The 2005 Lanzarote PWA Grand Slam – Day 8

Sunday July 17, 2005

After a full on day of back to back competing, Douglas Diaz (V-34, Fanatic/ North) and Daida Moreno (E-64, Mistral/ North) win the 2005 Lanzarote freestyle title. With the final freestyle event of the season complete, Ricardo Campello (V-111, JP/ Neil Pryde) and Daida Moreno (E-64, Mistral/ North) take the overall freestyle world title.

The final day of the Lanzarote Costa Teguise PWA Grand Slam 2005 started with the ambitious goal to finish the second round single elimination as well as the double. The wind was playing ball at a solid 20 knots.

The men’s single elimination turned out to be a Venezuelan affair, with Douglas Diaz (V-34, Fanatic/ North) ripping his way to the final from one side and Jose Estredo (V-1, Fanatic/ North) storming in from the other end of the ladder. In the semi-final, Diaz knocked out Kevin Mevissen (H-79, JP/ Neil Pryde) while Estredo was too much for Taty Frans (NB-9, Starboard/ MauiSails).

The final was an insane display of freestyle fireworks. On the first reach in, Diaz completed six moves, Estredo seven, ranging from spocks, grubbies, esliders, funnels, switch chachoo’s and gozada’s. Throughout the heat, both Venezuelans were spitting out moves at a ridiculously high rate, giving the judges a hard time to keep up. It was Diaz who made the strongest impression and won the single elimination.

In the women’s single elimination final, longstanding rivals Daida Moreno (E-64, Mistral/ North) and Karin Jaggi (Z-14, F2) were up against each other. In the semi-final Jaggi put a stop to Sarah-Quita Offringa (ARU-91, Starboard) who had taken out Junko Nagoshi (J-11) in the quarter final. Daida Moreno had the upper hand over her sister Iballa (E-63, Mistral/ North) in the semis.

Both ladies were ripping in the final, sticking rocksolid spocks and grubbies in windy conditions. Jaggi missed out on a few moves too many though and Moreno claimed the victory with a stylish eslider at the end of the heat.

At 12:30 the double elimination was kicked off, with the first upset materializing in heat # 57 when Marcilio Browne (BRA-105, Naish/ Naish) terminated Anthony Ruenes (F-85, Tabou/ Gaastra) and in doing so Ruenes’ chances for the 2005 overall freestyle title. Title contenders Ricardo Campello (V-111, JP/ Neil Pryde) and Kauli Seadi (BRA-253, Quatro/ Naish) were steadily moving forward to top of the ladder, with the top 3 overall still far from decided. The tables turned however in heat # 63, when Kauli Seadi met his match in first round winner Taty Frans (NB-9, Starboard/ MauiSails) and was eliminated. It was one adversary less to worry about for Campello, who kept advancing by taking out Kevin Mevissen (H-79, JP/ Neil Pryde) who stuck a perfect Bob right in front of the crowds.

In the next round Taty Frans (NB-9, Starboard/ MauiSails) ruined the Lanzarote party for Campello by knocking him out with his Caribbean flair. The question was if the two times freestyle world champion had come far enough to secure the overall title for the third time in a row.

Meanwhile, Frans faced Jose Estredo (V-1, Fanatic/ North) in the semi final. In spite of Frans’ sick voquech right in front of the spectators, it was the Venezuelan that moved on to meet Douglas Diaz (V-34, Fanatic/ North) in the final for the second time today.

Estredo refused to be beaten by Diaz for the second time and pulled out all the stops including a massive shaka. Diaz was trying hard to get it over with and secure his event title, but crashed several of his moves, leaving the door open for Estredo to take the final, which meant the riders had to get out once last time to battle it out once and for all. Diaz had had his wake up call and took no prisoners in the resail. He blasted out a staggering 17 moves, only falling in twice on of the occasions being a radical air chachoo attempt. Besides a spectacular range of freestyle moves, Douglas ‘Cheo’ Diaz also added a tabletop forward to the list. Estredo didn’t mess about either and stuck an amazing thirteen moves, missing out just once. Jose ‘Gollito’ Estredo had a big shaka up his sleeve plus many more state of the art freestyle moves, but Diaz fought his way to victory once more, winning the double elimination and the Lanzarote Costa Teguise PWA Grand Slam 2005 freestyle title.

The women had their own battle for freestyle glory going on. Picking up the double elimination is heat # 62, Silvia Alba (E-67, Tabou/ Gaastra) ended the dream for Nayra Alonso (E-4, Fanatic/ Severne) who was well on her way to the upper regions of the ladder and Junko Nagoshi (J-11) took out Femke van der Valk (NB-05, F2), also putting up a strong performance here in Lanzarote. In the next round, Alba was up against the talk of the town, Sarah-Quita Offringa (ARU-91, Starboard). Offringa had been turning a lot of heads here with radical freestyle moves, but Alba didn’t falter and sent the wildgirl from Aruba back to the beach. Nagoshi had the edge over Iballa Moreno (E-63, Mistral/ North) this time and advanced to the quarter final to meet Alba.

Alba’s strong sailing gave her passage to the semi-final at the cost of Nagoshi, who was giving it her all but couldn’t match Alba’s spocks and forwards. Alba went through to the semis where single elimination runner up Karin Jaggi (Z-14, F2) was waiting.

Jaggi displayed a magnificent show of freestyle, sailing a nearly flawless heat. Two perfect spocks, a grubby, a willy skipper, a flaka and going for the clewfirst spock. Alba pulled off some great spocks as well, but the Swiss was just too much to handle and advanced to the final to meet Daida Moreno (E-64, Mistral/ North).

In the final, Moreno couldn’t tame Jaggi either. Even a sick air chachoo attempt couldn’t bring the reigning champion victory as Jaggi slashed up the contest area with spocks and flakas and won the heat. Just like the men, the women were in for a resail of the final. In that resail Jaggi seemed to have lost her edge somewhat, while Moreno was on fire, taking advantage. Moreno went through the moves with spocks, a lollypop, a grubby and a flaka, while Jaggi stuck multiple spocks, but wasn’t sticking her other moves, crashing out on a grubby a flaka and a clewfirst spock. Jaggi came close to taking the double, but it wasn’t to be as Daida Moreno took first place and thereby the event title, as well as the overall 2005 freestyle title.

Another successful event comes to an end, producing overall winners in both freestyle and Super X. All results for the Lanzarote Costa Teguise PWA Grand Slam 2005 and the overall final 2005 rankings are posted on the links below. After a break the PWA heads for the German island of Sylt on the 23rd of September for the final wave event of the year and the first race competition of the season. For all the updates on this event and other PWA developments, keep checking www.pwaworldtour.com regularly.