European Tow-In Championship 2013 – Qualification Round 1 & 2

In the first round of the competition we’ve seen some impressive stuff from the Caribbean top freestyler Tonky Frans who stuck a burner 720 with some serious height. Even an amateur could see that this would guarantee him a place in the final, which will be held on the 30th of April. With 49,5 out of 60 points he had the highest score from the first fleet. Also as impressive as expected was Julien Mas (Sailloft) from France who has done some serious training in tow-in, which has clearly paid off. A super clean double air funnel with the second pop being even higher than the first one brought him 49 points. Björn Saragoza another Caribbean top rider impressed with a high double funnel and scored 45,5 points. 

After a break of two hours race director Tom Hartmann sent the second fleet of riders out on the water.

Just before the first rider Matthias Kraschitzer (Naish/Naish) got towed the wind started to pick up and made the circumstances a little more difficult. Yet the riders remained professional from head to toe and coped well with the unusual conditions. The great thing about this was that the riders had the chance to show more ‘real’ wind-related moves like Shakas, Bobs and even Konos. Dieter Van der Eyken showed a good Burner in the first round and a very clean and powerful one in the second run which brought him 43 points and the third place. After a rather disappointing first run from Taty Frans, the Bonairean rider changed his 4.8 down to his 4.4 and stuck a massive burner into funnel, which he entered at perhaps the highest speed of the day; 44 points and second place for him. 

Already at his first Gollito Estredo landed the most amazing burner completely upright and even came out of it with a good speed. With 47,5 points he had the second highest score of the day and secured his place for the final. 

Tomorrow will be the third and last qualification round, before the final will take place on Tuesday evening. 

© Hanna Poschinger, EFPT