EFPT Croatia 2016

The second year in a row Martini Croatia put up the funds to support the Surf Centar Perna with organizing a stage of the European Freestyle Pro Tour. A small but fine fleet of ten sailors signed up for the second stage of the EFPT on the beautiful peninsula of Peljesac from August 4 – 7.

The view from Peljesac to Korcula, when the strong Bora wind is on.

The Tow-In session on day 2

During the first days the wind was too light for any windsurfing competitions. So a tow-in competition was organized. In case of no wind throughout the whole event, the organizer agreed on putting 2.000€ towards the tow-in to guarantee an official result that will also be counted into the EFPT tow-in overall ranking 2016. Eight riders signed up to battle it out for the highest scores. Each competitor got three runs with the best one counting. Judging was based on style and technical difficulty and race director Tom Hartmann himself drove the powerful boat that was towing the riders at a speed of up to 60 km/h. French freestyler Adrien Bosson performed at the highest level beating the seven other contenders.

1. Adrien Bosson
2. Antoine Albert
3. Steven Van Broeckhoven

The freestyle windsurfing event

On day 3 heavy weather produced wind up to 36+ knots, which was too gusty in the heat area and accompanied by a lot of lightnings. It was impossible to start any fair competition. All hopes were on the final day. And the forecast was right! The promised wind showed up during teh morning hours. On day 4 the waiting finally paid off. The heat duration was set for seven minutes with the best three moves counting on each tack. The conditions were quite tricky with super strong yet gusty wind and the sailors were overpowered on their 4.4m sails in the first heats of the day. With a big heat area and perfectly flat water the pros could still perform on a really high level though.

One of the first heats on the water saw Johnny Yagen from Israel competing against Antoine Albert from New Caledonia. Already in Lanzarote Johnny Yagen proved to be a sailor to watch out for in the future. Although the young Israeli with Canadian roots put together a decent heat he couldn’t take down the more experienced New Caledonian competitor.

Adrien Bosson with a great performance at Perna

Adrien Bosson who is hunting the European Freestyle Pro Tour Champion title was showing a great performance on both tacks in the patchy wind. He was going for Skopus, Burner, Culos, Konos as well as powerful Shakas and Shove-it Spocks in most of his heats and managed to advance over local sailor Matko Jovanovic as well as Antoine Albert in the semi-final to then face current leader of the tour Steven Van Broeckhoven in the winners final. Once again the Frenchie and Belgium rider were battling it out – just like in the EFPT event on Lanzarote earlier this summer.

Steven Van Broeckhoven proved to be a force of his own in the changing conditions. He was powering through double maneuvres with great style and pop like Shaka-Flakas, one handed Air-Funnell Funnells and even a Future 360. He took down young up and coming freestyle talent from Naxos, Greece Lennart Neubauer and Riccardo Marca from Italy in the next round to meet Adrien Bosson in the final.

Steven van Broeckhoven on form in Peljesac, Croatia

Riccardo Marca on his side of the draw was sailing against Rafael De Windt from Curacao. Unfortunately the Italian broke his mast going through a Kono. Team-mate Adrien Bosson showed some great teamwork and sailed his own equippment out to Riccardo Marca who could then finish his heat and even succeeded over his opponent. In the following round Riccardo Marca lost to Steven Van Broeckhoven, but met Antoine Albert in the battle for third place. Due to the lighter wind in the last heats the duration had been extended to 10 minutes. The gusts got more rare and both riders were giving it all on their 5.2s and big boards. Whilst Albert was going for a Ponch, Culos and both tacks, a Spin Loop and an Air-Funnell,Riccardo Marca answered with a Flaka, a Shaka and Culos on starboard and port tack as well as a Burner and a Funnell. In the end the New Caledonian rider won by a 4:1 decision.

The top three riders at the EFPT event in Perna, Croatia

In the winners final the riders were mixing up new-school power moves like Culos and Burners as well as nice Shakas, Flakas and sliding moves like Lollypops and switch Chachos. In the end Steven Van Broeckhoven could take victory over the French Adrien Bosson.

The whole fleet was very motivated to go straight into the double, but the wind dropped more and more. After waiting for several hours, race director Tom Hartmann was calling the event off. One single elimination made the final result. The next EFPT tour stop will be the DAM-X event at Brouwersdam, October 12 – 16. Ladies and men will battle for 16.000 € prize money in the freestyle windsurfing and tow-in discipline.