The first PWA freestyle event 2019 kicked off in Bonaire in April. The PWA confirmed their reduced men’s fleet of 32 riders and the cooperation between the PWA & EFPT. The PWA will run three freestyle events for men and two for women. The EFPT will run 4 freestyle events for men, 3 tow-in competitions, one ladies freestyle event and 2 junior freestyle events.
The PWA & EFPT cooperation continues in 2019
In 2018 the Freestyle Qualifying Series (FQS) was established by the EFPT and the PWA to unite the freestyle windsurfing circuit and to create a more comprehensive and professional format.
For 2019 the men’s PWA freestyle fleet will be reduced to a 32 sailors fleet from the prior 48-man, which will allow the contest to be switched to two-men heats earlier, or if the forecast is suitable then the whole competition may be run man-on-man, which will lead to a much more immersive viewing experience – particularly when paired with the live scoring.
Who Qualifies?
The top 20 sailors from the 2018 PWA Freestyle World Tour have a guaranteed place at all 3 Freestyle World Cup events this season – Bonaire, Fuerteventura & Sylt. The remaining spots will be allocated through the EFPT Qualification (places 21 – 26), PWA wildcards which will be valid for the whole season and then organiser wildcards for each respective event.
The six qualified riders from the EFPT, who will compete on the entire 2019 PWA Freestyle World Tour are:
- Loick Spicher (Switzerland)
- Julian Wiemar (Germany)
- Adam Sims (UK)
- Julien Mas (France)
- Eliran Levi (Israel)
- Dudu Levi (Israel)
The 6 qualified EFPT riders 2019, who will compete on the 2019 PWA freestyle tour (Source: efpt.net)
The top 20 ranked PWA riders in the 2018 ranking have a guaranteed place. These are 23 riders in total.
As we had equal ranked sailors in 19th on the PWA Tour last year, most of the PWA wildcards will be allocated to them, with the last one remaining to go to Taty due to his injury the previous year. Rich Page
There is still one local organiser wildcard and one for the National Association of the host nation, but other than these, there will not normally be any additional wildcards allocated by the PWA at each event. In some cases, if one of the existing annual wildcard sailors is unable to attend an event, then there may be additional wildcard places available, so sailors are still encouraged to apply, but please be aware that there will not necessarily be any wildcards available through PWA. PWA
Freestyle Qualifying Series events (FQS) on the EFPT in 2019
Also for 2019, the EFPT events with € 10.000 prize-money or more will count as qualifying events (FQS Qualifiers) for the next years PWA Tour:
“All freestylers who do not qualify or who are looking to join the PWA tour for the first time should be aware now that they have to qualify through the EFPT. To qualify for 2020, the qualifying ranking will be taken from the best 4 results from 2019 EFPT events of €10,000 prize money or over, which will go to make up the FQS (freestylequalifyingseries) ranking.” PWA
- Costa Brava
- Vieste, Gargano
- Lanzarote
- Brouwersdam
Sources: PWAworldtour 2019, EFPT 2019
