Junior Competition at El Medano

After the double eliminations were completed at the PWA World Cup Tenerife – seeing Daida Ruano Moreno and Philip Köster came out on top after producing a terrific display of sailing – the penultimate day of the PWA Tenerife World Cup saw the next generation of windsurfers take center stage as the junior’s contest took place. 4 juniors registered for the event supported by Godzilla Windsurfshop and the PWA race crew: Moritz Mauch, the winner of the kids competition in Pozo, Noah Vöcker Roche from Lanzarote, Julian Salmonn and Tim van Dam.

With winds of 25-35 knots and a sizable swell still rolling into El Cabezo head judge Duncan Coombs decided to run fourteen minute heats with two waves and two jumps to count – with the jumps needing to be different. The first heat saw Gran Canaria local Moritz Mauch versus German Julian Salmonn and the two sailors enjoyed a close heat. Mauch made the better of the waves as he linked powerful frontside hits with a taka, however with only one jump landed the seventeen year old was made to sweat on the decision, but thankfully for him he advanced into the winners’ final. Julian, who is from Frankfurt in Germany, is doing a student exchange year on Tenerife and is living his windsurfing dream at El Medano.

The second heat of the day saw a superb display of sailing from thirteen year old Noah Vöcker Roche as he landed a sick frontside aerial and later in his heat a clean backloop to earn eight points from the judges. 13 year old Tim van Dam also linked together a couple of good waves, but it wasn’t enough to defeat a strong sailing Noah Vocker Roche, who got trained by Klaas Voget during the Canary wave events.

THE WINNERS FINAL

In the winners’ final Moritz Mauch showed what he can really do, after a slightly disappointing display in the opening heat as he was crowned the juniors champion. The German opened with a fantastic planing Forward loop before also landing a big Pushloop within the opening couple of minutes. Noah Vocker Roche also took a big ramp as he rotated himself into a massive forward loop, but unfortunately after landing flat, the thirteen year old suffered a foot injury meaning that he had to retire from the final. The jet ski driver picked him up and Klaas Voget swam out in the middle of the bay picking his gear up. We wish Noah a fast recovery and hope to see him back on the water soon again.

Through the remainder of the heat Moritz Mauch demonstrated, why he made it through the trials in the main men competition. With some brilliant frontside riding and super smooth Takas as well as almost landing an amazing Air Taka he collected big points on the score sheet. And he took a lot of risk milking the waves almost down to the bunker during the high tide conditions. “I was really happy with my sailing today despite I feel not 100% fit. My wrist still hurts and I have strong sore throat. Now it’s time to relax a bit!”

Julian Salmonn was able to beat 13 year old Tim van Dam and made it on the podium in his first competition. “It was my first competition and I really enjoyed it! My big idols are , no doubt, Philip Köster, who sails on a new level, Dany Bruch and Adam Lewis. Now I am motivated to train even harder to compete in other competitions as well. Perhaps in the kids competition at Pozo next season.”

Result Juniors competition El Cabezo 2013: