The first day at Westerland, Sylt saw no action during the morning hours as the weather was extremely mixed with heavy showers alternating with sunshine, but the wind was building throughout the day. Around midday the wind picked up and the race director started the freestyle elimination. And the decision was definitely the right one. A full single elimination got finished in really wavy conditions and in the end we saw the same four sailors, like on Fuerteventura, on top: Gollito Estredo, Kiri Thode, Steven van Broeckhoven and Tonky Frans.
The winners of the Single Elimination
THE FINALS
Gollito Estredo and Kiri Thode met each other in the winners final. Gollito was dominating the whole day and the final as well. On the way out Gollito landed a huge Shaka, tried the Pasko, a Forward, a Backloop and again a Shaka, later a Ponch and a Shove It, which was probably after the end of the heat. On the way in the superstar from El Yaque was able to slide through a clean Air Funnel onehanded, nailed a Shaka and a perfect Burner 900°. In front of a big white water wall he slided through a Double Clew first Spock and a switch stance Chacho. At the moment it´s hard to beat him. He sails extremely save, but radical in these heavy wave conditions and he knows, how to impress the judges and the spectators. This victory brought him closer to his next freestyle worldtitle. Kiri missed to start on time and lost important minutes at the beginning of his heat.
Gollito Estredo
In the losers final current Freestyle Worldchampion Steven van Broeckhoven sailed excellent, landed a Pushloop and won against Tonky Frans, who missed to show his best moves.
The single elimination saw no real big surprises. Taty Frans, Antony Ruenes, Phil Soltysiak and Davy Scheffers made it into the top 8. Have a look on the full elimination ladder of the single elimination here.
RESULT SINGLE ELIMINATION FREESTYLE
- Gollito Estredo
- Kiri Thode
- Steven van Broeckhoven
- Tonky Frans
Action until the evening
WAVE
Directly after the freestyle single elimination got completed and the winners were announced, the racecrew started with the men´s wave single elimination. The first round almost got completed. The waves got better and better due to the lower tide. The “old, big names” Josh Angulo and Antoine Albeau made it into the next round. Congrats! Have a look on the single elimination ladder here.
PICTURES DAY 1
