The 2008 PWA Costa Teguise World Cup – Day Four

Jose Estredo continues his rampage to steal the event lead from Marcilio Browne while Sarah-Quita Offringa remains rock solid in first place for the women, following the second full double elimination.

Entering day four, Marcilio Browne (Mistral, Gaastra) held the event lead, however Jose Estredo (Fanatic, North Sails) stood poised to steal the top spot from the Brazilian in the upcoming double elimination.

In the women’s fleet, Sarah-Quita Offringa (Starboard, NeilPryde) held a firm grip on first place, but would have to defend her throne from attack in the double.

Men’s Double Elimination 2

Day four started out with the shock defeat of current event leader Browne, at the hands of on form German ripper Normen Gunzlein (JP, NeilPryde). This left the door wide open for Estredo to claim the event lead.  

As the day progressed, Taty Frans (Starboard, North Sails) and Ricardo Campello (JP, NeilPryde) showed their thirst for victory, as they climbed the ranks from opposite sides of the table to meet in a monumental clash. The resulting bout was one of the closest yet, but Campello eventually took the victory, aided by a crazy backloop and a perfect shovit spock.

Meeting Andre Paskowski (Fanatic, North Sails) in the next round, Campello had his work cut out to elaborate on the Germans effortless flaka 720 and super technical switch stance one-handed chacho 900. Delving deep, Campello summoned ponches, a huge misty flip and a culo to help him through to the next round.

Campello’s next hurdle was Gunzlein. The pair exchanged formidable moves, including a one-handed burner from Gunzlein and soaring air flaka from Campello, but ultimately Campello would be a victim of his own errors as he crashed numerous moves to open the door for Gunzlein to advance.

Standing one heat away from the final, Gunzlein would first have to slay Kiri Thode (Starboard, Gaastra) before getting his chance to challenge Jose Estredo (Fanatic, North Sails) in the last battle of the elimination.

Going in all guns blazing, Gunzlein busted out a crazy pushloop and a plethora of one-handed gems to test Thode. Unphased, Thode moved his sights in on Gunzlein, and with precision accuracy, executed a machine gun like burst of moves to convincingly outclass his German rival. Thode would face Estredo in the double elimination final.

Almost redefining the discipline, Thode and Estredo waged freestyle war on each other, only in this case, the weapons of mass destruction were culos, shuvit spocks and ponch diablos.

In a clash that may well have had NATO nuclear weapons inspectors quivering in their boots, the final hit would be dealt by Estredo, who nailed a gravity defying air chachoo to condemn Thode to second position. Estredo’s victory also marked a changing of the guard, as Browne had to pass over the event lead to the Venezuelan.

Women’s Double Elimination 2

Japan’s Junko Nagoshi (Simmer Sails) mounted a sizable attack as she climbed the ranks of the double elimination. Her first victim was Russian Olga Raskina (JP), followed by Yolanda Freites De Brendt (Fanatic, North Sails), who performed well, but couldn’t match Nagoshi’s stella attack.

Nagoshi’s downfall would come when she came up against savvy freestyler Daida Moreno (North Sails). Moreno’s diversity and hit rate proved too much for Nagoshi, who failed to reply to the Spaniards impressive repertoire.

A stone’s throw from the final, Laure Treboux (Fanatic, North Sails) and Daida Moreno exchanged punches in an action packed heat that saw Treboux nail punetas and clew first punetas. Moreno mounted an impressive attack but couldn’t match Treboux’s consistency.

The final showdown pitched Offringa against Treboux in a rematch of the previous day’s heat. Treboux skied an awesome shaka to pile the pressure on Offringa. In response, Offringa dealt out a crippling blow which included a kono, a flaka, and a grubby diablo. On the final horn, Offringa had edged the victory, further reinforcing her event lead.

Tomorrow will see the start of a fresh elimination giving all the sailors another chance to advance in the competition. Be sure to follow all the action here on pwaworldtour.com.

PWA / Andrew Buchanan