Today the PWA Wave Worldcup Pozo Izquierdo on Gran Canaria began. The sailors were greeted with strong winds and waves. At 14:15 the first men´s heat got started and the girls got released for this first day of competition.
Annual group pic
If you don´t want to read everything, you can watch the resume of head judge Duncan Coombs about the first day
ROUND 1
Round 1 saw 14 sailors competing in 4 heats. One stand-out sailor in this first round was local sailor Jonas Ceballos, who landed a very nice Goiter and Wave 360°. The second sailor to mention is the German sailor Leon Jamaer, who landed a big Pushloop. The other riders advancing were Tuomo Naalisvaara from Finland, who sailed a very clean heat with active waverides, Eric Sanllehy from Catalunya, young French sailor Antoine Martin, German newcomer Michael Kleingarn and Polish wavesailor Robert Baldyga.
The conditions in the first rounds
ROUND 2
At 15.12 the second round got started and the best onshore waveriders fought to qualify for the top 16. In heat one of this round Dany Bruch already nailed a perfect and had nice waverides. Very impressive. No chance for Eric Sanllehy. The PWA wrote about Bruch: “Bruch looked in formidable form, both in the jumping and wave-riding department. He threw the first forward double loop of the competition as well as landing a one handed backloop and a super tweaked pushloop. To cap an already impressive performance he combined his brilliant jumping with shakas, taka’s and wave 360’s to deliver the best display so far.”
German Klaas Voget won against the Danish rider Christopher Frijs, who showed high stalled Forwards, but Klaas Voget milked the waves much better.
In the British duel between John Skye and Jamie Hancock, John obviously took advantage advantage of his local knowledge as he lives on Gran Canaria. With solid long waverides and very save Push- and Backloops he made it into the top 16. Ricardo Campello kicked out young Antoine Martin.
Marcilio while a Backside 360° (Pic: PWA/Carter).
Heat 11 saw a Marcilio Browne, who was on fire. He landed double Forwards, tweaked Pushloops, Takas and a Goiter and sent Tuomo Naalisvaara back to the beach, although the sailor from Finland showed great moves, as well.
The standout sailor of heat twelve was the former World Champion Victor Fernandez. The Spaniard landed the best double forward of the day (we already put it online) and showed solid wave rides including Wave 360°, Takas, etc. Jonas Ceballos had no chance against Victor.
The other matching riders were Ben Proffitt and Jules Denel. Jules Denel, who quit his Slalom career to focus 100% on wavesailing had excellent waverides and big jumps and came out on top. Ben Proffitt, who also does the live commentary for the live stream, did not have his best heat, but we are sure he will fight back in the Double.
Ross Williams and Peter Volwater – both of them compete on the Slalom tour as well – met in heat 13. Ross, who had the higher jumps and waverides with higher difficulty, won against Peter, who sailed on used Vandal sails,which he bought at a local windsurfing store. Peter looked a bit underpowered during his heat. On the same heat we saw a really hard fight in between former Wave Worldchampion Kauli Seadi and upcoming german Leon Jamaer. Kauli landed a Double Forward in the beginning of the heat, got more points for his waverides and therefore made it through against a really strong sailing Jamaer.
Kauli Seadi – Pic: PWA/John Carter
Thomas Traversa, who just recovered from a foot injury, sailed an aggressive heat against El Medano local Adam Lewis. Thomas, who is normally in favour of down the line conditions, seemed to like the side-onshore waves and defeated Adam, Adam, despite spending several minutes on the beach, to change his broken harness.
In the final heat of day 1 Vargas local and current Wave Worldchampion Philip Köster sailed against the Polish newcomer Robert Baldyga. Philip seemed to be nervous and crashed all his landings in the beginning of the heat; he used brand-new boards as well. But Philip changed to a bigger sail during the heat and moved on to show what he is really capable of. His best moment saw him rotate through a massive backside 360 before linking two Takas on an incredible wave ride. After this he started to find his stride and by the end of the heat he had his trademark double forwards added to the score sheet as well. Philip won the heat, but he was not happy. To win the competition, he definitely needs to step-up his performance as he has very strong contenders. After his heat he went for a little training session and he seemed to get the confidence back, landing some insane moves.
What´s about the Pozo locals?
The only one, who survived round 2 was Dario Ojeda ripping the waves with Takas and Backside 360ties. He now will meet Danish rider Kenneth Danielsen in round 3, who defeated Martin “Lampi” Ten Hoeve with intense waveriding and very save airmoves.
Dario, the best Pozo local so far (Pic: PWA/Carter).
All other locals missed it to qualify for round 3: Omar Sanchez, who landed insane Pushloops lost against a very strong sailing Robby Swift, who seems to be top fit after his foot injury. Jonas Ceballos lost against Victor Fernandez. Jonas had a not so perfect heat and Victor landed the Double Forward Loop of the day and made it clear, that he will give everything to win this elimination. Victor´s sailing looked extremely compact and the timing in jumping and waveriding was excellent. Young Alessio Stillrich landed big Pushloops, but was not able to show the same skills in the waveriding as he did in jumping. Alex Mussolini nailed big one footed Backloop and Tabletop Pushloops plus had great waverides. Just a bit too much for 17 years young Alessio, who is absolutely on the right way to make it to the top ranking soon. Big respect to Alessio. Eleazar Alonso lost against a great sailing Phil Horrocks. Phil dominated by landing big airmoves and riding waves with style. All other locals, Pijoan, Ramirez, Litterscheidt and Mauch didn´t make it through the first round.
We saw two hours and 15 minutes of excellent waveriding and jumping. Dani Bruch, Marcilio Browne and Victor Fernandez had probably shown the best performance of day 1. We met the Australian wave sailor Scott Mc Kercher on the beach and he gave us a statement about day 1.
The top 16 are ready to fight for the podium tomorrow. 4 riders from the UK, 3 from Germany, 3 from Spain,2 from France, 2 from Brazil, 1 from Denmark and 1 from Venezuela qualified for round 3.
The Skippersmeeting is scheduled for 9.00 and it looks like the competition will be continued straight after at 09.30 with heat 17 of the men or heat 1 of the ladies
Have a look on the heat board after day 1 here!!
