Maui Aloha Classic Tag 11

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Die 2015 PWA Wave World Championship wurde am elften Tag des NoveNove Maui Aloha Classic entschieden  und nach einer spannenden Saison sind es Philip Köster (Starboard / Severne / Maui Ultra Fins) und Iballa Moreno (Starboard / Severne / Maui Ultra Fins), die die Weltmeistertitel der  Wavesurfer für sich entschieden. Der elfte Tag brachte eine bunte Mischung an Bedingungen, durch häufige Regenschauer ging der Wind immer wieder rauf und runter, zum Glück für die Teilnehmer und Zuschauer verschwanden die Wolken mehr und mehr und Ho'okipa lieferte die Bedingungen für die es bekannt ist. Es war angerichtet für einen sehr guten Wettkampftag. Nach dem gestrigen, ebenfalls spannenden Tag blieben für heute nur die vier besten Surfer bei der Double Elimination - Levi Siver (Quatro / Goya Windsurf / MFC), Thomas Traversa (Tabou / GA Sails), Kauli Seadi (99NoveNove / Hot Sails Maui / MFC) und Morgan Noireaux (JP / Hot Sails Maui). Das gleiche auch in der Damenabteilung, es starteten heute nur noch  - Fiona Wylde (Starboard / Goya Windsurfing), Sarah Hauser (Tabou / Simmer), Ingrid Larouche (Fanatic / North) und  die frisch gekrönte Weltmeisterin Iballa Moreno. Women’s Double Elimination After a slightly disappointing showing in the single elimination, Fiona Wylde, started to re-find the form she showed during last year’s Aloha Classic, which saw the 18 year old finish second. Wylde was the biggest mover of the day as she won five heats on the bounce. Wylde has now progressed into a minimum of fourth place after beating both Nayra Alonso (Fanatic / Severne) and Vickey Abbot in her final two heats of the day. Wylde impressed by selecting the biggest set waves, whilst showing a no fear approach as she constantly attacked the lip. Wylde will now face Sarah Hauser tomorrow in the battle for third and fourth. Unfortunately things didn’t go to plan for Daida Moreno (Starboard / Severne / Maui Ultra Fins) today. Daida needed to win five consecutive heats in order to recapture the world title, but fell at the first hurdle in Heat 27 as Fiona Wylde and Anne-Marie Reichman (Starboard / Hot Sails Maui) advanced. However, whilst things may not have gone as she wanted today, Daida still walks away from this season in second place having shown her world class talent in the opening two events of the year and she will no doubt be back stronger than ever for 2016. With Daida eliminated from the double elimination Iballa Moreno was officially crowned the 2015 PWA Wave World Champion and she will now look to finish off the season in style by defending her single elimination crown. Iballa has now won back-to-back world titles and is currently on course to complete a famous hat-trick of Aloha Classic victories, so make sure you stay tuned to see if she can do just that.  Men’s  Double Elimination Victor Fernandez (Fanatic / North / MFC) started the day with all eyes on him as the only man who could deny Philip Köster a third world title. The Spaniard faced an extremely tall order as he would have to win eight heats in a row to accomplish that, but you wouldn’t have known the amount of pressure on him given how he came flying out of the starting blocks.  Fernandez started to gather momentum in the double and for a little while Köster will have been starting to sweat due to how his sole rival was sailing. Fernandez advanced from his opening three heats with a combination of raking turns combined with radical goiters and frontside 360s., but the pick of the bunch came in Heat 44 when his back was against the wall. With only a few minutes remaining in the heat the 2010 world champion needed a 6.19 point wave or better to progress and he delivered a near perfect wave when firmly under the cosh - Fernandez stomped an amazing frontside 3 right in the critical section together with a couple of powerful turns to earn 9.43 points, The 31 year old kept the title race alive with his monumental effort, whilst ending the hopes of Ricardo Campello (Patrik / Point-7 / MFC) and Kai Lenny (Naish / MFC). However, despite Fernandez’s heroic efforts it wasn’t quite enough to deny Köster world title No.3 as he was taken down by Levi Siver in the very next heat by just 0.14 of a point. Fernandez landed an incredible forward off the lip, which was landed out into the flats, but it still wasn’t quite enough as Siver advanced. With Köster’s agonising wait finally brought to an end we managed to catch up with the newly crowned world champion and the 21 year old had this to say upon capturing world title number 3: “It’s feels great to win another world title, to be honest I still can’t quite believe it at the moment. After a long year of competing it feels really good, we were unlucky with the last couple of European events and there was a lot of waiting, which isn’t the easiest when all you want to do is compete. I’m super stoked and it feels special to win the title here in Hawaii.” When asked about whether he was starting to get nervous when Victor Fernandez started to gather a bit of momentum Köster added: “Of course I was watching and I was starting to get a bit nervous. He was sailing super good, he had some great waves including his 360 which I think he received a 9.4 for. But in the end Levi [Siver] was sailing incredibly and there’s no one that knows this place better than him.” “From here I’ve going to the Great Lake Michigan for a new Red Bull Project, so keep your eyes out for that, then I’ll fly home to Gran Canaria for one day before heading to Australia to train.” Away from the title race Levi Siver produced the standout performance of the day as he started to show the same devastating form as when he won the Aloha Classic in 2013. After progressing from his opening two heats, and ending Fernandez’s comeback — together with the title race — Siver produced an almost perfect performance against Camille Juban as the American earned 19 points out of a possible 20. On one of his final waves Siver received perfect 10s from the judges as he boosted a crunching aerial off the lip with a gouging full round house cutback before throwing a sick frontside 360 to leave Juban helpless. Siver now moves into the top four and his next opponent will be Thomas Traversa with the winner of that heat going on to face Kauli Seadi.  Marcilio Browne (Goya Windsurfing / MFC) was the only man with the potential to steal the final place on the overall podium for 2015, but the former world champion fell in Heat 42. The Brazilian showed flashes of pure brilliance with several hell turns, but Ho’okipa continually shut him down today and as a result Jaeger Stone (Starboard / Severne) will complete this year’s prestigious podium. Stone is only in his second full season back on the World Tour — after recovering from injury and completing his studies — and has quickly established himself as one of the major players and the 25 year old deservedly walks away from 2015 with his best result so far. Kevin Pritchard (Starboard / Ezzy / MFC) was extremely unlucky in Heat 43 to come up against Levi Siver and Ricardo Campello. KP would’ve advanced from most heats with his performance, which saw him boost the biggest aerials of the day, but unfortunately came up against two sailors in inspired form. In the end Ricardo Campello was able to fight back to 7th place in the double elimination, but for a time it looked as though he may go much further. The Venezuelan/Brazilian was in scintillating form to begin the day as he combined powerful hacks with amazing air takas, while almost landing an insane backloop off the lip. However, his comeback was brought to an end earlier than many may have anticipated in Heat 44.  Tomorrow should see the thrilling finale to the NoveNove Maui Aloha Classic with strong trade winds expected again together with a similar sized swell as today, but with a short wave period. The sailors will meet again at 10:30am tomorrow morning with the action commencing from 11am onwards. Make sure you tune into www.pwaworldtour.com to see the fascinating conclusion live via the PWA live stream. After the completion of the double eliminations tomorrow there will be a Champions for Charity contest, which you can vote for the winner online, followed by a 30 minute all girls expression session.