The mercury peaked at 18 degrees Celsius which is quite typical in this part of the region, while the
wind blew at a steady 14-18 knots coming from the west direction and provided the much needed fuel to begin today’s contest. As early as 8:00 in the morning, the wind showed signs of staying for the day even though it
slightly subsided while the boarder course racing course was being set but nevertheless, the wind strength was still enough to hold a competition. The boarder cross competition kicked off in the morning after the mandatory
skippers meeting with light winds for the first few rounds.
Boardercross
The Boardercross competition is a single elimination format. But there are
required tricks that every rider should perform per race so it was important
to finish every race as no one knew who may or may not have performed the
tricks properly. A zigzag course including a double spin move (720
rotation), a sausage jump (floating long obstacle to jump over) and a double
sausage jump with a board grab are some of the tricks that every competitor
should hurdle to finish. There were plenty of areas on the course where
riders could mess up and be penalized a place (if a rider was not able to
perform the required tricks, he or she would be penalized one position and
only the top two competitors of each heat would advance.) There were as many
as six competitors per race.
The Boardercross competition was won by Sky Solbach (North, U.S.) and
Germany’s Kristin Boese (Best). The game was concluded at 12:30 pm which
by that time, the wind started to show some building strength. Everyone at
the event site had a one-hour break after the boarder cross to allow the
competitors to have some lunch and get ready for the freestyle final rounds.
Freestyle
The Freestyle event started underway at exactly 2:00 pm as planned. Julian
Hosp (Rodwy, Austria) and Christophe Tack (Slingshot, Belgium) had the
honors of opening up the day’s freestyle game in heat #18a but Hosp was
disqualified for sailing into tack. In the 19th heat, Mario Rodwald (Carved,
Germany) was also disqualified after crashing his kite into fellow German
Kim Albrecht (North) who was competing against Spain’s Alex Pastor (Naish)
in the same heat which Pastor won after a re-run.
In heat #21, Rocky Chatwell (Crazyfly, US) had a close heat against Bas
Koole (Best) of Netherlands. Both riders performed technical and powered
tricks but Chatwell won with a few switch variations. Also more notable in
the day’s competition came courtesy of heat #23 between Pastor and Russian
Petr Tyuskevich (Cabrinha). The heat was also closely-contested but the
Russian kiteboarding champ eventually won with switch varieties including a
regular to switched front mobe although both riders did land powered moves
and super technical tricks.
In heat #24, Marc Jacobs (North, New Zealand) got schooled by higher ranked
team De La Villemarque. Finding some form, the French champ won with more
technical tricks to beat Jacob’s variety of moves and slightly more
powered riding. The cleaner landings and more technical moves of De La
Villemarque was enough to bring him home and into the next round. Also, some
notable matches of the games were in heat #26, first between Mikael Blomvall
(JN-Kites, Sweden) and Michael Schitzhofer (Naish, Austria) who both battled
it out in a very close heat with both riders performing superb regular to
switch moves. But for this heat, it would be Blomvall moving into the next
round, riding with more power. Then in the second round, Tyuskevich beat
Leander Vyvey (JN-Kites, Belgium) with cleaner landings and more powered
moves. Vyvey went for the big moves such as kiteloop double back mobe and
double s-bend to blind with aerial handle pass but came unstuck on a few
landings.
Meanwhile, after two interesting matches, Alberto Rondina (Cabrinha, Italy)
went up against Chatwell who was definitely on fire the whole day winning
four out of five matches. Chatwell clearly dominated the round, ending
Rondina’s run with more powered moves and technical variety. Then shortly,
Blomvall went into the waters to go up against Portugal’s Rui Meira
(Naish) in a closely-contested heat. Both riders were matched for power and
technical difficulties but Meira, who went for a front mobe to blind plus
with generally smoother and faster moves won the game for him.
Ruben Lenten (Slingshot) of Netherlands was also fired up for the day
(mainly due to the several days of wind delay, most of the guys out here
were all pumped up for some action.) Lenten took on the Russian male model
body builder stomping some huge and powered moves. He stole the show and won
the heat with his usual repertoire of tricks including a mobe, slim, a
massive kiteloop 540, KGB, blind judge with aerial handle pass and sent
front mobe. These tricks proved too much for Tyuskevich’s front mobe, KGB,
mobe and low kiteloop with aerial handle pass and slim.
In a 5-0 decision, the well-rested Randy Hereman (F-One, Netherlands) ended
De La Villemarque’s run for the podium. Riding with renewed vigor and
regaining confidence from last winter’s knee injury, the F-One rider
landed a regular to switched mobe, regular to switched slim, back to blind
air pass, and a 313, displaying more power and speed. North rider De La
Villemarque on the other hand nailed a regular to switched blind judge, a
regular to switched mobe, a front mobe, slim and KGB.
Heat #30 was also a closely-fought battle but ended up in a 4-1 judges
decision between Rui Meira (Nais, Portugal) and Lenten. The Portuguese
kiteboarding star rode more powered and fast like Lenten but Meira had the
edge of performing two regular to switch moves. Although they were not
perfectly executed, the added technical difficulty gave him the edge. In the
second round of the same heat, the all-fired up Chatwell met Hereman and
battled fiercely. Hereman rode more powered with greater height in moves
plus the added bonus of switch moves. He nailed a regular to switched mobe,
front mobe, slim, 313 540, back to blind airpass and a front mobe to blind
in the last minute to seal the win and have a chance at the podium. On the
other hand, Chatwell landed a regular to switched mobe, KGB, kiteloop slim
and front mobe.
There was not much action though in the women’s event, at least not until
heat #14 courtesy of Jalou Langeree (Naish, Netherlands) and Angela Peral
(North, Spain) who had a nice old tussle. Both women riders landing downloop
to blind and raley to blind. Langeree had the chance to do a technical trick
courtesy of a vulcan to surface pass and krypt to surface pass which
eventually won her the heat. The Naish girls, Karolina Winkowska (Poland)
and Nina Schumacher (Germany) battled it out in the same heat with Winkowska
smoking the German rider with a blind judge, raley to blind and front to
blind. Schumacher landed a big kiteloop-backloop but didn’t even come
close.
Tomorrow’s mandatory skippers meeting is scheduled at 9:30 am with first
possible start at 10:00am with the Freestyle finals kicking off the day and
then race organizers are planning to have a few more course races to
conclude the day’s event by 3:00 pm.