FREESTYLE Classix 2009 - a comeback of the classic freestyleA short explanation of a new concept in Freestyle windsurfing - the rebirth of the classic freestyle in an event called Freestyle Classix. Continentseven met Gerhard Polak, the owner of the event agency DMG to get the latest updates concerning a new Freestyle format, which will be integrated in the upcoming EFPT tour 2009.
The development of professional Freestyle
The freestyle moves (now called "classic moves") were at the beginning, when Josh Stone, Ian Boyd, Kevin Pritchard, Robby Naish, Bjoern Dunkerbeck and many other Pros introduced a new discipline of windsurfing "Freestyle", predominantly on lakes. The fleets were filled up by local heros, who fought as well for the titles. Alex Humpel, Michi Schweiger, Ossi Krupitz and many more were defenitely big names these days.
Big events got established, like the KOTL (King of the lake), or the Windsurfworlcup at Lake Neusiedler in Podersdorf, Austria. New moves came up. The Airjibe or the Spock were born. Well known moves like the Duck Jibe, the Bodydrag, the Cheese Roll, the Spinloop or the Carving 360° got developed to another level. Freestyle windsurfing saw a revolution. Printmedia, videoproductions and websites integrateded this part of the windsurfing sport by a high percentage inside the products.
Young kids came into the sport. Diony Guadagnino, Ricardo Campello, the Frans Brothers Tonky and Taty, Cheo Diaz and Alexis Zabala from El Yaque. Nowadays Kiri Thode, Antxon Oetagui or Gollito Estredo dominate the sport. The well known heros left the stage. Josh Stone got replaced by Ricardo Campello. Antoine Albeau and Matt Pritchard were the last PWA worldchampions, who could win titles in front of the newschool armada. In the meantime Freestylewindsurfing got very popular at the lakes and flat water spots. Freestyle windsurfing camps for the public were started.
But after 5 - 7 years of training and revolution the Freestyle windsurfing developed into a very extreme sport. Many moves only get sailed in switch stance positions. The public and even judges had problems to realize what´s´going on out there on the water.
Colin Sifferlen, a real young blood, introduced this era by winning the last King of the Lake in 2002. Even 17 years old he opened the door into newschool freestyle, a very young windsurfing culture, which exploded while the years. Nowadays more than 100 moves and combinations are existing.
In 2003 the EFPT (European Freestyle Protour) has been established. Gerhard Polak created a tour based on ideas of Alex Humpel and some other riders. With his eventagency DMG and his swiss partner Christian Müller from the agency Positive Lines he created the EFPT. Each of them were 50% of the EFPT. In the first season the tour saw 4 eventstops in Podersdorf (Austria), at Lake Silvaplana (Switzerland), in Weiden (Austria) and in Premantura (Croatia). Parallel to the Worldtour Events of the PWA the Europeans saw high level events, which gave many riders the chance to present themselve.
The PWA, founded back in 1982 called PBA, renewed their name to PWA in 1995. In 1997 a Freestyle promo event took place on the island of Fuerteventura. In Austria we saw the first PWA freestyleevent in May 1998, which has been won by Matt Pritchard. All these contest formats got initiated by Alex Humpel and Flo Grähl back in August 1996, when the first King of the Lake event happened at Lake Garda. 48 riders sailed for 10000 German Mark, around 5000 €, of pricemoney. It was a relaxed competition with "a lot of spirit, soul, friendship and hot action". And it was the right moment to create this kind of contest. The Willy Sipper has been invented 3 years ago already by Dave Kalama on Maui, back in 1993. And remember: Robby Naish already performed in 1981 with a super short freestyler at Lake Garda, Torbole. With a 2,07 m long and 60 cm wide board, which had only 7kg, he already performed WDonkey Kicks", the 18 years old hero from Maui explained. Also we should not forget about events on the River Gorge, which nowadays can be seen as forerunners of the freestyle events.
The new Freestyle windsurfing discipline, most of the moves are initiated with drive in planning conditions, exists for about 12 years now and saw already a lot of excellent competitions.
The positive regulations of the PWA - the best move format
The level in skills arised a lot, especially within the last 4 to 5 years. Newschool freestyle has been developed by a bunch of great sailors: Ricardo Campello, Kauli Seadi, the Bonaire Gang with Kiri Thode in front, Marcilio Browne, Gollito Estredo and Cheo Diaz. But the public had problems to understand the moves or see a lot of differences. Too many moves looked very similar!
Just the top freestylers and freestyle experts are able to follow the developments nowadays. The PWA decided to enter a new competition format in the beginning of 2008. The best move format regulated the enormous amount of moves while a single heat down to a certain number of tricks on each tack. But that´s great to see how far a sport can be developed. Freestyle windsurfing went on the tracks of snowboarding, freestyle skiing, skateboarding, bmx or surfing. Young, radical and new school oriented. Most of the tricks get sticked very save with excellent landings and high technical quality.
But still there are a lot of sailors, who see freestyle as a classic discipline, less new school oriented. Moves like Airjibes, Carving 360ties, Duck Jibes or Spinloops are still radical.
Freestyle Classix -a new format for 2009
Gerhard Polak, Austrian eventorganizer, head of the eventagency DMG and co-founder of the EFPT came up with a new idea in the foggy days of November 2008: "It´s time for a rebirth of the classic elements, a little revolution and a comeback of the "Classic moves" into freestyle. It could look like an aggressive freeriding, but contain certain classic moves mixed up with the basics of freestyle. I will call it "Freestyle Classix".
Seperated into 3 groups - riding, airs & rotation - the moves get defined and a complete show out of all three groups makes the winner. The overall impression and equal distribution of the moves out of each category will count.
Definitely this should not be a "NO" to the high level newschool freestyle, which gets shown at the highest level events of the PWA or EFPT or even at national championships. The sick moves must stay alive and kept in the repertoire of each top freestyler. But integrating Classic events in the whole system could restate the chance to attract more people for this sport again.
Austrian Gerhard Polak explained: "I am going to create with "Freestyle Classix" a second product. The eventorganisers can choose, which product he wants. They have two opportunities: on the one hand they can decide for a "New School" contest, on the other hand they can go for the "Freestyle classix" format. Results and points in both eventformats will be counted for the final EFPT title in 2009."
This will become a format, which gets realized at the spring EFPT event on Lake Neusiedler, 29th April till 3rd May 2009. Big names alreday have confirmed their participation. Freestyle Classix could become a big freestyle show with the best windsurfers of the past 10 years competing versus the new school pro riders of 2009 with even odds.
Gerhard Polak, the event organiser of the Austrian EFPT tourstop and supporting manager for many other events, plans to run a double elimination with a 48 fleet. The 24 top ranked riders of the 2008 EFPT overall result are qualified. 24 wildcards will be given to other sailors, predominantly to big names from former times.
Polak explains his decision: "Freestyle Classix should become a big freestyle show with personalities of the windsurf sport inside the starting fleet and perhaps in the end on the podium. The target is to bring the best windsurfers of the past into an event format, which transports “fun, surf style and beach life” to the spectators.
It´s not a masters tour! We just freeze the level in freestyle -so that the masters and the youngsters can achieve the necessary level within a short time. Style will be more important than just doing tricks."
Here is a link: Continentsevenblog
Here is a list of the moves, which will be on the list for the competition in Podersdorf 2009. The Classic Movelist 2009