costa teguise – Maarten van Ochten

PWA Lanzarote 2010 final Day
Allready my last report for this Worldcup competition. Today we started of with strong winds good for a powerfull warmingup with my Neilpryde 5,3 Firefly and my JP Freestyle Australia 98 Pro.Just when the wind kicked in the crew decided to fininsh of the single elimination. As we still needed to finish the winners and losers final for both men and women.The wind kept building and so did the waves too. I was excited and prepared for action as I had made loads of progression in jumps during the winter-/ spring. The moment that we just started to run the double, the wind was still playing games, which kept whole competition on hold.

After a break from about two hours, the wind improved and fortunately we could go on with the double elimination! Luckily we finished a couple of rounds in the double elimination. Event summary; like most riders, I would have never thought Lanzarote providing low wind conditions. Last year we’ve been experiencing loads of waves and strong winds. I was quite surprised and so did all the other riders too. Most of us were not expecting light winds and choppy waters, but rather big waves and strong winds. Though I’m glad we got a result which counts, finishing on a 9th. place for the PWA Lanzarote Freetstyle 2010. Needless to say I’m very stoked hitting the top 5 overall in the World. Dreams do come true.

PWA Freestyle overall result after two events:

Jose Gollitio Estredo V-01/ Venezuela
Kiri Thode NB 61/ Bonaire
Steven van Broeckhoven B 72/ Belgium
Tonky Frans NB 7/ Bonaire
Maarten van Ochten H73/ Holland

Photos: Andras Marton

PWA Lanzarote 2010 Day 1
Registration started at 10AM in the morning. Right when I was preparing my sails with the event stickers, the wind started picking up lot. This gave me the opportunity for a nice warm-up session for 5,3. The forecast was really looking promising for the start of second PWA freestyle event. Unfortunately at 2PM when the first start was planned the wind already start dropping a lot. Insufficient enough for an official contest. Though a lot of riders went out giving the audience a nice show.

PWA Lanzarote 2010 Day 2
Skippersmeeting was planned at 9AM. When arriving at the event-scene the wind was still kind of light, luckily right after the lunchbreak things changed! Unexpected at 2PM the wind started to pick up a lot and finally we could start off!! My first opponent today was, Danilo Menezes da Silva BRA 83 from Brasil. After a nice warm up session the wind was good enough for my 98L JP freestyle Pro and my Neilpryde Firefly 5,3, just when the heat started the wind started of to be quit funny again. Because the wind wasn’t that solid I decided to go for really save heat, starting off whit a one handed Funnel, followed by Ponsch and a switch stance Chachoo, Shaka, small Airflaka etc… Danilo Menezes da Silva BRA 83, was also sailing quit strong, but in the end a won the heat.

Up to the next round. Now I had to face my friend, European Champion and currently Nr. 2 of the World Steven van Broeckhoven B-72. I knew I had to sail a great heat, to be able to beat him. My tactic this time, was starting of from a different direction, with a chance finding a solid ramp, to do a Airchachoo, which is a high scoring move. Unfortunately for me the wind started to drop a lot and I didn’t even come up to planning speed. Steven at that time was allready trowing a great show on the way in. In the end I didn’t sail a good heat whit a quite a lot of unnessary crashes. Steven took the victory and I was pissed of on about my peformance. For now I am positioned at 9th. place and I try to focus on the double elimination if the wind is efficient enough tomorrow. So hope you all wish me a lot of luck and I will do my honest best to perform the best I can! More news tomorrow.

Photos: John Carter PWA