With a storm predicted to cross Sylt during the night from Saturday to Sunday the wave riders geared up for the wave riding discipline at the
Windsurf World Cup Westerland/Sylt which resumed where it had been left 2 days earlier.
Kevin Mevissen (RRD) kicked off the action by delivering
Marcilio
Browne (Mistral, Gaastra) a killer blow. Mevissen, the underdog, played
a sensible game and racked up a solid base of jumps before pushing for
the more technical moves. Browne on the other hand, was punished for
attempting over elaborate manoeuvres in unsuitable conditions, and
ended up paying the ultimate price.
Continuing his rampage into
round three, Mevissen lined up
Vidar Jensen (North) in his sights.
Piecing together another comprehensive heat that had Jensen on the back
foot from the outset, Mevissen went on to prove he's a talent to be
taken seriously in waves, and deservedly reserved his position in the
last eight.
Round three also witnessed a classic battle of new
school versus old, when
Jonas Ceballos (Fanatic, Simmer, MFC) took on
Jason Polakow (JP, NeilPryde), and
John Skye (RRD, Naish, MFC) duelled
with
Nik Baker (Mistral, North).
The old guard proved to be
totally outgunned in the air, and had little reply to the tabletop
forward loops and tweaked pushloops Skye and Ceballos threw down.
However, wave riding proved to be a different state of affairs, as
Baker and Polakow tapped into their wealth of experience to dominate
that side of the score sheet. Unfortunately for them, the onshore
conditions heavily favoured jumping over riding, with very few peeling
waves to work with. On the final horn, the young guns emerged
victorious, having cast aside their older rivals.
Other big
names to exit in the third round were
Ricardo Campello (JP, NeilPryde,
MFC), who failed to match the truly inspirational wave riding of
Kauli Seadi.
Danny Bruch (Gaastra, MFC) fell by the way side courtesy of
Victor
Fernandez (Fanatic, Simmer, MFC), whose precision aerial manoeuvres
proved too much to contend with. And
Josh Angulo (MauiSails) also
struggled with the more jumping orientated conditions, departing the
elimination to local favorite,
Klaas Voget (Fanatic, NeilPryde, MFC).
After
several first round heats of the women's wave elimination were
completed, the wind and waves backed off, and competition shifted to
slalom, which picked up race four where it had left off on day seven.
The
remainder of round one, and two second round heats were completed
before the wind dropped so much that racers could no longer plane. As a
result, competition was forced to go back to playing the waiting game.
Promise
came late into the afternoon, when the wind swung cross shore and built
to a solid 25 knots. With the waves on the push, the women's wave fleet
took to the water to compete in far and away the best conditions seen
thus far.
Picking up the quarter finals of the elimination,
Anne-Marie Reichman (Naish) was unfortunate to come up against
Daida
Moreno (North), who savored the jump orientated conditions and
dispatched Reichman, bagging her a place in the semi final. Also advancing from that heat was
Nayra Alonso (Fanatic, Severne), who took down local sailor,
Steffi Wahl (F2, Gaastra).
The
second semi final saw
Junko Nagoshi (Tabou, Simmer, Dakine) overthrow
Karin Jaggi (F2, North) thanks to some powerful wave riding, and big
forward loops. Also,
Iballa Moreno (North) was handed a clear run to
the semi's, after
Silvia Alba Orozco (MFC) gave up sailing the heat
moments into it.
This produced an explosive semi final that
ultimately resulted in the Moreno twins reigning supreme in the full on
jumping conditions.
Back in the men's elimination, the moves
were going off. Mevissen had his run of form put to a halt by Seadi,
who relished the side shore conditions and opportunity to ride the
building waves down the line.
Fernandez chose to entertain the
crowds with double attempt after double attempt, eventually slaying
Julien Taboulet (F2, Naish).
Kevin Pritchard (Starboard, Gaastra, MFC,
Dakine) has his hopes of making the semi finals crushed by Voget, who
got some monumental hits during his riding. And Skye left the
elimination after Ceballos launched numerous tweaked moves to bolster
his solid wave rides.
The final heat of the day was a two man
match up, where Ceballos challenged Seadi in the semi finals. The clash
was a classy affair, but ultimately favoured Seadi, who was simply
untouchable in the side shore riding conditions, and had an aerial
arsenal to match. Seadi's victory marked a historic moment, as it
guaranteed him his third World Title, regardless of the outcome of
tomorrow's final.
Press release by
PWA / Andrew Buchanan
