bit instable and both riders could not show their tricks that fast and high as they did in prior heats, but still it was amazing to watch them sailing the Freestyle final at the Surf Worldcup Podersdorf. After the red flag was up the race crew had to take some extra consideration time because the high level in the final made their job really hard.
Speaker Roberto Hoffmann called everybody to the main stage on the water of Lake Neusiedl, where he announced at 11.45am that Taty Frans won the final heat over Steven van Broeckhoven.
Gallery: http://efpt.net/gallery.php?eid=83
