A fleet of 30 riders registered for the event, a good mixture of top stars and newcomers in the ladder. Steven van Broeckhoven flew here from Bonaire, nearly the whole fleet from the Milos Beach Lefkada Freestyle Open came by ferry and 10 riders from Italy joined the competition. The day before the event saw Porto Liscia’s renowned sailing conditions. Strong, stable and all day lasting wind from the west, blew riders with sailsizes about 4.5, but during the event was no wind and the event ended with a Tow-In result.


TOW- IN SESSION At Friday 3rd June, the second day of the event, the notice board said „Qualification for the Samsung Tow-In Session at 4pm“. The race direction wrote 22 riders on the registration list, gave every one of them 2 tries, and called out 8 places for the final session on Saturday. Stam Promponas, Dieter van der Eyken, Mattia Fabrizi, Kenny Janssen, Luigi Maddedu, Adam Sims, Julien Mas and Steven van Broeckhoven qualified for the Samsung Tow-In Session. Mirella Jianu, marketing specialist at Samsung Italy, opened the final with race horn. 3 Belgian riders and one from France impressed the audience the most, and scored high on the judging sheets. Kenny Janssen slided a perfect Funnel, came dry back to the beach and ended up on 4th place. Steven van Broeckhoven had a good Air Funnel in the first round of the event and wanted to go for something new in the second round. He stood switch stance in the straps at the beach. The audience guessed if the Belgian would again go for the Matador he showed in the training session. The excitement went up even more when boat driver Mirko Braghieri waved his arms signalising that the boat went out of fuel. Local staff grabbed a jerrican, jumped into another boat and refueled the Tow-In engine on the water.

Steven van Broeckhoven getting pulled by the Jetski – Pic: Gianni Petta

Van Broeckhoven got ready again. The start in switch stance position was shaky. He obviously had spin-outs when the boat accelerated out of the curve. He dropped the rope on purpose, got a second attempt and threw off the biggest Air Funnel in this session. This move earned him the third place in the Samsung Tow-In Session. Dieter van der Eyken and Julien Mas were the only riders who could land a double move. Mas`s Air Funnel into Funnel set the pace in the first round of the session. Van der Eyken wrote a blank in the first round. Before his second run Mas claimed vociferously more speed. Van der Eyken just asked for the direction the boat should tow him in. The Belgian took the chance and popped into a one-handed Air Funnel into Funnel. It was his move against Mas Air Funnel into Funnel from round one. Both had good speed, striking height and came back to the beach dry. In the end it was the style of Julien Mas, who won the session, and put Dieter van der Eyken on the second place.

The winners of the Tow-In session

Result EFPT Samsung Tow-In session

  1. Julien Mas
  2. Dieter van der Eyken
  3. Steven van Broeckhoven
  4. Kenny Janssen

 

Special awards Youngest rider: Nicolas Slijk won a windsurf camp at El Yaque Best Italian  Tow-In rider: Gigi Maddedu won a Tablet PC Best wipe-out: Rick Jendrusch won a Smart Phone Fair Play award: Dieter van der Eyken was the first who jumped into the water to aid Fabrizi when the Italian twisted his knee in a training session. Dieter also gave a tutorial in the first Tow-In Session to all unexperienced riders and did not tire to assist the boat driver in the training session.

2nd in the Tow in Session and Fair Play award for Dieter van der Eyken – Pic: Gianni Petta

 

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