With the best forecast since the start of the event the skippers meeting was set for 9.30 am this morning with the first possible start at 10.00 am.
South-east wind in Podersdorf is always a bit of an issue as the competition area needs to be very far outside in the lake as this direction only fills in if the wind is unusually strong. When the first freeriders started planing on the outside though, race director Tom Hartmann joined the race crew in the competition area.
The conditions were up and down with a few gusts that would just allow to get going on sail-sizes like 5.3 and bigger. Nevertheless the decision was made to try and run the competition as the forecast for the upcoming days doesn’t look very promising at all.
The first four riders of heat number one Philip Soltysiak (Starboard), Romain Pinocheau, Yegor Propretinskiy (North/Fanatic) and Mattia Fabrizi (North/Fanatic) had to head out to the judging boat. After a while it became obvious that the conditions wouldn’t improve and that the few stronger gusts were by far not sufficient. The riders therefor got a ride back to the beach with the boat and the start was postponed.
Meanwhile the gathering crowd on the beach was surprised with a tow-in supersession featuring Steven Van Broeckhoven (JP/Neilpryde), Max Matissek (North/Fanatic) and Tonky Frans (Tabou/Gaastra). Giving a little preview on what was to come in the third qualification round of the Chiemsee European Tow-In Championship, more and more people stopped at the beachfront to secure the best possible places for the upcoming contest.
Steven Van Broeckhoven (JP/Neilpryde) by Martin Reiter
The fleet was supposed to be one of the hardest to be drawn into. With the European Tow-In Champion of 2012 and 2013 Steven Van Broeckhoven and one of the best tow-in riders worldwide Adrien Bosson from France the battle would truly be on! Furthermore Davy Scheffers (Tabou/Gaastra) and Rick Jendrusch (F2) from Holland as well as Dieter Van der Eyken (Starboard) would be riders to look out for, as seen in the training session. Marco Lufen (JP/Neilpryde), Dmitry Tertyshnyy, Valentin Böckler (Starboard), Vladimir Yakovlev (JP/Neilpryde) and Rasmus Oegelund (Patrik/Sailloft) completed the fleet of ten.
Max Matissek (North/Fanatic) by Martin Reiter
Whilst European Champion Steven Van Broeckhoven was throwing himself through an air-funell 900 and through an air-funell into burner with top speed and a height that was more than impressive, Adrien Bosson landed a perfect burner 900 really close to the beach. When Rick Jendrusch from Holland and Dieter Van der Eyken from Belgium struggled a bit, 21 old Rasmus Oegelund from Denmark shined and surprised the other riders and the judges with a perfect double air-funell in his first run and with an air-funell into one-handed air-funell in his second run. The young sailor stated that he tried this move today for the first time and got some tips from team-mate Adam Sims just before the training, which is hard to believe regarding his performance. Just like his Patrik Diethelm collegues Mas and Sims he pointed the optimized pop and speed of the new Patrik freestyle boards out.
Vladimir Yakovlev who is supposed to be one of the most diverse riders on the tour and who proved his tow-in skills already at the EFPT competition in France and Russia showed his ‘trademark’ tow-in move- the no-handed burner which scored high and put him through to the final.
Check out this nice sum-up video of today’s qualifying produced by BOARDSEEKERMAG :
Going through to the big night tow-in final on Wednesday are: Steven Van Broeckhoven, Adrien Bosson and Vladimir Yakovlev.
Adrien Bosson about winning fleet #3 of the Chiemsee European Tow-in Championship and about the final:
“I would really like to win this competition, but I think that especially Steven and Tonky will be hard to beat! Anyway I am looking forward to the final on Wednesday!”
Lucky loser to complete the fleet of ten for the big night tow-in is Youp Schmit (JP) from Bonaire who landed a huge culo in the qualification round on saturday.
Tomorrow’s skippers meeting is scheduled for 9.30 am. Since the forecast doesn’t look good for the whole day we’ll have an alternative program and will update you via our social media channels. For more please go to:
EFPT on Instagram