updated 29.08.2020

COVID-19 UPDATE #6 Cancellation EFPT DAM-X

The DAM-X 2020 eventually needed to be cancelled. This year had been a challenging one for businesses and organizations all around the globe and the EFPT had unfortunately not been an exception. The organizer in Brouwersdam doesn’t see a possibility in making a safe event happen and fulfill their high standards as a windsurfing destination and event location. With a lot of restrictions still being valid in the Netherlands and with a very vague outlook on what’s going to happen within the next weeks, the DAM-X had been postponed to 2021.

Dam X 2020 Canceled

COVID-19 UPDATE #5 – EFPT Lanzarote 2020 and Spiaggia Lunga in Italy are postponed to 2021

After many weeks of uncertainties about the development of the general situation concerning COVID-19 worldwide, the decision to postpone both the EFPT Lanzarote 2020 and the EFPT Spiaggia Lunga in Italy to 2021 had to be done. The team of organization of both events remained positive until the end to be able to stage the EFPT this year. Local restrictions and economical problems led to the final conclusion, that hosting events of that scale won’t be possible in either case.

The government of the Canary Islands extended the event-ban until October due to the insecurities concerning the spread of the Corona virus and its development within the upcoming months. Local organizer Antxon Otaegui from Lanzarote is keen to run an online EFPT contest, which would be the first of its kind. The exact outlines and possibilities of it are still under negotiation, but more information will follow as soon as there is an agreement.

The next EFPT event will be the tow-in only show at the Vanora Engadinwind by Dakine 2020, happening from the 20th – 23rd of August with confirmed riders like Amado Vrieswijk, Yentel Caers, Steven Van Broeckhoven and many more.

Negotiations about the possibility to run an EFPT event at the DAM-X 2020 are still underway and both sides are working on a solution to make it happen and be able to award the European Champion 2020.

 

COVID-19 UPDATE #4 – the Engadinwind is confirmed, the El Gouna event postponed to 2021 & further events are pending

Vanora Engadinwind by Dakine

EFPT: “We are happy to announce that the EFPT tow-in at the Vanora Engadinwind by Dakine 2020 at lake Silvaplana is officially confirmed! Permissions and fundings were secured and the organisation for the event with the most beautiful location is underway. It’s amazing to see the Engadinwind grow year by year and also this time, the organisation team around Christian Müller will not fail to impress. 
Apart from the EFPT tow-in, where every freestyle rider who wishes to compete may enter, the Engadinwind 2020 will stage the Formula Foil World Championship, the Foil Freestyle World Championship, the famous Engadin Surf and Kite Marathon as well as the 2020 IQ Foil European Championship, a discipline that we’ll also see in the Olympics in the future.
We are looking forward to return to the most impressive landscapes on tour and to crown the Kings and Queens of the mountain from the 20th – 23rd of August.”

The riders will battle for 3000 € in the “King of mountain tow-in competition” and there’s a further freestyle competition on the event schedule, the “MB Battle FOIL Freestyle World Championship” .

EFPT El Gouna

EFPT: “After monitoring the situation in Egypt due to the COVID-19 pandemic and checking back and forth with the organisation team on site, the decision has been made to postpone the event to 2021. Beaches in Egypt are currently only open for private purposes, the event-ban however is still upright with no profound changes in sight. The Element Watersports Center is looking forward to host the EFPT riders and crew next year, a definit date will follow within the next weeks.

The remaining tour calendar including the EFPT Lanzarote, the EFPT Spiaggia Lunga Vieste and the EFPT at the DAM-X in Brouwersdam will remain the same for now. The final decision if the events in Lanzarote and Italy can be staged in September 2020 will be made in the first week of July. The same applies for the final event in Holland, since the situation worldwide remains very unstable.”

Riccardo Marca with radical tow-in action at the Engadinwind (Photo by Emanuela Cauli/EFPT)

 

COVID-19 UPDATE #3 – EFPT LAS DUNAS COSTA BRAVA, SPAIN & Surf Worldcup Austria cancelled

May 8th, 2020

In the last couple of days some restrictions have been lifted in certain countries with the permission of participating individual sports, including windsurfing. Watersport enthusiasts in Europe sighed with relief, however travel bans and the prohibition to meet in bigger groups remain. These bans are of course not only highly affecting people personally and economically, but also affect the EFPT events of which a majority should have been staged in the first half of this year.

EFPT LAS DUNAS COSTA BRAVA , SPAIN CANCELLED

“After the EFPT event in Vieste, Italy has already been moved to September 2020 this year we now have to announce that also the EFPT at Costa Brava, Spain will have to be postponed. Since the organiser and sponsors need the event to happen early in the season and there isn’t the same value in it if they’d run it in late summer / autumn, the event has been moved to 2021 with the new dates being 8th to 13th of June 2021.” (EFPT management)

“Following the rules set by the Spanish government, and the Royal Spanish Sailing Federation, nautical events cannot be organized until June 30, 2020. This forces us to postpone the windsurfing and paddle surfing competitions, until the new edition in 2021. We appreciate your interest and support during the preparation of this SURF WEEK 2020 edition. We have one year to prepare the new edition, and continue to count on your trust to organize a high-flying event. Finally, we also thank Camping Las Dunas, European Freestyle Pro Tour, Euro Tour SUP and Fase Wind, for not having lost hope and working with interest, until the last minute, in this event. We will inform you of our progress in the coming months.” (statement of the organizer www.fasewind.com)

 

EFPT SURF WORLCUP NEUSIEDL AM SEE, AUSTRIA CANCELLED

The Austrian event at Neusiedl am See was cancelled already in March with an option to be running it in September. At the present day it doesn’t look like the permission and funding from local authorities can be received to stage the Surf Worldcup this autumn. Therefor the EFPT in Austria needs to be cancelled for this year.

For now, the rest of the events remain like originally scheduled. 5 events are on the calendar with the first possible start in El Gouna, Egypt on August 11th.

 

COVID-19 UPDATE #2 – Postponements in 2020

Update 24.04.2020: After closely monitoring the worldwide COVID-19 situation and checking back and forth with organisers, the logical decision has been made to re-schedule two of our June events to September.

The EFPT Vieste Spiaggia Lunga will be moved to the second or third week of September with the exact time period staying on TBA for now. A definite date will depend on the possibilities of running an EFPT event at the Surf Worldcup in Neusiedl am See, Austria which has also been postponed to September until further notice.

With the Canary Islands also being struck by the impact of the virus and the travel and safety restrictions resulting from it, the organiser of the EFPT Lanzarote decided to move the event from the original date in the end of June to the beginning of September. The new dates are already fixed and the tourism authority agreed to host the EFPT Lanzarote from the 2nd – 5th of September 2020.

The EFPT event in Lanzarote has been moved to September 2020

The first event of the season 2020 up to this day will therefor be the EFPT Las Dunas at the Costa Brava from the 16th – 21st of June. The organisers are still being optimistic about running it on the set date, a final decision however will be made after the 4th of May when the governement should release more precise guidelines.
The remaining events in Egypt and Switzerland are staying on track for now, the DAM-X 2020 remains on the TBC status. We will update you with further news as soon as we have them!

Still 7 events are in the EFPT calendar for 2020! And a total prize money of 67.000€.

Update 30.03.2020: As the COVID-19 situation is continuing to expand across the world, the extend of which people, businesses and the whole economic systems are affected, becomes more and more obvious. It has led to certain adaptations concerning the 2020 tour plan. The Fuerteventura event in Matas Blancas and the Denmark event in Hvide Sande are cancelled for 2020. 7 events are on the 2020 calendar still, but none of them are confirmed yet.

“We are in close contact with all of the organisers of this season and the feedback is mostly positiv, as organisers remain optimistic about being able to run their events at the schedulded dates. This of course will depend on the local and global lift of restrictions concerning gatherings as well as travelling. To meet this new challenging situation, organisers have been given the possibility to postpone their events to autumn 2020, where dates in September are the ones mostly requested. Unfortunately the circumstances led to two unavoidable and definite cancellations for this year.” (The EFPT Team)

 

Update 12.03.2020: The EFPT season opener, the Surf Worldcup 2020 in Neusiedl am See, is postponed due to the actual developments in the corona virus crisis in Austria.

“We are postponing the Surf World Cup 2020 until early September 2020 in view of the latest government decree in connection with the corona virus. For the first time in the history of the event, the Surf Worldcup will therefore take place in autumn and not in spring. An exact date will be announced after consultation with the municipality of Neusiedl am See and the province of Burgenland.” (Surf World Cup Neusiedler See event organization)

“We are very sorry to share the disappointing news, that the first EFPT stop of this season will have to be postponed to September 2020, due to the Austrian event and gathering restrictions, caused by COVID-19.The safety and health of everyone remains the highest priority and led that to this logical decision by the organiser. It is unclear in which form the European Tour will be staged at the Surf Worldcup this year, but we will share further informations as soon as we have them. Stay healthy!” (The EFPT Team)

Surf World Cup Lake Neusiedl postponement 2020 (Photo: Surf World Cup Neusiedler See)

On January 18, 2020 the European Freestyle Pro Tour (EFPT) released their 2020 calendar. It’s a big calendar with 9 tour stops: 8 freestyle windsurfing events in Spain, Italy, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Egypt, Denmark and the Netherlands and 1 tow-in event in Switzerland.

Once again the EFPT season will be opened at the end of April at the Surf Worldcup in Neusiedl am See in Austria with a €10.000,- freestyle windsurfing event and 3000 € tow-in event. The final agreement has been made and the organiser who is very keen to bring back Europes finest freestyler to this freestyle hotspot in Austria, after running a tow-in only show in 2019, has confirmed the event for 2020.

After a month break, the next event will be the EFPT Spiaggia Lunga event at Vieste in Italy from the 3rd – 6th of June. The event was a good success in 2019.

The third stop is going to be the EFPT Las Dunas event in Costa Brava – organised by Fase Wind from the 16th – 21st of June. The spot delivered some extreme windsurfing conditions in 2019 and took the riders to their limits, when they were competing on their smallest sails in wind gusting up to 50 knots. Just as the previous year, Costa Brava will host a EFPT pro and junior division. With € 15.000,- prize-money up for grabs and a flawless organisation, this event promises to be one of the highlights this year.

Over the summer the EFPT moves to the Canary islands, to Lanzarote & Fuerteventura with events for pros and juniors. Afterwards an event in Egypt is announced like in 2019. Let’s see if it will happen this year.  

Hvide Sande in Denmark, it’s well known for Slalom events – plans a freestyle event, too. In early September the popular ‚Waterz‘ Festival could be the place for Europe’s freestyle elite with a three star event. It still needs to be confirmed! 

Brouwersdam in the Netherlands again will host the final event for men and juniors in 2020. 

Positive news are: 7 of the 8 EFPT windsurfing freestyle events have a prize money of 10.000€ or more and will therefore be official PWA qualifying events.

A total prize money of 84.000€  (61.000 € in 2019, 86.000 € in 2018, 33.000 € in 2017, 18.000€ in 2016) will be distributed in 2020, what’s an increase compared to the 2019 season as long as the calendar stays like this. The EFPT again offers a great opportunity for juniors & pros (men only) to show their skills in freestyle events all around Europe.

 

The provisional EFPT tour calendar in 2020 (release day 18.01.2020, updated 08.05.2020)

  • Neusiedl, Lake Neusiedl, Austria: 30.04. -03.05.2020 –  freestyle windsurfing 10.000 €, tow-in 3000 € (cancelled due to the coronavirus (COVID-19))
  • Spiaggia Lunga, Vieste, Gargano, Italy: 03.06. – 07.06.2020 – freestyle men 10.000 € ((postponed due to the coronavirus to September 2020)
  • Costa Brava, Catalonia, Spain: 16.06.-21.06.2020 – freestyle men & juniors 15.000 € (cancelled due to the coronavirus (COVID-19))
  • Lanzarote, Costa Teguise: 24. – 27.06.2020 – freestyle men & juniors 10.000 € (pros only) (postponed due to the coronavirus)
  • Matas Blancas, Fuerteventura, Canary Islands: 29.06. – 02.07.2020 – freestyle men & juniors 10.000 € (pros only)
  • El Gouna, Egypt, 11.08. – 15.08.2020 – freestyle men 5000 € (cancelled due to the coronavirus (COVID-19))
  • Lake Silvaplana, Switzerland: 20.-23.08.2020 – freestyle tow-in 4000 € – CONFIRMED
  • Lanzarote, Costa Teguise: 2. – 5.09.2020 – freestyle men & juniors 10.000 € (pros only) (cancelled due to the coronavirus (COVID-19))
  • Spiaggia Lunga, Vieste, Gargano, Italy: second or third week of September – freestyle men 10.000 € (TBA) (cancelled due to the coronavirus (COVID-19))
  • Neusiedl, Lake Neusiedl, Austria: September 2020 (cancelled due to) –  freestyle windsurfing 10.000 €, tow-in 3000 € (cancelled due to the lack of permission and funding from local authorities)
  • Hvide Sande, Denmark: 08.-12.09.2020 – freestyle men 10.000 € (TBC) (cancelled due to the lack of fundings)
  • Brouwersdam, Netherlands: 08.10. – 11.10.2020 – freestyle men & juniors 10.000 € (cancelled due to the coronavirus (COVID-19))

 

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