DAVIDOFF COOL WATER SYLT WORLD CUP
The 2014 DAVIDOFF Cool Water Sylt PWA Super Grand Slam was unfortunately plagued by light winds for much of the ten day event duration, but that didn’t stop the event from being a huge success as Sylt delivered a fantastic show as usual, with plenty of on and off the water activities. Despite being slightly unlucky with the wind, results were still gained in the men’s slalom and freestyle. The past ten days will live long in the memory of Arnon Dagan (RRD / NeilPryde), who claimed his first ever victory, and Jose ‘Gollito’ Estredo (Fanatic / North / MFC), who fought back from an unlikely position to clinch his sixth PWA Freestyle World Championship.
Slalom
With just one elimination being completed over the ten days of competition, in some of the most challenging conditions of the year, Arnon Dagan was left celebrating his maiden win on the PWA Slalom World Tour. The Israeli was able to charge to victory in the resail of the winners’ final and after a week of agonising waiting, and a little bit of luck after the second race was unable to be completed when Dagan was disqualified in the semifinals for a premature start, saw him standing at the top of the prestigious podium, which sees the thirty-seven year old rise to fourth in the overall rankings.
Arnon Dagan on winning his first event:
“It feels amazing. It feels like all the hard work paid off. It doesn’t feel real yet because it was only one round. After this I feel like I have good momentum now after Turkey and here and hopefully I can continue like this. Anything can happen now.”
Cyril Moussilmani (Starboard / Severne) continued his incredibly consistent form to claim second place, which proved to be enough to see the Frenchman return to the top of the overall rankings, with Antoine Albeau (RRD / NeilPryde) slipping to second place, having finished a disappointing ninth in Sylt.
Julien Quentel (RRD / NeilPryde) backed up his opening win on the tour in Turkey with a solid third place here. Quentel may feel slightly unlucky though as he won the first attempt to run the winners’ final, only to see the race then cancelled due to a drifting finishing mark.
Pierre Mortefon (Fanatic / North) rises into the illustrious overall top three after another excellent performance in Sylt, which saw the Frenchman finish fourth. Meanwhile, Taty Frans (Starboard / MauiSails / Mystic / MFC) will be delighted with his fifth place finish, which represents his best result in 2014 so far. The same is also true for Andrea Rosati (RRD / NeilPryde) and Maciek Rutkowski (Patrik / Point-7), who claimed sixth and seventh, respectively.
The top ten was completed by Josh Angulo (Angulo / Gun Sails) - eighth - who may be slightly disappointed having being unable to capitalise when leading both attempts of the winners’ final, and then to add insult to injury, damaged his favourite fin on the rocks in his effort to make the finish line with the buoy drifting into the shore. Ross Williams (Tabou / GA Sails / Mystic) secured the final place in the top ten.
Freestyle
Single Elimination
The freestyle sailors were made to wait until the penultimate day of the contest in order to begin the single elimination, but the wait was more than worth it as the contortionists of the windsurfing world produced another fantastic display.
Jose ‘Gollito’ Estredo was on fire throughout the single elimination and the Venezuelan was rewarded with not only the event victory, but so much more, as he saw his outside chance of winning this year’s world title come true - meaning Gollito now has an incredible six world crowns to his name. Estredo entered the event in third place and needed to win to be in with a shot, whilst also requiring Kiri Thode (Tabou / GA Sails) to finish fourth or worse. Thankfully, for Gollito, Thode, suffered a surprising fifth place exit, leaving the true king of freestyle back on top.
PWA Freestlye World Champion for the sixth time - Jose ‘Gollito’ Estredo:
“It’s a dream to win my sixth world title. It feels amazing, I never expected it in my life. I’m really happy to have won again and be back at the top. I hope I can continue like this in the future and I will keep training as hard as I can over the winter to make sure I can keep up.”
After almost a decade without a podium finish, Anthony Ruenes (Tabou / GA Sails), managed to break back into the prestigious top three as he ended Thode’s title hopes in the quarterfinals, before going on to claim second place overall with more of his super stylish sailing. Ruenes will remember this event for a long time to come and ends the 2014 PWA Freestyle World Tour in sixth.
2011 PWA Freestyle World Champion - Steven Van Broeckhoven (JP / NeilPryde) - was able to defeat Tonky Frans (Tabou / GA Sails) in the losers’ final to complete the top three, with Frans having to settle for fourth. The Belgian maestro narrowly missed out in the title battle with Jose ‘Gollito’ Estredo in the semifinals, in what proved to be an almost inseparable heat. Unfortunately, for Van Broeckhoven the decision went to his opponent, but he can still be delighted with second overall for 2014.
Finishing joint fifth alongside Kiri Thode were fellow Bonairean’s Björn Saragoza (Starboard / Hot Sails Maui) and Amado Vrieswijk (Starboard / Severne) with the latter enjoying his best year to date on tour, not only breaking into the overall top ten for the first time, but also breaking into the top five as the eighteen year old finishes in fourth place overall. Meanwhile, Dieter Van der Eyken (Starboard / Severne) also shares joint fifth.
The top ten was shared by eight sailors in joint ninth, firstly Canada’s Phil Soltysiak (Starboard / Sailworks), Britain’s Max Rowe (Fanatic / North) and the Netherlands Davy Scheffers (Tabou / GA Sails). As well as Taty Frans, meaning that 50% of the top ten was dominated by sailors from Bonaire, former three-time PWA Freestyle World Champion - Ricardo Campello (Patrik / Point-7 / MFC) - Germany’s Adrian Beholz (Fanatic / Sailloft Hamburg / Maui Ultra Fins) and fellow Frenchman Nicolas Akgazciyan (99 International / Point-7 / AL360 / Maui Ultra Fins) and Adrien Bosson (Fanatic / North)
Philips Winch Tow-in Night Session Freestyle
As well as claiming victory in the freestyle main event - Jose ‘Gollito’ Estredo - also stole the show in the Philips Winch Tow-in Night Session Freestyle with his final move of the evening - an amazing burner 360. Meanwhile, Ricardo Campello, claimed second after somehow rotating through an incredible burner. Tonky Frans completed the podium.
Wave
The opening day of the event did see several men’s and women’s wave heats run, but with the winds and waves unfortunately subsiding it was not possible to gain a result for either of the fleets this time around.
The wind may not have played ball for much of the ten days on Sylt this year, but the event still proved to be one of the best and certainly the biggest of the year as crowds flocked in their thousands to see the world’s best windsurfers.
Where’s Next on the PWA World Tour?
From the 18th to the 26th October the men’s wave fleet, together the men’s and women’s slalom fleets will be descending upon the shores of La Torche, France for nine days of fantastic windsurfing. This is the penultimate event of the year for the three fleets, meaning they’ll be plenty of drama and action as the season heads towards its climax. Don’t miss any of the incredible action by tuning into the PWA live stream and live ticker at www.pwaworldtour.com.
Overall Results 2014 PWA Freestyle World Tour:
1st Jose ‘Gollito’ Estredo (Fanatic / North / MFC)
2nd Steven Van Broeckhoven (JP / NeilPryde)
3rd Kiri Thode (Starboard / GA Sails)
4th Amado Vrieswijk (Starboard / Severne)
5th Dieter Van der Eyken (Starboard / Severne)
6th Anthony Ruenes (Tabou / GA Sails)
7th Björn Saragoza (Starboard / Hot Sails Maui)
8th Tonky Frans (Tabou / GA Sails)
9th Taty Frans (Starboard / MauiSails / Mystic / MFC)
10th Davy Scheffers (Tabou / GA Sails)
Overall Results DAVIDOFF Cool Water Sylt PWA Super Grand Slam - Men’s Freestyle
1st Jose ‘Gollito’ Estredo (Fanatic / North / MFC)
2nd Anthony Ruenes (Tabou / GA Sails)
3rd Steven Van Broeckhoven (JP / NeilPryde)
4th Tonky Frans (Tabou / GA Sails)
5th Amado Vrieswijk (Starboard / Severne)
5th Dieter Van der Eyken (Starboard / Severne)
5th Kiri Thode (Starboard / GA Sails)
5th Björn Saragoza (Starboard / Hot Sails Maui)
Overall Results DAVIDOFF Cool Water Sylt PWA Super Grand Slam - Men’s Slalom
1st Arnon Dagan (RRD / NeilPryde)
2nd Cyril Moussilmani (Starboard / Severne)
3rd Julien Quentel (RRD / NeilPryde)
4th Pierre Mortefon (Fanatic / North)
5th Taty Frans (Starboard / MauiSails / Mystic / MFC)
6th Andrea Rosati (RRD / NeilPryde)
7th Maciek Rutkowski (Patrik / Point-7)
8th Josh Angulo (Angulo / Gun Sails)
9th Antoine Albeau (RRD / NeilPryde)
10th Ross Williams (Tabou / GA Sails)