Today the PWA Wave Worldcup at El Cabezo on Tenerife began. In the morning 12 ladies and 43 men registered for the event. Although the forecast predicted very strong wind and a good wave size, the sailors were greeted with medium strong wind and some waves. We met local Alex Mussolini at the beach and he told us: “Yeah, it´s an excellent forecast, but I guess the waves will not get bigger and the wind will not get stronger during the next days. The wind is too much coming from the north.” At 13:45 the first men´s heat got started. The heats were 12 minutes long with 1 jump and 2 waves counting. 11 heats got sailed, before Duncan Coombs called the day off, due to the dropping wind.
Check out this little clip from the first day: registration, skippers meeting and eventsite
THE LADIE´S FLEET
On the entry list of the ladies are a few new names: Katie McAnana from Ireland and Julia Meijer from Holland. Amanda Beenen, who did not compete at Pozo this year, is also on the list at Tenerife. At the moment Amanda is living and working at Medano, so it´s the perfect world cup spot for her, no extra costs.
Justyna Sniady, who injured her foot while doing a Forward Loop at Pozo, is also on the event site watching the action at El Cabezo. It´s great to see her back at the beach still with the foot in a cast, but again with a smile.
THE MEN´S FLEET
In the men´s fleet we can spot a lot of new names: Ben Newson from Perth, Western Australia, who is recently on a trip through Europe. He already entered the PWA Slalom event at Costa Brava in June. Francesco Cappuzzo and Federico Infantino are starting for Italy. Infantino already took part at the this year´s Fuerte Wave Classic event in March. As well new on the list are Ismaele de Nuzzo from Spain, Fabrice Devos and Jonas Handekyn, both from Belgium, Per Schmitz from Germany.
The Single Elimination of the Men
Former worldchampion Scotty McKercher was on fire in both of his heats. He defeated local Valter Scotto in round one and Ross Williams in the second round. With solid waveriding and extremely vertical executed cutbacks McKercher collected a lot of points. Definitely one of the big surprises on day 1, that the Aussie was able to make it in the top 16. No one else of the 21 sailors in round one made it actually into the top 16 surviving two rounds, except Scotty. Well done Mr. McKercher! Probably the attendance of the whole Severneteam from Perth with Simon Hurrey and Ben Severne gave him extremely much confidence and the necessary motivation.
The young sailors like Arthur Arutkin from France, Moritz Mauch from Gran Canaria or 18 year-old Jonas Handekyn, Antoine Martin or Federico Infantino made it through round 1. As well Jonas Ceballos qualified for round 2.
Round 2 saw several surprises: like already mentioned before, Scott McKercher fought down Ross William. Martin Ten Hoeve, who had a great heat with solid wave riding earned a win against John Skye, who was also unlucky breaking his mast. And 20 year-old Pozo local Omar Sanchez claimed the victory against Marcilio Browne. mar jumped great and had a perfect waveselection with long rides. Marcilio jumped well, too, but missed it to collect enough points on his waverides.
Victor Fernandez, one of the favourites, landed a clean double Forward against Leon Jamaer, went for Goiters and solid waverides in heat 10. “I was on my 4,5m in my heat and felt a lot of power.”
Heat 11 saw nice conditions as well at the beginning. German Klaas Voget defeated local Adam Lewis at his homespot. He just nailed an excellent wave 360 in side onshore conditions.
While heat 11 the wind dropped. The following heat saw great local knowledge of Dany Bruch, who nailed a double Forward and had nice waveselection against Jonas Ceballos, who had a hard time to find the right waves to ride them. Phil Horrocks and Alessio Stillrich had a tight heat. Alessio scored big with Airmoves, but Horrocks had excellent waverides on the sheets of the judges and won against the young upcoming talent.
And Kauli Seadi was definitely on fire riding the waves with perfect rail to rail down the line style. It was just great to watch him and we have put him on the list of our top favourites for the eventtitle.
Some of the top names like Köster, Traversa or Campello had no heats or valid results today. Philip Köster impressed in a free session by landing incredible fast Takas, frontside Wave 360s or Backside Wave 360s.
The ladies were released during the afternoon and will probably see their first heats tomorrow. And let´s hope, that the epic conditions will show up tomorrow at the 2012 Planet Win 360 PWA World Cup. The skippersmeeting will be held tomorrow at 09.30 with a first possible start at 10.00.
© continentseven.com 2012
