Gran Canaria Wind & Waves Festival is finished. Victor Fernandez won the men’s division, Daida Moreno the women’s and Marc Pare the kid’s division. 

The last day at Pozo Izquierdo (Gran Canaria) definitely delivered the best conditions of the entire event week. Wind up to 40 knots and waves which allowed moves off the lip and some wave rides. We saw big jumps, many double Forwards and a happy Daida Ruano Moreno and Victor Fernandez at the end of the day. They both won the event after a few years without victories at Pozo. 

 

Don’t miss to watch the video from the final day of competition: VIDEO DAY 7

 

SLIDE SHOW

 

 

THE WOMEN

Daida was beating her twin sister Iballa in the winners final early in the morning around 9.30 am. The heats had a duration of 14 minutes, 2 jumps and one wave ride counting. Daida nailed a stalled Forward and scored big because of a more aggressive wave riding compared to Iballa, who had her best wave just at the end of the final. This time Daida was better and took the win at Pozo. In the little final for place 3 was close. German windsurfer Steffi Wahl fought down Dutch Amanda Beenen, who made it in the top four for her very first time in her career. Steffi sailed much more consistent during this heat, landed jumps well and had the better wave rides. Amanda risked a lot and crashed a lot, what cost her important points in the end.

The Moreno Twins are still dominating this discipline and the other girls have a hard time to get to their level.

 

THE MEN

In the men’s division there were a lot more heats to finish. 24 heats had to be done on the final day of the event. Just once a heat got cancelled, due to too small waves. In total the competition ran from 9:10 till 17:10 without any breaks. A normal working day in the office, isn’t it?

In conclusion you can say, the level in the men’s wave division is really high and very close, which makes the competition very exciting and difficult to judge. Many heats were really close and were decided by just 0,… points or had even the same points, like the heat Ricardo Campello vs. Philip Köster with 24,88 points. Ricardo got the advantage because of the higher score in wave rides.  We’d say this was one of the major upsets of the day. 

 

Ricardo Campello, although he had 11 stitches on his foot, was fighting for a place on the podium. He had probably his best heat of the competition facing Philip Köster, but he was not able to challenge Victor Fernandez in the winners final. Victor Fernandez sailed a very smart heat and Ricardo was not able to show good wave riding. Victor Fernandez: “When we arrived at 7am this morning I think everyone was low on motivation looking at the conditions, but when I looked to my caddy we both agreed that I should go out on the water. After I did a few rides and jumps I think Duncan decided to start. We started with Klaas and Kenneth and I think it was good idea to start because after that we basically didn’t stop. I was really happy with my wave riding in the final, I think this was the best I did all day. I think my best jump was in the semifinal against Brawzinho with my double forward and also one-handed, one-footed backloop. I had to push myself to the limit in every heat, but I’m  just delighted to win the first event of the year.”

 

The points of both were really close in the end, just 0.25 in between Victor and Ricardo. The Spaniard won with 23.75 points against 23.50 points on Ricardo’s sheet. For us it was a little surprise, that Victor and Ricardo made it into the winners final. We more thought that Brawzinho and Philip would make it into the winners final. But this competition has shown that the levels of many top sailors are on similar levels and just the form and consistency in the specific heat made the difference.

 

Victor Fernandez was the most consistent rider, who landed several big moves like a fully planned Pushloop, perfect double Forwards or even Air Takas. Victor definitely deserved to win. He had  a lot of drive and mixed jumping and wave riding very well in his heats. Everyone could see that he was prepared very well for the competition – he spent more than a month on Gran Canaria already – and his gear worked well. He used the same board size and sail size the entire day in all his heats, the 81 Tri Wave and 4.2m Hero. Many other competitors changed their gear during the heats several times. Perhaps this was his little secret on that Sunday?

 

Ricardo Campello showed a lot of passion in his heats and risked a lot. He hit the ramps with a lot of speed and was able to gain a lot of height. Perhaps his moves were not landed extremely precise all the time, but he executed them radical in his well known “monkey style”. Ricardo definitely had an amazing comeback at Pozo after he left JP-Australia and NeilPryde and changed to Patrik/Point-7. It looks like his change paid off already at the first competition of the year. His shaper  and sponsor Patrik Diethelm gave him great support on the beach and shaped 12 boards for Pozo. “All of them work well”, Ricardo told us.

 

Marcilio Browne made it on the podium in third position, what is a great result. But when you watch him during a great heat, you are wondering, why he is not on top of the podium. His wave riding style, even in small onshore waves, is outstanding and unique. He landed perfect Goiters, fast rotated Frontside Wave 360s or very smooth Backside Wave 360s. He always tries to find waves to ride and invests a lot of energy in every single turn. Would be interesting to see him riding bigger waves at Pozo. Anyway, he definitely showed strong skills and will definitely fight for the world title again in 2014.

 

Jaeger Stone, who came all the way from Western Australia and qualified through the trials at Pozo Izquierdo, was really focused and won 4 heats including the trials heat. Then he lost to Ricardo and Marcilio. Against Ricardo he sailed strong, nailed extremely radical tweaked fully planned Pushloops and had good wave rides, but missed to land a double Forward. Jaeger is the only rider, who made it into the top 4  without nailing Double Forward Loops.

 

And what we are sure about is that Philip Köster, Alex Mussolini, Dany Bruch and a few others will fight back at the next wave event on Tenerife.

 

We have definitely had a great time. It was a great competition with a few upsets and a lot of crazy jumping action. The level on the water was extremely high. And we are sure the waves will return in 2015 during the Gran Canaria Wind & Waves Festival. Thanks to Iballa and Daida Moreno, the club and H10 Playa Meloneras Palace for having us at the event.

 

Overall Results PWA Gran Canaria Wind & Waves Festival – Women’s

 

1st Daida Moreno
2nd Iballa Moreno
3rd Steffi Wahl
4th Amanda Beenen
5th Caterina Stenta
5th Justyna Sniady
5th Carmen Afonso Martin
5th Alice Arutkin 

 

Overall Results PWA Gran Canaria Wind & Waves Festival – Men’s

 

1st Victor Fernandez
2nd Ricardo Campello
3rd Marcilio Browne
4th Jaeger Stone
5th Klaas Voget
5th Alessio Stillrich
5th John Skye
5th Philip Köster  

 

Overall result  juniors (3 full rounds)

1st Marc Paré Rico
2nd Loick Lesauvage
3rd Arthur Arutkin

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