Fuerteventura PWA Grand Slam, double elimination

Day 9 of the 2023 Fuerteventura PWA Grand Slam saw the conclusion of the men’s and women’s Freestyle, which saw Sarah-Quita Offringa (Starboard / NeilPryde / Maui Ultra Fins) claim a record extending 14th Freestyle world title, whilst Yentel Caers (JP / NeilPryde) completed a superb comeback to claim his first event title on the World Tour.

Freestyle 

Women’s

Sarah-Quita Offringa (Starboard / NeilPryde / Maui Ultra Fins) admitted to being nervous on the final day of the Freestyle contest, especially with Maaike Huvermann (Severne / Severne Sails / Maui Ultra Fins) picking up her level of performance, but the Lady from Aruba has an uncanny knack of embracing those nerves to increase her own level and that’s exactly what she did again as she successfully defended her single elimination title to clinch her 14th Freestyle world title and 21st overall. Offringa was pushed all the way in the final by Huvermann, but in the latter stages of the heat just managed to assert as she landed a powerful air funnel and a pasko to wrap up the event!

Huvermann had looked a little out of sorts in the single elimination, but the 25-year-old rediscovered somewhere near her best form in the double to gain one place to second after winning an incredibly close heat against – Oda Brødholt (Starboard / Severne Sails) – where just 0.3 of a point separated them .  Huvermann posted the highest scoring heat of the contest – 28.1 points – in Heat 33 to bring Lisa Kloster’s (MB-Boards / Sailloft Hamburg) comeback to an end with a combination of culos, skopus and shuvit spocks impressing the judges. Huvermann finishes the season as the vice-world champion once again.

Brødholt was gutted to have missed out on the vice-world title by such a slim margin, but the Norwegian sailed solidly throughout and should still be proud of her performance – especially with such small margins being the difference. Brødholt, Offringa and Huvermann continue to dominate the Women’s Freestyle scene as they complete the podium again!

Lisa Kloster fought back to claim fourth for 2023, which improves her overall performance by once place compared to 2021 when she finished 5th, whilst Lina Erpenstein (Severne / Severne Sails) finishes 5th after making her debut on the Freestyle World Tour.

Men’s

Yentel Caers (JP / NeilPryde) was disappointed to miss out on a place in the winners’ final of the single elimination and the Belgian was able to use that disappointment perfectly as he went on a tear in the double elimination to secure his first event victory on the World Tour. The 2019 world champion posted the highest scoring heat of the single elimination – 51.1 points – in the battle for third and fourth, whilst he also set the highest scoring heat of the double with a monstrous – 47.2 points – in Heat 33 against Amado Vrieswijk (Future Fly / Severne Sails), so he is arguably the deserved winner – especially after defeating reigning world champion – Adrien Bosson (Fanatic / Duotone / Maui Ultra Fins) – twice to claim the top place on the podium!

Bosson may be slightly disappointed to relinquish the top spot on the podium here, but it still represents an excellent start to the season and keeps him firmly in the world title race heading into Sylt! The finals were run in gusty conditions and the Frenchman couldn’t quite display the same combination of power moves that he did in the single!

Antony Ruenes slips one place in the double to third, but the Frenchman will still be delighted as he walks away with his first podium finish since 2014!

Amado Vrieswijk brought Jacopo Testa’s (AV Boards / Point-7 / AL360) brilliant comeback to an end in Heat 32 to defend his fourth place from the single elimination, which means the Bonairean finishes both in the Slalom & Freestyle to show he is currently the best all round sailor in the world.

Testa, meanwhile, produced the come back of the double elimination as the Italian came from last place in the single to eventually finish 5th overall after taking down; Nicolo Di Marco, Dieter Van der Eyken (Severne / Severne Sails), Nicolas Akgazciyan (JP / NeilPryde), Balz Muller (Severne / Severne Sails), Youp Schmit (Tabou / GA Sails) and Lennart Neubauer (Starboard / Severne Sails / Maui Ultra Fins) as the vice-world champion discovered his best form to complete a brilliant recovery. Testa also landed the best move of the day with a sick chachoo into spock!

Like Testa, Neubauer completed a fantastic comeback through the double which saw him win 5 heats on the bounce to finish 6th here after also coming from the first round. The young Greek was only stopped by an on fire Testa.

Steven Van Broeckhoven (Starboard / GUNSAILS) pushed Neubauer all the way in Heat 30a, but was crucially missing a move on port tack. The Belgian thought he had landed a barracuda just before the buzzer, but that was adjudged to be out of time, which cost him in a place in the top 6. Youp Schmit (Tabou / GA Sails) shares joint 7th with Van Broeckhoven.

The top ten is completed by Sam Esteve (JP / NeilPryde), Antoine Albert (Goya Windsurfing), Balz Muller and Niclas Nebelung (Fanatic / Duotone / Maui Ultra Fins), who all share joint 9th.

With the men’s and women’s double eliminations being concluded today, tomorrow, which is the last day of the 2023 Fuerteventura PWA Grand Slam, will see an Expression Session held – the skippers’ meeting for which will be held at 1pm (GMT+1).

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