A look back on the 2015 Gran Canaria Wind & Waves Festival, which took place from July 12 until July 18. After two years, with not ideal conditions, the event this year saw real highwind conditions and 2- 3 meter high waves in 2015. We took a closer look on the points of each heat, compared the scores in jumping and wave riding and tried to recap everything that had happened during the event.
1. Philip Köster rules at Pozo 2015
Philip Köster did not lose any of his heats, he had the highest heat score during the final in the double with 38,99 points, went for double Forwards off the lip during the supersession, which he won, too and tried the triple Forward Loop during the winners final of the single elimination. „There are no words for that kind of move. It’s actually really dangerous. Philip still had a strong headache two days after the attempt. I was worried about him. Ricardo and he are the guys, who are the strongest and who have the imagination about the Triple Forward the most. I am really happy that this happened at my home spot,“ said Daida Ruano Moreno (Ladies event winner, super session winner and event organizer).
Philip’s hardest opponent in the single elimination was reigning wave world champion Thomas Traversa in the semifinal. There were just 5.26 points difference in the overall score, but Philip defeated Thomas in wavering and jumping in the 45 knots of wind. In the final of the double elimination against Victor Fernandez Philip won by 6.12 points difference. Victor won the wave score by 0.99, but Philip dominated the jumping category with a point difference of 6,5 points.
Philip Köster – Pic by Dani Miguel
2. Daida Ruano Moreno with a great performance on and off the water
„I always try to do better. On and off the water. We have the same budget each year and have been organizing the event successfully for 4 years now. But for 2016 I really hope to get some more money sponsored by brands and have more action going on at the event. I will continue competing as long as I and Iballa have sponsorship deals, but at the moment we can’t complain.“
Daida was very strong during her heats. She won each single heat and had the highest heat score with 33.12 points during the second round in the single elimination. Her hardest opponent was her twin sister Iballa, who struggles with an ankle injury and twisted her neck at the beginning of the final in the double elimination during a hard Table Top Forward landing. She as well won the supersession with landing Table Top Forwards, one-handed Backloops and almost sailed away from a Double Forward (Video: Double Forward Loop by Daida). Daida: „I honestly can do much better landing Frontside Wave 360’s, Shakas or Takas, but I didn’t get it together on that 10 minutes heats. But I am really happy to be back after all that hard times, what I had with the surgery.“
Daida Moreno – Pic: Dani Miguel
3. Top Scores
Philip Köster had the highest score with 38.99 points in the final of the double elimination. Ricardo Campello had the second highest heat score with 36.00 points, which he earned for his first heat in the single elimination. Marcilio Browne came in third with a score of 33.62 points and Daida Ruano Moreno in 4th with 33.12 points (e.n. she was the only lady above 30 points for a single heat), followed by Iballa Moreno with 28.00 points. Victor Fernandez managed to get 32.17 points for his best heat and he was really consistent making it 6 times out of 7 sailed heats over 30 points.
Top jumping score
With an insane Pushloop Forward during the single elimination final Philip scored incredible 11.88 points, what was the highest score for a jump during the whole event. 12 points would have been the maximum amount of points in the category of jumps. The second best jump was as well from Philip, a Pushloop into Forward with 11.12 points. The third best jump was a Pushloop into Forward by Ricardo Campello with 10.75 points.
Top wave riding score
The highest score on a single wave was a 9.5 by Philip Köster, followed by Marcilio Browne, who scored 9 points for a single wave.
Judges – Pic: PWA/John Carter
4. Double Forward Loop Discussion
Nowadays we see different kind of Double Forward Loops: really wide ones, wild vertical rotated ones or really sideward (diagonal) rotated Doubles with a high technical approach. The points are reaching from 8 to 11. This caused a discussion among the riders and judges. Which Doubles should score higher?
Juan Aragon, PWA judge told us: “Some riders are amazing sailors, but in the second rotation of the Double Forward they touch the water with the top of the sail. The rotation should be a little bit more diagonal in my point of view. Not too vertical. Many sailors push for the stalled Double version, but they are not able to do proper doubles. They jump, but they are not in control. Riders with a freestyle background like Brawzinho, Ricardo or Victor or even Tonky or Amado can do amazing Double Forwards. They don’t even need a huge ramp and can do proper Doubles. I don’t want to see the top touching the water during the second rotation. I can understand the frustration of a few riders, that the judges did not score enough, but landing too vertical is not the proper technique we would like to see. And, yes there must be a difference in judging the different versions. There must be at least one point of difference, or 1.5 sometimes. I guess the judges did a good job, but we always have to improve in life. We are here to improve.”
5. Real high wind conditions in 2015
After two years, with not ideal conditions, the Pozo Wind & Waves Festival 2015 saw real highwind conditions and 2- 3 meter high waves in 2015. Especially during the first two event days the show was on. The PWA crew started early in between 7.30 and 8.30 am and Duncan Coombs managed to run the heats exactly at the right time of the day according the varying tides.
The wind picked up to 50 knots during day 1 in the single elimination. Most of the men were on 3.0m up to 3.7m. The ladies were using 3.0m and 3.3m sails most of the time and were extremely overpowered. Philip Köster had to use his 3,7m sail, which he barely uses.
Marcilio Browne – Pic: PWA/John Carter
6. Injuries
Despite the extreme conditions at Pozo, luckily nobody got heavy injuries. Eleazar Alonso crashed really hard during the local Pozo trials and had pain in his back. Ricardo Campello bruised a rip, just before his heat against Philip Köster in the single elimination. He fell into the water and the harness pushed against his rip. This gave the crazy Venezuelan a hard time during the competition and he still has pain. Local rider Dario Ojeda injured his triceps tendon during his first heat and he was not able to compete as usual. Philip Köster felt dizzy after his hard crash in the triple attempt .
In the ladies fleet Alice Arutkin felt dizzy after crashing a Pushloop really hard. Sarah-Quits gave here support directly at the beach. Sarah-Quita Offringa twisted her ankle, Iballa Moreno twisted her neck during a Forward Tabletop landing, same as Amanda Beenen, who twisted her neck in a Forward a day prior to the event start. Justyna Sniady stepped on sea urchins and Caro Weber got a strong eye infection due to the dust.
7. Kids rock at Pozo
„We need more kids competing in the future, but we are happy what we got right now,“ Duncan Coombs, PWA head judge, mentioned. This time 15 kids in the age from 12 to 17 were competing in the juniors wave competition, judged by the PWA crew. 3 different events were held for the juniors: a dingle wave competition, a jumping only contest and a contest for the under 14 kids.
The dingle wave event was won by the 16 year-old French talent Loick Lesauvage in front of Noah Vöcker-Roche, who lives on Lanzarote. 17 year-old jumping machine Marc Pare from Catalunya made it in third defeating Juliann Salmonn.
Then the organizers and the PWA ran a jumping only competition. Marc Pare showed everyone, who jumps best in the juniors group at the moment. He stalled huge Forwards and perfect Backloops. And it was no surprise that French newcomer Alexandre Grand-Guillot made it in second in the jumping discipline, who has great Backloops in his repertoire and stalled a huge Forward. The winner of the wave event Loick Lesauvage landed a big one-handed tweaked Pushloop and made it in third, followed by Noah Vocker Roche in 4th, who went for onefooted Backloops.
In the under 14s it was 12 year-old Marino Gil, who claimed top honours with a clean forward loop, whilst also coming extremely close to landing a massive tabletop forward. Gil has caught the eye over the course of the last week and looks an exciting prospect for the future.
Nicklas Herrera Pic: Dani Miguel
8. Team event
Additionally a team event was run. 5 teams, consisting of a pro man, a pro woman and one junior, were competing against each other. Each member of each team were given 7 minutes to show their best wave ride and best two jumps with the team accumulating the highest scores being crowned the winner.
In the end the victory went to team 5 consisting of Leon Jamaer, Iballa Moreno, Marc Pare. Robby Swift, Steffi Wahl, Loick Lesauvage finished in 2nd and the team consisting of Ricardo Campello, Sarah-Quita Offringa and Tim van Dam Sanchidrian made it in third.
9. Surprises, Comebacks & Upsets
Victor Fernandez had a strong comeback during the double elimination winning 6 heats in a row, but lost in the final against Köster. Alex Mussolini sailed a strong competition and made it into the final of the single elimination and showed really fluid wave rides. Alex told us: “Nobody was expecting Thomas Traversa and me to be in the top 5, but there were waves and we were able to compete against this Pushloop Forwards.” Dany Bruch returned in the top ranks, too with a third place in the single and a 4th overall. Thomas Traversa confirmed his good form with a 5th place at Pozo and Jaeger Stone showed that good wave sailing consists of radical riding and jumping, even at Pozo.
Some of the event favorites did not manage to finish in the top ranks: Ricardo Campello, the 2014 La Torche winner, got knocked out by his rip bruise and finished 7th, Marcilio Browne got 13th, half local John Skye finished in 17th or last year’s surprise Moritz Mauch finished 25th only. But the season just started and many of the riders will have a comeback at Tenerife.
In the ladies fleet the Moreno twins are the dominating riders. Sarah-Quita Offringa came much closer landing Pushloops and showing some nice turns. The Carribean lady from Aruba definitely surprised and finished in third. Steffi Wahl again showed great wave riding with a lot of style and finished in 4th. Dutch Amanda Beenen, who spent many months on Maui, stepped up in skills a lot, too and showed big landed air moves finishing in 5th.
Sarah-Quita Offringa – Pic: PWA/John Carter
10. Supersession in memory of Peter Volwater
The 2015 Gran Canaria Wind & Waves Festival was concluded with the RedBull Super Session – in memory of the late and great Peter Volwater. And again Philip Köster and Daida Moreno dominated the session. The announcement of the winners was very emotional, as Philip dedicated his victory to Peter Volwater. Afterwards a 30 minutes long video showing some of Peter’s best moments produced by Alfie Hart was played on the big screen in the tent.
The Pozo locals dominated the remaining places on the podium with Josep Pons claiming second and Alessio Stillrich finishing in third place.
Daida Moreno proved again that she is the best jumper in women’s windsurfing. The multiple-time world champion landed tabletop forwards and backloops, but then took things to another level by trying a Double Forward Loop. Had to waterstart, but she stayed in the footstraps. Iballa Moreno took home second place with a high tabletop forward, whilst Justyna Sniady completed the podium after rotating through a clean backloop.
One of our filming spots – Pic: PWA/John Carter
We really enjoyed being part of the 2015 Gran Canaria Wind & Waves Festival. The Canaries are one of our favourite travel destinations and we always love being in Pozo Izquierdo. Pozo IS windsurfing and it is great to see so many people loving the sport. A lot of good footage is on our hard drives, which we will upload during the upcoming months. Stay tuned and we are looking forward to our next trip to Pozo.
RESULT GRAN CANARIA WIND & WAVES FESTIVAL 2015
1st Daida Moreno
