The Sylt PWA Super Grand Slam 2017 is the biggest PWA windsurfing event and runs for 10 days. 148 competitors from 32 different countries battle in 4 different disciplines for 127.500 € of prize money.
On the first three days of the event we saw lighter winds. The first day was spent registering or preparing equipment before the official opening ceremony. On the second day and third day it was the turn of the foil and slalom discipline. Julien Qunetel leads the foil ranking after two races and Marco Lang leads the slalom ranking ahead of Vincent Langer, Ross Williams and Arnon Dagan. Marco Lang had never won an elimination before, but on day 3 the Austrian won both of the slalom eliminations and he still can’t believe what happened.
On day 4 of the event the women’s wave single elimination got started in the morning. Iballa Moreno won the single elimination in front of Sarah-Quita Offringa and Daida Moreno. The men’s single elimination got started as well. They sailed till the evening and finished one and a half rounds of the single.
Day 5 kicked off with the freestyle elimination at 8:45. At 14:10 Gollito Estredo got announced as the winner of the Freestyle single elimination. Gollito’s hardest competitor was Amado Vrieswijk, who set the highest heat score of the day with 136 points in his semifinal heat against Antoine Albert. In the beginning of the winners final Amado was making points after points, landed a Shifty and Gollito was struggling to fill his judge sheet. But Gollito caught up in the second half of the 8 minute long heat and landed amongst other moves a perfect Shifty and a brilliant Push loop on port tack and won on port tack with some distance to Amado. Amado won narrowly on starboard tack.
On day 6 Philip Köster secures his 4th PWA Wave world title and Victor Fernandez claimed a highly deserved victory in the single elimination but still needs to defend this victory in the double elimination. Only 1 heat (or two if we see a super final) is left in the double elimination to determine the winner of the men’s wave elimination. Will it be Victor Fernandez or Marcilio Browne? Marcilio, who was 2nd after the single elimination held off Philip Köster, who only scored 7.99 points for his whole heat. For Philip this is actually not normal and we can only assume that Philip was overwhelmed by his feelings and was not able to focus anymore, as he had claimed his 4th PWA World Champion title just before by winning against Alex Mussolini with the highest heat score of the contest (34.88).
On day 7 Victor Fernandez defeated Marcilio Browne to win the final wave event of the year. The conditions were differently than the last days. The wind was blowing more from the north, which means there were side-onshore starboard tack conditions during the final. Victor won in the waves with a clear distance but lost closely in the jumping category. Victor had the better wave selection than Marcilio and showed that he is able to win in port tack and starboard tack conditions.
On day 8 we saw a thrilling freestyle final in the men’s double elimination. Gollito Estredo won not only the event but also his 8th PWA Freestyle World Champion title in front of Amado Vrieswijk and Jacopo Testa, who claims his first PWA podium finish.
On day 9 the women’s wave double elimination was resumed but it was only possible to complete 3 heats before the conditions deteriorated. Germany’s Lina Erpenstein won the battle between herself and Justyna Sniady for both 4th at the event and 4th in the world. Erpenstein then faced Daida Moreno in the fight for 3rd and 4th. Daida rose to the challenge, as she so often has over her long and illustrious career landing a trademark one-handed backloop, while sliding out the tail on her aggressive turns. Erpenstein again landed a solid forward loop, but missed to ride waves. Heat 34 – Sarah-Quita Offringa vs Daida Moreno – was started but it was soon cancelled with the wind becoming ever lighter.
PWA Windsurf World Cup Sylt 2017 – Photo Gallery
