The 2011 VW PWA Reno World Cup Sylt – day seven: The freestylers raise the bar and break the judge’s scales in the third Reno World Cup tow-in freestyle competition.

The sun continued to shine down on the Reno world cup preventing the wind from building again, but it had little effect on the action. The light-wind master Caesar Finies (Starboard / NeilPryde), kept the crowds entertained throughout the morning with his spins, boomerangs and his infamous sail throw whilst they chilled out on the beach.

It was then up to the freestylers to step into the limelight for the third Reno world cup tow-in freestyle competition. With a thousand Euros up for grabs, extremely flat water and almost zero wind, the sailors blew both the judges and the spectators away with their new insane scale breaking moves.

Heat 1

The judges knew they were in for an exciting day when Taty Frans (Starboard / MauiSails / Mystic / Maui Ultra Fins) opened the competition up with a super-clean burner into flaka putting him straight in the final. Dieter Van Der Eyken (Starboard / Severne) and Nicolas Akgazciyan (Starboard / Gun) followed with a burner and a culo but both suffered a little spinning out on the landing. It was up to Ricardo Campello (JP / NeilPryde / MFC) to take the next place in the final, and he was obviously enjoying the massive crowds attention as he landed fully planing burner just meters away from the shore.

Heat 2

The world champion Steven Van Broeckhoven (F2 / Gaastra) looked confident as he left the beach, and rightly so as he stuck a perfect triple jumping funnel for a maximum thirty points on his first run. On their first run both Bjorn Saragoza (Starboard / Hot Sails) and Marcilio Browne (Fanatic / North / MFC) went down hard, whilst Yegor Popretinskiy (JP / NeilPryde / MFC) pulled a double funnel. With the pressure lying on their performance in the second run, Browne and Saragoza were focused. Browne pulled a really powerful burner into funnel scoring highly, but Saragoza was ready for the challenge and he landed a super-stylish one hand on hip funnel into funnel putting him through the heat.

Heat 3

Opening up the third heat Jose Estredo (Fanatic / North) added a bit of diversity by landing a fast burner into funnel boomerang for maximum points. Julien Mas (Patrik / Hot Sails) continued with the theme going for a culo but he dropped the landing, and Anthony Ruenes (Tabou / Simmer) tried his trademark no-handed burner but the sail caught in the water. Luck was on Tonky Frans (Tabou / Gaastra) side and he pulled a perfect air funnel into funnel to earn his place in the final. With his place in the final awarded with his first run, Estredo had nothing to lose and he burst into a mind-blowing funnel into burner earning him thirty four points.

Final

With so many outstanding sailors in the final, the world’s best went all out pulling crazy moves to earn the most points. Campello was first up pulling a really high funnel for 23.5 points, followed by Tonky with a double jumping funnel and Taty with a 29 point scoring burner into flaka. Saragoza lost control going for a huge air funnel over the top of the cameraman and Van Broeckhoven pulled a high burner into funnel. But all eyes were on Estredo and he wowed the spectators with the highest and faster burner into funnel in the competition for 31.5 points. On their second runs Taty was the man to watch landing a burner into flaka cana brava on the beach putting him in second place. The masters Van Broeckhoven and Tonky were joint in third place having had two runs each so a sail off was arranged. Tonky played it safe landing an air funnel, but risking everything Van Broeckhoven closed the competition with an astonishing triple jumping funnel.

The third Reno world cup tow-in freestyle competition results:

1st Jose Estredo (Fanatic / North)
2nd Taty Frans (Starboard / MauiSails / Mystic / Maui Ultra Fins)
3rd Steven Van Broeckhoven (F2 / Gaastra)

Following the amazing competition the sailors were released for the day, the skippers meeting for all three fleets will kick off at 10am tomorrow morning with the first possible start to competition at 10:30am. Make sure you check out the highlights video on the PWA website to see all of today’s moves again.

Scope the action

For more information on all the entrants, and to keep up to date with every piece of the action, click on www.pwaworldtour.com

Here you can use our:
– Live ticker service for heat-by-heat bulletins
– Check live elimination ladders
– View results
– Read daily news summaries
– Browse awesome action photo galleries

Make sure you check out the event website for more video clips and pictures at www.windsurfworldcup.de, ‘like’ the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/worldcupsylt and follow everything on Twitter at www.twitter.com/#!/worldcupsylt. http://mpora.com/videos/8AfrqmViP