GC Wind & Waves Festival
Weltklassebedingungen an allen sieben Tagen des Events
Das diesjährige Gran Canaria Wind & Waves Festival markierte das 30-jährige Jubiläum des PWA World Cups auf Gran Canaria und mit Pozo Izquierdo hätte es keinen passenderen Ort geben können, der für Winde in Sturmstärke sorgt - mehr als 50 Knoten an mehreren Tagen - plus Wellen jeden Tag, um es den radikalsten Wavesurfern der Welt zu ermöglichen, unglaubliche Performance auf dem Wasser und in der Luft zu zeigen. Die Action der letzten 7 Tagen war phänomenal und auf extrem hohem Niveau, aber am Ende stehen Daida Moreno (Starboard / Severne / Maui Ultra Fins) und Philip Köster (Starboard / Severne / Maui Ultra Fins) ganz oben auf dem Podium. Wave Women’s Having won every year in Pozo Izquierdo since 2000 - apart from 2012 - Daida Moreno (Starboard / Severne / Maui Ultra Fins) - entered the 2018 Gran Canaria Wind & Waves Festival as the undoubted favourite, and she showed why she has been so dominant here over the course of her career as Daida produced one of her best performances in recent years during the double elimination final against - Sarah-Quita Offringa (Starboard / NeilPryde / Maui Ultra Fins) to further enhance her reputation as the Queen of Pozo. Daida admitted that she may have been feeling the pressure before the final with Offringa sailing better than ever, but she never showed any signs of it as she gave a jumping masterclass with a massive regular backloop, one-handed backloop all the way, one-footed backloop, tweaked pushloop and a trademark stalled forward all being landed in a faultless performance. Victory here also sees Daida head to the top of the overall rankings. Offringa, meanwhile equals her best result here since 2016 after managing to gain one position in the double elimination as she first ended Lina Erpenstein’s (Severne / Severne Sails) comeback, before claiming an impressive victory against reigning world champion - Iballa Moreno (Starboard / Severne / Maui Ultra Fins) to move into 2nd place. The Aruban only managed to finished 5th here last year, but after two, second places so far this season, the 27-year-old is firmly in contention for the title with two events to go as she is currently tied on 19,800 points with the Moreno twins. Iballa Moreno may be slightly disappointed to have slipped one position from the single elimination, but even so, she remains firmly in contention for a 5th consecutive world title. Iballa had her chances against Offringa - only needing a second wave score of 4.25 points or better - but very uncharacteristically for her, she struggled to find that second wave score, when normally it is her wave riding that sets her apart. Still, Iballa will head into Tenerife in joint 1st place and she hasn’t finished outside the top 2 since 2011, while also recording 3 victories during that time. Lina Erpenstein managed to fight back to 4th place in the double elimination after winning 4 heats on the bounce against - Oda Johanne (Starboard / Severne / Maui Ultra Fins), Maaike Huvermann (Starboard / Severne / Maui Ultra Fins), who finishes in joint 7th, Nayra Alonso (Fanatic / Severne), and finally Justyna Sniady (Simmer / Simmer Sails / AL360), who finishes in 5th place, but broke into the top 4 of the single elimination for the first time, before Sarah-Quita Offringa brought her comeback to an end. Meanwhile, Nayra Alonso and Steffi Wahl (Sailloft Hamburg) both impressed throughout and produced a great comeback through the double elimination - before meeting each other in the battle for 6th and 7th - due to their seeding. Alonso came out on top on that occasion, but you can expect to see Wahl pushing for the top 5 and beyond in Tenerife - where wave riding is often more important than jumping - and she really impressed with that. Men’s Köster A Different Monster 4-time world champion - Philip Köster (Starboard / Severne / Maui Ultra Fins) - made an extremely impressive start to the season, as he goes in search of world title No.5, by remaining unbeaten in the opening event of the year and looking very confident and dangerous throughout. And while Marcilio Browne (Goya Windsurfing) may have come to within just 0.31 of a point of forcing a Super Final, it almost looks like Köster just has another gear waiting if he needs it. Through the contest, Köster produced incredibly jumping and wave riding and barely put a foot wrong. In the final, he landed a massive stalled double, pushloop forward and even pulled the trigger on the triple loop - which he wasn’t far off landing and he would be a hard man to bet against for winning the 2018 Men’s PWA Wave World Championship. Victory here also means he is now tied on 6 event victories with Victor Fernandez. Marcilio Browne (Goya Windsurfing) makes the best start to a season on the PWA Wave World Tour after negotiating his way into the finals in Gran Canaria for the first time in his career. The Brazilian has finished 3rd overall for the last two seasons and seems to have found the formula to blend brilliance and consistency, which makes him a very difficult proposition to beat. Browne landed perfect double forwards throughout, while he was also one of just 6 or 7 sailors to land a pushloop forward, which looks like it may become as vital as the double forward if wanting to challenge for top honours. At one stage it looked like Ricardo Campello (Point-7) may come all the way back through the double elimination and challenge Philip Köster for the event title, however, he was eventually stopped by his good friend Marcilio Browne - with Browne winning the heat with his final wave. Campello defeated Dieter van der Eyken (Severne / Severne Sails), Adam Lewis (Fanatic / Duotone / SWOX), Jaeger Stone (Starboard / Severne / SWOX / Shamal Sunglasses) and Alex Mussolini (RRD / RRD Sails), before overcoming his nemesis Victor Fernandez (Fanatic / Duotone / Shamal Sunglasses) for the first time ever in Pozo Izquierdo. Campello’s epic comeback was finally brought to an end leaving him to settle for an excellent 3rd place, which is his best start to a season since 2014. Campello has the potential to be Köster’s biggest rival and he looks even more focused this year. For the first time since 2005, Victor Fernandez misses out on the podium in Pozo Izquierdo. Coming into this year's Gran Canaria Wind & Waves Festival, Fernandez was looking to continue an incredible run of 6x first places and 5x second places, but it wasn’t to be, and against Campello - in the battle for 3rd and 4th - Fernandez looked flustered, which is virtually unheard of. Up until that point, Fernandez was the only sailor in the top 3 (single elimination) to have reached that far without landing a pushloop forward, but he was eventually caught out with Campello claiming a decisive victory. Even during the heat, Fernandez attempted a couple of pushloop forwards, and straight after the contest finished he was seen training and looked to be upping his intensity to learn this move… knowing that it may virtually become a necessity if he wants to keep contending for both event and overall titles - especially when 2 jumps or more are counting. Alex Mussolini (RRD / RRD Sails) is the only other member of the top 6 here not to have landed a pushloop forward and the Spaniard walks away with 5th place in Pozo. Mussolini landed trademark one-hand, one-foot backloops in the single elimination, while his wave riding was exquisite as always as he defeated Eric Sanllehy (Goya Windsurfing), Dieter van der Eyken and Jose ‘Gollito’ Estredo (Fanatic / Duotone) to move into the top 4 - before Campello relegated him to 5th. Jaeger Stone finishes the double elimination in 6th place after defeating Marc Paré (Simmer / Simmer Sails) and Jose ‘Gollito’ Estredo, while losing out to Campello by just 0.69 of a point. The Australian excelled with his powerful and dynamic wave riding earning 4 wave scores of 7.75, 8.62, 8.10 and 7.75 from 6 waves, but crucially couldn’t land a push forward in these conditions to keep his hopes alive this time around - although you could see he wanted it with his final jump attempt. If Stone can learn to land push forwards in a wider variety of conditions then there is no doubt he would be a genuine title contender as his wave riding is second to none. Stone also landed the highest scoring jump of the contest, as the judges broke the scale, with an insane pushloop forward, which earned 11 points. If you’d have offered Adam Lewis a guaranteed 7th place at the start of the week he’d have probably taken it - equalling his performance here from last year. But the Brit, who enjoyed his best season to date in 2016 - 5th overall - has shown that he’s not content with that and may be slightly disappointed that only a last-second wave by Campello denied him a place in the top 6 or better. Lewis regularly produces some of the highest wave scores on the tour, while he seems to have the double forward on lock, and he’ll be an even bigger threat in Tenerife - where he finished in the top 4 of the single elimination in 2017. Gollito Estredo finishes in equal 7th place alongside Lewis with the 8-time PWA Freestyle World Champion earning his first top 10 finish in the waves and showing that he is going to be a major threat, not only for the rest of the season but in years to come and there won't be too many people wanting to face him. The top 10 is completed by Marc Paré Rico (ESP - Simmer / Simmer Sails), Robby Swift (GBR - JP / NeilPryde / SWOX), Dieter Van der Eyken (BEL - Severne / Severne Sails) and Dany Bruch (GER - Bruch Boards / Flight Sails / AL360 / Shamal Sunglasses). Youth’s The Gran Canaria Wind & Waves Festival also hosted the second stop on the Youth PWA Wave World Tour and they showed that windsurfing is in safe hands with a set of extremely impressive performances. You can read more about how the Youth’s got on in the report here. The 30th anniversary of PWA World Cups in Gran Canaria couldn’t have been any better with the Gran Canaria Wind & Waves Festival providing wind and waves every day, which resulted in 7 days of epic action. A huge thanks to the Moreno twins and their team for all their hard work and we’ll see you again in 2019. You can revisit everything that happened in Gran Canaria— including the live stream, elimination ladders, entry list, images and live ticker simply by clicking HERE and scrolling to the bottom of the page. Where’s Next on the PWA World Tour? In just a few days time we’ll be coming to you live from Fuerteventura for the 2018 Fuerteventura PWA Grand Slam, which will see the Men’s Freestyle fleet in action for the first time, while the Women will be in action for the last time this season and will be fighting it out for the world title. Meanwhile, the Men’s Slalom fleet will be readying themselves for their 5th battle of the season, so make sure you don’t miss of the action by tuning into www.pwaworldtour.com between 24th July - 4th August. Result 2018 Gran Canaria Wind & Waves Festival - Women's 1st Daida Moreno (ESP - Starboard / Severne / Maui Ultra Fins) 2nd Sarah-Quita Offringa (ARU - Starboard / NeilPryde / Maui Ultra Fins) 3rd Iballa Moreno (ESP - Starboard / Severne / Maui Ultra Fins) 4th Lina Erpenstein (GER - Severne / Severne Sails) 5th Justyna Sniady (POL - Simmer / Simmer Sails / AL360) 6th Nayra Alonso (ESP - Fanatic / Severne) 7th Maaike Huvermann (NED / Starboard / Severne / Maui Ultra Fins) 7th Steffi Wahl (GER / Sailloft Hamburg) Result 2018 Gran Canaria Wind & Waves Festival - Men's 1st Philip Köster (GER - Starboard / Severne / Maui Ultra Fins) 2nd Marcilio Browne (BRA - Goya Windsurfing) 3rd Ricardo Campello (VEN - Point-7) 4th Victor Fernández (ESP - Fanatic / Duotone / Shamal Sunglasses) 5th Alex Mussolini (ESP - RRD / RRD Sails) 6th Jaeger Stone (AUS - Starboard / Severne / SWOX / Shamal Sunglasses) 7th Gollito Estredo (VEN - Fanatic / Duotone) 7th Adam Lewis (GBR - Fanatic / Duotone / SWOX) 9th Marc Paré Rico (ESP - Simmer / Simmer Sails) 9th Robby Swift (GBR - JP / NeilPryde / SWOX) 9th Dieter Van der Eyken (BEL - Severne / Severne Sails) 9th Dany Bruch (GER - Bruch Boards / Flight Sails / AL360 / Shamal Sunglasses) Result Girl’s U13+U15 - Gran Canaria Wind & Waves Festival 1st Alexia Kiefer Quintana (Fanatic / Duotone) 2nd Maria Morales Navarro (Goya Windsurfing) 3rd Isabel Triviño Delgado (Fanatic / Goya Windsurfing) 4th Lucia Triviño Delgado (Starboard / Goya Windsurfing) Result Girl’s U17 Gran Canaria Wind & Waves Festival 1st Alexia Kiefer Quintana (Fanatic / Duotone) 2nd Julia Pasquale (Fanatic / Duotone) 3rd Mar de Arce (Loftsails) Result Girl’s U20 - Gran Canaria Wind & Waves Festival 1st Alexa Escherich (JP / NeilPryde / Maui Ultra Fins) 2nd Tessa van der Meer 3rd Nikki van der Meer 4th Regina Villegas Cespedes (Duotone) Result Boy’s Under 13 - Gran Canaria Wind & Waves Festival 1st Tobias Bjørnaa (Fanatic / Duotone)?2nd Pepe Krause (Quatro / Hot Sails Maui) 3rd Carlos Kiefer Quintana (Fanatic / Duotone) 4th Giulio Gasperini (Starboard / Severne) 5th Marco Alonso Camara (Ezzy) Result Boy’s Under 15 - Gran Canaria Wind & Waves Festival 1st Lennart Neubauer (Starboard / Severne) 2nd Liam Dunkerbeck (Starboard / Severne) 3rd Jahdan Tyger (Severne / Severne Sails) 4th Alex Di Giosafatte (I-99 / Challenger Sails) Result Boy’s Under 17 - Gran Canaria Wind & Waves Festival 1st Marino Gil (Goya Windsurfing) 2nd Corto Dumond (Starboard / GA Sails) 3rd Takuma Sugi (Tabou / GA Sails) 4th Mike Friedl (Quatro / Goya Windsurfing) Result Boy’s Under 20 - Gran Canaria Wind & Waves Festival 1st Miguel Chapuis (JP / NeilPryde) 2nd Adam Warchol (Quatro / Goya Windsurfing) 3rd Valentino Pasquale (Fanatic / Duotone) 4th Jake Schettewi (JP / Hot Sails Maui)