With a great forecast, day two at the EFPT Lanzarote kicked off with heat number 30 of the remaining double elimination. Julian Wiemar (Starboard/Severne) who was having one of his best international competitions so far, had to face Riccardo Marca (North/Fanatic) from Italy, whilst Antoine Albert (Goya/Goya) had to battle it out with Giovanni Passani. Wiemar was putting on a good fight against the North/Fanatic rider, however Marcas competition game was fully on. With some moves performed outside of the heat area, the German had to let Marca pass in the end.

Albert from New Caledonia seemed to be on a mission to hit the top 4 positions again and took out Passani and Marca in the following heat. He couldn’t go past young Sam Esteve (JP/Neilpryde) though, who is ranked 2nd in the EFPT overall at the moment. Both riders had great moves and finished their heats with a bonka (Albert) and an air-funnel into burner right on the horn (Esteve). The 5:0 judges decision favoredthe Frenchie in the end, who had to then take on the current leader of the tour Jacopo Testa (RRD/RRD).

The next heat was a firework of high-class freestyle maneuvres. Esteve opened with a huge culo and topped it up with a floaty shaka and a shove-it spock. Whilst Testa had no good start by failing a kabi, the Italian then went even bigger stomping a supernice shaka and bonka going out. Coming towards the beach he landed a spock culo straight into Esteves face, who matched this with a pasko. Testa really put the pressure onto the young Frenchie by landing a switch forward and a superb fully planing regular chachoo. The RRD rider moved on to face top Belgian freestyler Yentel Caers (JP) for second or third position. Even though Testa didn’t look as safe in his spock-powermove combinations today, he dispatched Caers in a 3:2 decision, to then take on Steven Van Broeckhoven (JP/Neilpryde) in the final.

To watch the final was something else, concerning the style and technical difficulty of the moves that each rider pulled out of their sleeves. Testa went for a double culo, a kabi into spock, a spock culo on the wave and a perfect bonka, whilst the reigning European Freestyle Champion landed a burner burner, an air funnell burner, a super nice shove it spock and a powerful pasko. Testa could take down Broeckhoven in a 5:0 decision and was shining again in the superfinal to take first place in the first double elimination.

 

SINGLE ELIMINATION 2

After a short lunch-break, the riders were sent out on the water again straight-away. With the waves picking up and creating some nice ramps, the afternoon promised to hold some serious action for the spectators.

You could see the determination in some riders eyes to climb up some positions. One of them was Jeremy Plüss from Switzerland who advanced over Loick Spicher (RRD/RRD) and Giovanni Passani, but couldn’t get past Van Broeckhoven in the quater final. Nevertheless, the Swiss sailor ended up in a much better position for the second double elimination, with even more room for improvement.

The second single elimination also caused some upsets quite early in. Davy Scheffers, who showed some brilliant sailing in the Toro Andaluz earlier this year, took out the leader of the event Jacopo Testa in round two. However, the technically skilled Dutch sailor could not get past Tonky Frans (RRD/RRD) who was on a mission of his own, after yesterdays disappointing results. With the waves getting bigger and bigger due to the dropping tide, Frans went for clean pushloops, backloops, paskos, air chachoos and forwards and mixed it up with powermoves on both tacks. Sam Esteve (JP/Neilpryde) was then the one to advance over Frans in the semi-final. The losers final had then to be decided between Frans and the extremly talented sailor from Belgium Yentel Caers.

Rick Jendrusch (Severne) who consistently held an overall top ten ranking over the last few years on tour, was eager to improve his result. He stomped a perfect regular chachoo in his heat against Wilson and could claim victory. The Dutch rider showed a solid performance but could not get past Esteve, who seems to be one of the most dangerous opponents on tour, with a high potential to improve even more over the next seasons.

After another Belgian battle between Yentel Caers (JP) and Steven Van Broeckhoven, that has been decided once again in favor of the latter and Van Broeckhoven met Esteve in the final. The Belgian freestyle routinier threw a double culo and a double burner within the first minute of the heat and furthermore landed culo 360s, a pushloop, a pasko, a backloop and a one handed burner just to mark down a few. His younger JP/Neilpryde team-mate Esteve answered with some moves of his own like a double culo, burner funnells and no handed burners, but couldn’t beat his opponent, which made Van Broeckhoven the winner of the second single elimination.

DOUBLE ELIMINATION 2

With no time to lose, the second double elimination was launched at 5.00 pm, with all the riders being super keen to sail more heats, some simply seeking revenge.

The youngest sailor of the competition, Lennart Neubauer (Starboard/Neilpryde) from Greece, had one of his best heats of this event against Deivis Paternina. Neubauer landed shove-its, a super nice kono and a stylish puneta. He lost against the Venezualean sailor in a 2:1 decision and proved his potential of being a high class competition sailor in the future.

Ww were getting in six heats into the second double elimination in the afternoon. The remaining second double elimination will be staged tomorrow, with some sailors definitely ready to fight. Up on front Jacopo Testa, who is the winner of the event at the moment, but cannot get less than first place in the second double elimination to be able to defend this position against Steven Van Broeckhoven, winner of the second single elimination. Testa will have to win nine heats tomorrow, to be able to take overall victory at the EFPT Lanzarote 2017.

Skippers meeting is on at 10.00am, first possible start 10.30am.