PWA Freestyle Bonaire – Day 2

Already in the first heat of the day we saw a surprise by Yegor who lost his heat against Jaeger Jonge although he sailed a nice heat with moves like Meev into Flaka, Shakas and nice switchstance moves both sides and it looked like he won the heat but through a mistake of the judges he officially lost and by the time they found it out Jeager already sailed his next heat, which made it impossible to turn it back. Leaving Yegor with a lost heat…

In the second round we started with another strong heat between Edvan De Souza Pedro and Choco Frans. Both sailors were sailing very strong with already very high standards from Edvan with Konos on both sides, a nice Culo and Burner but that all was not enough to beat the Carabbean style of Choco Frans who began to climp up the double elimination as he worked himself up to a nice 7th place in the end. Leaving a very strong sailing Andy Bubble Chambers behind him by half a point and by beating the big surprise from yesterday Tilo Eber, but to finally get stopped by Davy Scheffers.
Also in the second round we saw the start of a return in the double from Julien Mas sailing strong heats with all the new school moves in it like Culo, Kono both tacks in some heats, Airfunnel and very nice Shovit-Spocks. With moves like this he sailed his way passed Cicilia (who sailed out Chico Bento Da Silva in the first round) to afterwards take down Quincy Offringa (10th last year in the PWA) who couldn’t put a good enough heat together to keep off Julien Mas which made him just fall out the top 16. In the end Julien stayed sailing great but had to accept that Björn Saragoza was just a bit to hard to beat as Flakashakas are not easy to top.

 

In the third round we saw the start of the comeback in the double from the two talents from Bonaire Björn Saragoza and Youp Schmit. Youp was one of the big upcoming talents, which I already had on my list to get into the top 16 and he did. After taking down Andraz Zan with a power full heat full with Konos, Culos, a big shaka and no-handed Flaka diablos he sails his way past the Slovenian sailor. The next one up for the young talent was Yarden Meir who fought his way past Antony Ruenes who got better heats than the day before. Both sailors sailed strong this heat, but in the end it was Youp who took the heat home. His winning run got stopped by the always consistent Canadian Phil Soltysiak putting him in a nice 9th place!

In the 4th round we got two strong heats listed up between Davy and Tonky in the first heat and between myself and Björn, which was actually together with the top 4. Before the event I expected to be in the top 8. Of course, I didn’t see the heat between Davy and Tonky as I was preparing myself for my heat against Björn, but from what I’ve heard it was a heat where Davy showed his best doing at least all his ss moves double if not triple putting big pressure on style master Tonky Frans, who was also sailing a great heat with Airfunnel-Funnels, Burners and a Airbob, but this moves also all got done by Davy. On a first view Davy won, but looking back in the judging sheets Tonky saw one of his moves was missing, which resulted in a resail which got won by Davy who seemed to be unstoppable today and determined to get a good result in the double elimination.

 

The other hot heat was between me and Björn let´s say, I just gave the best of myself which ended up in a great heat making a triple Puneta, Burner, Big airfunnel and a nice Shaka Flaka on both sides. And doing on the other side a Kono, Culo, Double Spock and Chacho one handed. I knew I did my best but Björn was not holding himself in doing the first Kabikuchi Diablo of the competition landing also moves like Burner oh, Airfunnel-Funnel, a big Kono and Culo but couldn’t make his signature move Flaka-Shaka in the heat making it a hard decision for the judges. In the end I won with a 2 to 1 decision with very close points and with my highest ever score 27.6 and 27 which was 0.1 and 0.5 points more than Björn.
Me and Davy took both down Phil Soltysiak and Choco Frans putting them in a shared 7th position. In the first heat is was me against Davy fighting for the 5th place. The wind got really light in this heat, which left me most of the heat standing still and made it impossible to put a heat together like I did against Björn. It made me stand without a change against Davy, who was better in the lighter conditions planning out of moves like double Punuta, double ss Chacho, Culo and Airfunnel into Funnel. Although I still did my best with a Chacho, Airfunnel and Shakaflaka I knew it was already a lost case as I couldn’t show enough moves like in the heats before.

 
Davy got stopped by Gollito who wouldn’t let him getting past him again after Podersdorf. Not that Davy wasn’t sailing good but Gollito just topped pretty much everything of Davy putting him back in the fight for 3rd place against Steven. This heat was super sick showing freestyle on another level but also a lot of tactical sailing seeing Steven following Gollito to top his moves. We saw Gollito doing his classical No-handed Flaka which Steven just made with even more power behind him into Flaka making it clearly he was doing everything just that little bit better than Gollito, which made him win the heat.
Next up was Steven against Taty. Taty was sailing a bit less good than the day before but still showing off with double ss moves both sides, big Kono and big Culos topping it up with a future 720 and a perfect burner one handed. Steven gave his best doing moves like Airfunnel into Funnel, Kono, a big Skopu, Burner, Puneta and the first Barracuda since ages in a PWA heat bringing the very technical move from Cheo Diaz back to live. In the end it was a very close call with only a half point of difference giving the advantage to Taty Frans.
 
THE FINAL
This resulted in another final between the 2 Bonairians. Could Taty stop the unbeatable Kiri or not? Both sailors gave their best with Taty doing a Quatro Flaka, the first Spock-Culo of the day in the shallow waters of Bonaire. But how hard Taty would do his best, Kiri showed everybody on the beach, he knows the spot and controls the conditions better than anybody else showing off with a massive Kabikuchi, big Airbobs and Airfunnel Funnels and topping it all off with some power moves including again a super clean Grubby into ponch making it clear he is the best sailor here in Bonaire taking the first double elimination home. It’s like Taty said afterwards its almost impossible to beat Kiri here and he is already super happy with his second place after the close heat against Steven.

 
THE WOMEN
At the woman we saw the same results as in the single. Xenia Kessler took down Maxima Van Gent who was doing already consistently spock one handed and Spock 540 in her heat on the age of 14 but could keep up with Xenia who was doing also nice Flaka and Esliders. Xenia worked here self up till 5th place, to get stopped by here good friend Arainne Aukes who then got stopped by Yoli Brendt.
Would Yoli be able to beat Laura this time or was Laure in these conditions just better? Already from the beginning of the heat Laure made sure she would win the heat busting out one good move after the other without even crashing one time, doing moves like Grubby Diablo, Puneta, Double Flaka and nice spock 540 one handed, she showed off, why she got second in the first single and deserved another chance against Sarah.

 
In this heat you could see Laure was going for a bit more risk which eventually ended up in a better heat than before showing of moves like one handed Eslider, Flaka Diablo bit wet, super clean Flaka and grubby Diablos. She knew how to put pressure on Sarah. But Sarah knows how to win events after been already unbeaten for 2 years. Showing off a great variation of Funnels, Esliders and topping the moves of from Laure, by for example making her Flaka Diablo clean right after the one from Laura. In the end it was obvious Sarah won but Laure was putting on one of the best fights since 2 years.
 
Today we continue with the single, although the forcast is only for wind in the morning but on Bonaire you never know, stay tunned on the live stream and check out the great action here at Bonaire!
 
Cheers Dieter
  
Result Single Elimination Men:

 

1. Kiri Thode
2. Taty Frans
3. Steven van Broeckhoven
4. Gollito Estredo
5. Davy Scheffer
6. Dieter van der Eyken

full result here
  
Result Single Elimination Women:

1. Sarah-Quita Offringa
2. Laure Treboux
3. Yoli de Brendt
4. Arianne Aukes

full result here