10 Facts about the Fuerteventura Freestyle Worldcup 2016

A look back on the second PWA Freestyle event of the season at Sotavento on Fuerteventura. The conditions were great, escpecially in the beginning. High winds and ramps were the perfect ingredients for a great freestyle show. At the end Sarah-Quita Offringa won the event and secured her 9th PWA Freestyle world title and Amado Vrieswijk was able to win a PWA Freestyle World Cup for the first time in his career.

Amado Vrieswijk & Sarah-Quita Offringa win ©Continentseven

1. Young riders on top

Amado Vrieswijk (20) & Yentel Caers (21) battled for the event victory. Yentel Caers won the single elimination and Amado Vrieswijk showed a great performance in the double elimination and defeated Yentel twice. In the super final Amado was 44 points ahead of Yentel. Gollito Estredo managed to stay on the podium and kept off Dieter van der Eyken, who stormed through the double (he won 6 heats in a row).  Dieter forgot to do one move on the way in and opened the door for Gollito, who lost very close in his next heat to Amado with a difference of only 1.8 points. At the moment Amado leads the overall ranking, but Gollito and Yentel will try everything to make it on top at the final event on Sylt, Germany.

Amado Vrieswijk and Yentel Caers ©Continentseven

Yentel Caers already has some fans ©Continentseven

2. Top heat score men

It was 6 times Freestyle World Champion Gollito Estredo who scored highest with 145.2 points during the single elimination in a heat against Kiri Thode. Amado Vrieswijk managed to reach 137.2 points in the super final against Yentel Caers. In third came Steven van Broeckhoven with 131.6 points with a heat against Antony Ruenes in the double elimination. Yentel made it in 4th with 128 points in the single against Antony Ruenes. Dieter van der Eyken came in 5th with 126.8 points against Kiri in the double elimination.

Gollito Estredo at Fuerteventura ©Tom Brendt

3. Top heat score ladies

No discussion, Sarah-Quita Offringa dominates the ladies freestyle discipline. She had the highest scores with a top score of 97.2 points and an average of 82.13 points in 7  heats. Who came close? Maaike Huvermann is on her heels with a top score of 87.2points and Oda Johanne in third with 80.6 points. Arrianne Aukes managed to get a personal top score of 63.5 points. Maxime van Gent had a top score of 57.8 points, Yoli de Brendt 55.5 points and Olya Raskina got 50.3 points.

Sarah-Quita Offringa ©Tom Brendt

4. Girls power

13 ladies did participate in the Fuerteventura Freestyle event and the youngest competitior was Alexa Escherich with 14 years of age. The ladies showed a great performance and there were a few very close heats. More than once just one move made the difference between victory and defeat. The girls not only were competing for the event victory, but also for the PWA World title. Sarah-Quita Offringa won her 9th PWA title in the freestyle discipline, Maaike Huvermann won her first vice world title and Oda Johanne saved her place on the podium after recovering from a knee injury.

Top 3 women at Fuerteventura ©Continentseven

5. New heat area

The organizer René Egli and his team decided to move the heat area further downwind, which was a good decision. The wind blew until the shore and allowed Amado, Yentel, Gollito & Co to show their big moves close to the spectators. During the extreme high tide conditions the spectators sat on a safe tribune in the middle of the water and the riders came really close. That was massive show! For the riders it was a hard challenge to store spare kit as it drifted away when not having a caddy on spot.

Heat area Fuerteventura ©Continentseven

6. Live scoring updates & a smaller heat area

The PWA released an updated freestyle scoring list a few days prior to the event. Several half moves got added like Semi Bob, a Semi Funnell, a Semi Gozzada or a Semi Puneta, what gives riders with less skills the chance to collect points easier. The PWA as well went again for a smaller heat area (they already did that in Austria in May 2016), what makes sense as the action is now more concentrated.

7. Crazy & new moves

Steven van Broeckhoven landed a clean Shifty Shaka, Gollito a Spin Loop into Shaka for the first time in a competition, Dieter showed a huge Air Kabikuchi on the way out and Yentel landed extremely clean double moves. Some of these crazy moves received big points. A Shifty Shaka gets at least 9,5 points or a new move like the Spin Loop into Shaka gets 10,0 points.

Yentel Caers no handed ©John Carter

8. Good parties with a big concert from Gente de Zona

Fuerteventura isn’t just well known for the radical windsurfing action, it’s famous for the intense party nights in the Carpa (big tent). Despite a shrinked beach the organizers found some space for the equipment. Parts of the hill got removed to create more space for two huge tents, one for the gear and one for the party. And guess which tent was  bigger?

9. Surprises: Antony Ruenes, Steven van Broeckhoeven or Davy Scheffers are far away from their normal results

Steven van Broeckhoven for instance had incredible heats with very high scores and big moves, but lost to Kiri Thode in the second round of the single, what made it very hard to return through the double, where he lost again against Kiri. Everybody knows his skills and we are sure he, Antony, Davy and all the others will fight back on Sylt! By the way Davy Scheffers did a Double Forward Loop during one of his heats. Any more surprising results? Yes, Phil Soltysiak in 5th, Nico Akgazciyan in 6th (“I trained so hard, was a little bit off after the indoor event. I had so much work to do and wasn’t prepared for Austria”), Francesco Capuzzo, the Italian water man in 13th same as Jeremy Plüss.

10. Kills live scoring the variety and the spontaneity?

We saw some of the most incredible moves during this competition, like perfectly landed Shifties, Shifty Shakas or clean Air Chachos. But somehow we have the feeling that the news rules limit the best riders in their show. Gollito for instance easily can land two tricks on one run – he did it for fun, but just the first one got judged – and the riders will just show the moves, which get the most points. We still like the idea to judge the overall impression and not limit the amount of moves. Imagine, you hit the perfect ramp in your heat, but you aren’t allowed to go for it as you landed one move already on that tack? It is still called “free style”, isn’t it?

©continentseven.com 2016