EFE/EFPT Le Brusc 2012 – Tow-In event

Just as forecasted the southern shores of France didn’t see much wind on the third and fourth day of the competition. Accompanied by a lot of sunshine though, the organizers decided to run a tow-in session with the qualification on Monday and the final on Tuesday.

Tow-In show – Pic: Raffi Cherbedjian

Every rider had two runs and chose to get towed in from the right or the left side of the beach. A very well organised and experienced team on the boats managed to provide a perfect process of competition. Really impressing and quite surprising was the solid performance of young French sailor Romain Pinocheau. Pinocheau started freestyling only two years ago and circled two perfectly popped and dry landed double Funnells into the glassy waters of Le Brusc. This maneuver secured him the third place today! Julien Mas showed two high scoring moves but it was not enough to convince the judges for the first place. Therefor he ended up second, clearly disappointed but with a high motivation to strike back as soon as possible he was seen asking around for lifts to the UK event – CENTAUR King of the Wind.

Dieter van der Eyken – Pic: Raffi Cherbedjian

Furthermore, we saw sick action by Antoine Albert from New Caledonia. Albert was the only one who didn’t show Funnells or Burner combinations, but Switch Kono attempts! After he landed the first one perfectly, he went for a Skopu in the second run and almost nailed it! This was rewarded by the crowd and the judges and brought him a well deserved first place! The young rider jumped from his board in celebration and later was found smiling from ear to ear on the podium and stated how happy he was to win in an international competition for the first time!

©Text: EFPT/Hanna Poschinger