Tenerife PWA World Cup – Day 1

Senza fine… tararara… senza fine… sembra essere il vento quest’anno alle Canarie!
Si è appena conclusa une delle tappe più ventose a Fuerte… che si rinizia nello stesso modo a Tenerife.
Al Cabezo manco il tempo di radunare tutti i concorrenti che… pronti?! Via!
Qualificazioni per i riders che ambiscono all’evento principale, subito seguite dalle heat del tabellone femminile, che ha riservato subito una disfida fratricida… ah, ah, ah, in questo caso “sorellicida”… tra Caterina Stenta e Greta Benvenuti che ha visto la prima prevalere.
Caterina dovrà ora vedersela con la maggiore delle sorelle Moreno, mentre Nicole Bandini e Serena Zoia si arrendono alla prima heat a Steffi Wahl e Amanda Beenen.
Subito dopo è partito in single maschile, dove i volti noti hanno liquidato al primo turno senza troppa fatica giovani leoni come Loick Lesauvage che si arreso al forte locale Alex Mussolini… uno dei giovani “superistiti” il ventenne Moritz Mauch approdato al secondo turno, dovrà vedersela oggi con Campello di ritorno alle gare dopo il noto incidente.
Molti degli hawaiani in gara sono apparsi non molto a proprio agio nelle condizioni on shore mure a sinistra del Medano… fuori alla prima heat nomi famosi come Graham Ezzy e Morgan Noireaux liquidati rispettivamente da Denel e Bruch.
Oggi si continua…

Foto ©PWA/Carter
Report Tenerife PWA World Cup – Day 1

Tenerife begins with a bang
No time was wasted in beginning this year’s contest in Tenerife with good conditions on offer from the word go. So after a quick registration the action began promptly at 1pm in chest-head high wave and enough wind for most of the sailors to be on 4.2m-4.7m sails. By the end of the first day the opening round of the men’s single elimination has been completed, while only the top 8 women are left standing. Up to this point the top seeds have survived unscathed, but there were a few close calls on an exciting first day of competition, which saw an exceptionally high level of sailing.

Action on the opening day

Women’s
Sarah Hilder (Simmer / Simmer) and María Andrés (Fanatic / NorthSails) successfully navigated their way through the opening heat of the single elimination with Hilder defeating 14 year old Alex Escherich (JP / NeilPryde), who was making her debut on the PWA Wave World Tour, while Andrés’ wave riding proved to be the difference between her and Birgit Rieger.

Sarah Hilder

The opening heat of the second round saw Sarah-Quita Offringa (Starboard / NeilPryde / Maui Ultra Fins) in action for the first time and she continued in the same rich vein of form which she showed in Pozo, Gran Canaria. The heat was close for a long time, but Offringa asserted her dominance in the latter stages against Arrianne Aukes (Fanatic / NorthSails) by landing a pushloop and an 8.5 point wave to ensure victory. Meanwhile, The b-side of the heat saw the emerging talent of Lina Erpenstein (Patrik / Severne / Maui Ultra Fins) claim the scalp of Alice Arutkin (Fanatic / NorthSails).

Sarah-Quita Offringa

Heat 10 featured Justyna Sniady (Simmer / Simmer / Mystic) versus Caroline Weber (Patrik / Sailloft Hamburg / Maui Ultra Fins) and it was Sniady who claimed a clear cut victory, while reigning world champion — Iballa Moreno (Starboard / Severne / Maui Ultra Fins) — produced a dominant performance against Sarah Hilder as Iballa showed the reason she hasn’t finished outside the top 2 since the event started in 2011.

Iballa Moreno

Heat 11 saw the top seeds of the heat — Steffi Wahl (Patrik / Sailloft Hamburg) and Amanda Beenen (99NoveNove / Point-7) — safely progress as they dispatched of Nicole Bandini (Fanatic / NorthSails) and Serena Zoia (Loft Sails), respectively.

Amanda Beenen

Daida Moreno (Starboard / Severne / Maui Ultra Fins) produced the standout performance of the day to rack up the highest score of the event so far — 26.13 points — as she continued her impressive start to the season. Daida landed a one-handed backloop all the way to earn 9 points — before destroying the waves with powerful frontside hacks, takas and airs. While Caterina Stenta (RRD / RRD / Maui Ultra Fins) claimed a narrow victory over fellow Italian Greta Benvenuti (Patrik / Point-7 / AL360).

Daida Moreno

Men’s
After a disappointing 17th place in Pozo — Klaas Voget (Fanatic / NorthSails / MFC) — came out firing on all cylinders in the opening men’s heat. The German took a super aggressive approach to his wave riding which paid dividends as he defeated John Skye (RRD / RRD / MFC) — and he looks a real threat going into the next round. Meanwhile, Thomas Traversa (Tabou / GA Sails) was pushed all the way by Marc Paré (99NoveNove / Simmer / Maui Ultra Fins) and TT needed a brilliant last minute wave to avoid an upset.

Klaas Voget

In Heat 2 Adam Lewis (Fanatic / NorthSails / SWOX) won the battle against teammate Alessio Stillrich (Fanatic / NorthSails) with a fine performance including a sick frontside 360, while generally being on top in the wave riding department. It could have possibly been a different story if Stillrich had managed to hang onto a bolt upright double forward in the opening minute, but he will now have to wait until the double. The other side of the heat saw Jaeger Stone (Starboard / Severne / SWOX / Shamal Sunglasses) in impressive form once more with his frontside riding especially catching the eye and the 25 year old is safely into the second round.

Jaeger Stone

Event organiser — Dany Bruch (Starboard / Flight Sails / AL360 / Shamal Sunglasses) — and Marcilio Browne (Goya Windsurfing / MFC) are also safely into round two after victories over Morgan Noireaux (JP / Hot Sails Maui) and Dieter Van der Eyken (Starboard / Severne), respectively.

Dany Bruch

Leon Jamaer (JP / NeilPryde) looked to be in decent form, particularly with his wave riding and he eased past a slightly below par Antoine Martin (JP / NeilPryde / MFC), while reigning world champion — Philip Köster (Starboard / Severne / MFC) — produced the highest score of the day — 25.5 points — to dispatch of the local wildcard Tim van dam Sanchidrian (Starboard / Flight Sails. The 3-time world champion stomped a trademark double before combining powerful, gouging hacks with critical takas to set the bar very high.

Philip Köster

Jules Denel (JP / NeilPryde) ended the hopes of Graham Ezzy (Tabou / Ezzy) in the single elimination while local hero — Alex Mussolini (RRD / RRD) — made no mistakes against the highly progressive youth talent of Loick Lesauvage (Goya Windsurfing) to also progress from Heat 5.

Alex Mussolini

Ricardo Campello (Patrik / Point-7 / MFC) wasted little time in announcing his return on the world tour, after missing out on the opening event of the year due to injury, as he immediately stomped a 9 point double forward, but it took him until the end of the heat to assert himself against Julian Salmonn (Severne / Severne) after struggling to connect the wave scores he needed early on. Meanwhile, Moritz Mauch (Severne / Severne / MFC) took down Florian Jung (RRD / Gun Sails / Maui Ultra Fins) on the b-side of Heat 6.

Ricardo Campello

In the penultimate heat of the day — Heat 7 — Omar Sanchez (Angulo / KA Sail) edged a narrow duel against Camille Juban (Quatro / Simmer / MFC) to progress, while Robby Swift (JP / NeilPryde / Mystic / SWOX) won the battle of Britain against Ben Proffitt (Simmer / Simmer) with Swift’s double forward proving to be the difference between the two sailors on the day.

Robby Swift

In Heat 8 Victor Fernandez (Fanatic / NorthSails / MFC) looked mightily impressive against Eric Sanllehy (Goya Windsurfing) as the current world tour leader landed the highest scoring jump of the day — 9.62 points for an immaculate double forward, while also effortlessly linking together several excellent waves with dynamic turns and frontside airs — proving that he’ll be a difficult man to beat. Josep Pons (Simmer / Simmer) gained the upper hand in the aerial battle against Aleix Sanllehy (Tabou / GA Sails) as he earned 8.5 points for a double forward, but it wasn’t enough as Sanllehy claimed a hard fought win by making the better of the waves.

Victor Fernandez

The forecast looks promising again for tomorrow with further wind and waves on offer and both fleets will meet at 11am on Tuesday morning for the skippers’ meeting. The first possible start for tomorrow is 11:30am (GMT+1). Make sure you tune into www.pwaworldtour.com to follow all of the brilliant action as it happens via the PWA live stream.