PWA Freestyle Bonaire – Final report by Dieter

The day started already in the morning with full wind and everybody was looking forward to sail the second double elimination. As soon as the first heat started a cloud hit in making the wind drop to no planing conditions just after the redflag went up. This put everybody on hold and it looked like the wind would stay away, but it suddenly kicked in again to give us heats full of action! Where we saw youngsters using the homespot knowllege to avoid the shallow pieces and fight their way up into the double!
The 2 youngest stars of the day where Amado Vrieswijk and Youp Schmit again. Amado sailed incredibly well with the age of 15 sailing heats with Burners, Konos and Culos on one way and Shaka, double flaka’s and kono’s on the other way sailing himself past a bit less sailing Daivis Paternina the upcoming talent of El Yaque but to get stopped by he’s training friend Youp Schmit who sailed a solid heat with already a very powerfull style putting him 9th of the double after losing of style master Tonky Frans!

On the other side of the draw we saw Tilo Eber working himself up again in the double, doing solid heats with nice combinations of Konos, Culos and Burners every single heat sailing up till the 9th place again before getting stopped by myself.
  
THE TOP 8
In this double I finally saw the top 8 which I expected. Björn Saragoza worked his way up again in the double beating Choco Frans (a revenge from the first double elimination) to fight it out against Davy Sheffers who stopped Phil Soltysiak with a super impressive heat landing Burner into double Puneta! And myself had to fight it out with Tonky who already sailed an awesome heat against Youp Schmit. The heat promised high level freestyle and it was high level!
I had one of my best heats ever landing a super nice Kabikuchi, Culo, Burner and Shaka720 on one side to land Airfunnel 900°, Burner oh 900°, Double Puneta and a nice Shaka on the other side but in the end it didn’t make me come any closer against a Tonky, who was on fire starting his heat with the first Bongka of the competition, landing a perfect Flaka into Ponch all the way one handed putting only plusses on his scoring sheets making me know there was nothing to do against Tonky today.
Björn couldn’t sail his heat as well like he did against Choco where he pulled off a perfect Flaka-shaka and a perfect Kabikuchi in the beginning of his heat making too many crashes on it during the heat against Davy. This left the door open for Davy who was sailing again a super strong heat landing a perfect Kabikuchi, Burner Puneta etc. I didn’t see all but that’s what I remember of the heat.

This left another Tonky vs. Davy heat which we already saw in the first double only this time Tonky didn’t give Davy any chance of defeating him putting another great heat together not like against me but still more than high level enough to beat Davy in a 5-0 decision to make himself ready to take on Gollito Estredo.

In this heat it was very close, both sailors sailing amazingly with all moves, which you can think of and expect in a top 5 heat. Burners both sides perfect Airfunnel-Funnels and again Tonky with his Flaka into Ponch. Top moment of the heat was when a fisher boat came past an made the perfect low ramp for Tonky to pull off an Air-chacho here in the bay at Bonaire making everybody go wild on the beach. In the end it was another victory for the sailor of the day already Tonky Frans!

In the end it was again his little brother Taty Frans who stopped Tonky from going further in this double elimination. The heat was again full of action with local crowds all cheering and enjoying the show of their 2 local riders for who it didn’t matter who would win. Taty was sailing better and totally made the difference by landing an Airchacho on dead flat water, which left every windsurfer wondering how he managed to do that, making it obviously he would win this heat.

 
THE FINALS
From of the next heat there came a new level on the water, Kiri determent to also win the second double elimination didn’t give Taty any chance, scoring the best heat ever in the PWA history scoring 29.9 on one of the sheets keeping that 0.1 behind knowing Kiri for sure still could do something better knowing him. I think you should best see the final you’re self again on the PWA website to see the incredible level he has in freestyle.
Next up was Steven who has been the only one to be able to win a heat from Kiri 2 days ago in the Single elimination but couldn’t pull it off again in the double. In the first heat he was even a bit stunned by the level of Kiri you could see it actually in his sailing a little bit being far from his best heat. In the second final he got his game together to make the heat much more exciting again but still making Kiri sail just unbelievable putting the dots on the i, by winning also the second double elimination.

THE GIRLS
In the woman we saw a final with freestyle from an level, which I couldn’t believe both Laura and Sarah-Quita stepped up the game pulling of moves, which never where done before in a woman’s heat. Sarah-Quita landed a Chacho 900°, a perfectly out planing double Spock oh and again a nice Kono. While we saw Laure putting the first ever Shovit-Spock in a lady´s freestyle heat in history and landing it perfectly dry, showing off she really deserved to be in that final. Sarah won for sure, there was no doubt about, but Laure is on a high level, which put here on the second place on the first event of the year!

After the results were shared there was still a sail-off between Taty and Steven for second place which was just another 7 minutes of great freestyle and just enjoyment leaving the judges with a really hard decision. In the end it was Steven who won taking off Taty’s second place in the first double and putting him in the race again against for the world tittle!
 
Cheers Dieter

 
Result Men:

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

full result here

 

Result Women:

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

full result here