Wednesday 26th June
Report: Matt Pearce / All photos: Svetlana Romantsova
The relentless pace continues!
With both the men’s and women’s single eliminations complete, it’s straight into the men’s doubles.
Men’s Heat 19A
J. Donat / D. Derksen
An easy victory for Jorn Donat, it has to be said. He lands a clean air reverse and a board-off ahead of his opponent Derksen to take a clean win.
Men’s Heat 21A
C. Delannoy / L. Tkatsch
This was the only other heat that was due to run in round one of the double eliminations. Camille Delannoy won it, perhaps partly because his opponent didn’t show up, but still a good effort nonetheless..
Men’s Round Two starts here
Conditions – 20-25 knots of wind and rideable shore break waves
Judging criteria – now 70% strapless freestyle / 30% waves
Men’s Heat 22A
K. Roig / A. Dias
The first heat of the event to run in the mixed format of 70% strapless freestyle and 30% wave riding begins.
Kiko takes it with a far more advanced strapless freestyle display than Arsenio was able to put together.
Men’s Heat 22B
G. Harney / K. Lopes
Harney looks far more comfortable in these onshore conditions than Kelton Lopes. It’s not the kind of conditions the Cape Verdean rider is used to, but he manages to stick a nice backroll tick tack.
It’s not enough though and Harney, who has made a really impressive debut performance here, wins the day.
Men’s Heat 23A
P. Pereira / J. Donat
Paulino Pereira shows his all-rounder ability in this heat. He racks up a 5.83 ride even in small, onshore waves and does some nice aerials off the lip to beat Jorn Donat.
Jorn rode well though, with a couple of nice air reverses off the lip. It wasn’t enough to beat the Portuguese Powerhouse though!
Men’s Heat 23B
W. R Tonkin / L. Millard
Willow takes this with some of the higher wave riding scores we’ve seen today. It’s not like the reeling One Eye waves he regularly trains on, but wave riding class knows no bounds and he beats Luke Millard to go through to the next round.
Men’s Heat 24A
A. Reboucas / R. Boelen
Reboucas wins this one with a composed performance ahead of Ralph Boelen but by just 0.63 of a heat.
Men’s Heat 24B
T. Ciliberto / E. Nunes
Toni C riding well in this heat. He’s used to onshore conditions, due to riding in the Mediterranean for most of the year and he also sticks a nice floaty front roll tail grab for extra variety.
Overall impression really counts now that judges and making decisions based on wave riding as well as strapless freestyle, and Tony wins the heat after a well put together display.
Men’s Heat 25A
C. Delannoy / N. Abadjiev
Camille has not been having an easy day so far. His broken finger has him in a lot of pain, but he’s pushing through it and won’t let that stop him.
Nicola leads from early on, and Camille looks like he’s trying to ride one handed as much as possible to avoid aggravating his injury.
Abadjiev keeps up the charge, compiling average but consistent rides in the onshore conditions. Camille’s clearly in quite a lot of pain but he won’t back down and he ups the pace in the last minute to pull ahead with some last minute hacks on the inside.
It wasn’t pretty, but Camille wins the heat!
Men’s Heat 25B
L. Pünder / J. Sanca
Pünder wins this one without any contest from Jordy Sanca who, unfortunately, had an equipment malfunction which caused him to miss most of the heat. Linus rode well though, with some powered backhand hacks and grabbed airs in challenging conditions now that the wind is more onshore.
Men’s Round Three Begins
Men’s Heat 26A
K. Roig Torres / G. Harney
These two riders have been stellar today. Graham’s made a very impressive debut and Kiko genuinely gave Airton a run for his money at points in the single eliminations.
He had to work hard to get past Graham though, and it was only a decent lip smack late in the heat that gave him the edge over the young Canadian.
Men’s Heat 26B
P. Pereira / W.R Tonkin
One of the best heats of the doubles up to this point with two equally matched wave riders going up against each other.
Willow stuck a lightning quick double front roll which brought him close to the lead, but Paulino rode with more power throughout the heat and some quick linked turns in the shore break conditions.
Men’s Heat 27A
T. Ciliberto / A. Reboucas
Anderson Reboucas wins this one. Instead of going for lower angle moves, he did some nice lofty tricks including a board-off board spin into a rodeo as well as some decent toeside hits on the inside.
Men’s Heat 27B
L. Pünder / C. Delannoy
Linus has been one of a posse of tour rookies who’ve impressed the judges today. Now he ws going up against one of the tour’s most experienced competitors, Camille, in the final heat of round three.
Would Camille be able to push through the pain of his broken finger (again)? His first trick, a powered backroll kiteloop suggested so!
Linus didn’t manage to secure any scores unfortunately, while Camille also scored a few powered hits in the waves and so would go on to win the heat.
Round Four Starts Here
Men’s Heat 28A
F. Capuzzo / K. Roig Torres
Kiko the strapless specialist goes up against Capuzzo, the Italian waterman. Capuzzo knows the importance of taking points when they’re available, so squeezes turns out of every wave but even in the increasingly wavy and chop conditions, Kiko is still managing to land technical strapless freestyle tricks.
Capuzzo has the edge on wave riding skill, but the bulk of the scores in this heat are on offer for strapless freestyle and he can’t match Kiko in that area. Kiko scored highly for technical difficult, variety and overall impression and he won the heat to go through to round five.
Men’s Heat 28B
P. Pereira / P. Matos
Pereira finding the better waves in this heat and still riding with his customary power. Stomps an air reverse and comes very close to a rodeo kiteloop.
He follows that up with one of the best rides of the day, linking up a couple of powered hacks at the lip and finishing up with a wave 360.
Matos not getting the same luck on wave selection though, and when he comes up short on a front roll shuvit 3 it’s clear that Paulino’s taken the heat. It wasn’t by a massive margin, but it was some of the best wave riding of the doubles so far.
Decision: Pereira!
Men’s Heat 29A
T. Ciliberto / J.M Riveras
Jan Marcos gets things rolling with a big tail grab front roll out the back. These conditions pretty much mirror what he trains in at home in Tarifa when ‘poniente’ winds blow through (although it’s a bit colder obviously) and he’s all over it!
Toni’s keeping busy though, with some flowing toeside riding on the inside and some nice grabbed pops off the lip.
As the heat counter rolls into the final minutes, both riders are trying to score as many wave rides as possible but Jan Marcos has just managed to get an edge on Toni and he wins to progress through to round five.
Men’s Heat 29B
C. Delannoy / R. Myerscough
Final heat of the day and Camille and Reece, two very capable riders in both strapless freestyle and wave riding are up for the showdown.
Reece comes painfully close to what would have been the biggest board-off kiteloop of the day and Camille comes back at him with a floaty front roll and a late board-off straight after.
Camille’s making more of the waves on offer with some nice round houses and cutbacks, but Reece is going a little bigger on his air tricks.
However, Camille knows it’s now or never and he does a powered back roll rodeo kite loop off a wave which (butt-check not withstanding) should have scored pretty well.
Scores are still tight at this point, but Camille does a huge front roll and scores a massive 8.1 for overall impression.
Camille wins it and he wins it well. Not a bad effort with a broken hand!
