16 riders out of 10 different nations registered for the third stage in the run for the EFPT champion 2015 taking place in Perna on the peninsula of Peljecak, Croatia. Amongst the pro-riders that join the European Tour at every stop were delighted to also see two girls and two riders of the IFCA junior division joining the fleet.
Besides the experienced competitors like Amado Vrieswijk (JP/Severne), current leader of the tour Adrien Bosson (North/Fanatic), Yentel Caers (Neilpryde/JP) from Belgium as well as Adam Sims (Sailloft/Patrik), Hugo Sousa (RRD/RRD) and Loick Spicher (North/JP) local rider and organiser Marko Mudrovcic and Croatian freestyler Matko Jovanovic joined the contest.
The island of Korcula (by Boris Kacan)
Also Riccardo Marca (North/Fanatic) the young Italian rider who joined the tour at the EFE in Six Fours les Plages in 2014 for the first time and just finished school signed up as well and is now ready to take on the international competition scene.
Maxime Van Gent (North/Fanatic) who had her EFPT debut in Lanzarote will compete alongside the boys together with up and coming freestyle lady from the Netherlands Jazzy Zwerus. The young Russian Kostya Smirnov (JP/Neilpryde) who is mostly training in Dahab, Egypt, Matthias Erlacher (Sailloft/Fanatic) from Austria and Maxime Schmidt (F2/Neilpryde) from Belgium are three more rookies who want to aspire their first international competition experience.
Riccardo Marca going for a burner in the tow-in
Since the IFCA is running the youth and junior division in the same time period two kids grabbed the opportunity to perform in one fleet together with some of their idols. 11 years old Lennart Neubauer (Starboard/Neilpryde) from Greece and 12 years old Turtko Ljutic from Croatia been sailing for hours and hours in the past days training spocks, flakas and even switch ducking maneuvres.
With a promising forecast but unusual weather conditions the thermal wind didn’t porperly kick in until the evening. Since the all the riders find it very hard to sit still the whole day to wait for the wind, a tow-in supersession was organised. A growing crowd on the beach was cheering for the sailors whilst they were circling some of their best tricks in front of the beautiful backdrop of Korcula Island.
Yentel Caers in todays tow-in session
Just before sunset the conditions improved and the riders could do some tricks on their 5.2s and bigger boards. The IFCA could run the youth division and we straight away went into the first heat of the first single elimination with Zwerus against Caers and Erlacher against Spicher. Unfortunately the wind dropped completely and race director Tom Hartmann had to call it off for today.
The forecast for tomorrow and the next days looks very light, yet the local effects might boost it up to sailable conditions. Skippers meeting is schedulded for 1.00pm. We have our fingers crossed and hope for some good action within the upcoming days.
Check out the small trailer of the warm-up day at Perna, Croatia:
IFCA FREESTYLE_ProKids_EFPT_Teaser Video from IFCA Freestyle on Vimeo.