A day and a half's action crammed into a day.... We kicked off the rest of the single elimination this morning, completing a full mens and women's single.. and getting a good portion of the way into the double elimination...
I'm in too dark a place right now to bring you my feelings and thoughts on what i've been through today!, i'll come back to that later! It's better and only right that i bring you the sugar coated good stuff first....
I did mention something yesterday that Old timer Proffitt was back to his slippery best and i just wish i'd put my money where my mouth was on this one... First heat of the day was due to be Proffitt v Kauli and Koester v Lenny but it didn't quite happen like that?
Three jolly windsurfers were waiting for their heat to go into sequence whilst one not so jolly rider was getting a ticking off by the law for speeding! i think they'd been enjoying their breakfast or mornings activities a bit too much and were running a little late, pedal to the metal up the motorway and the blue lights came on, whoops!!
Duncan took the decision to give them a little breathing space and bump the first heat down to fourth of the day, that meant everyone shuffled up a notch and Proffitt had to wait a little longer for his turn at last years world number 2....
Initially a little cheesed off by the decision it actually turned in his favour, he got a bit more practice time and started to land a few things?
The conditions for all the riders today were tough, a fairly strong wind was paired with head high waves at times and quite a choppy sea, it made it pretty tough going.. With the wind up, the heats were shortened to around 12 minutes, it meant you had just enough time to get a couple of rides and a couple of jumps without too much pressure not to fall.
Proffitt was, as i said, back to his slippery best, getting a couple of jumps in the bank and piecing together the best rides i've seen him do since he's been coming here, well, one was very good at least. Ben made his backside 360 on the wave and a couple of backside turns, finishing off with a taka almost onto the beach at the end, critical was his timing as he did this whilst Kauli was having a bit of a moment, he'd crashed his jumps and was flaming a ride just as Proffitt was turning it on, so it looked to all the beach he was clearly the better sailor...
Kauli wasn't done and came back with a nice tweaked pushy and a table forward to match Ben's backloop and equally tweaked pushy, he was still scratching around for a decent first ride when Proffit caught his second decent scoring wave and pulled a frontside 360 out of the white water to put the nail in the brazilians coffin! Nice work Proffitt!!
Kauli didn't look too pleased but it's not over yet, he'll be on the charge in the double elimination for sure!
Ben went on to face Koester in the next round but his skills didn't quite get him through, despite better waves than Philip, Ben knew it was over when Koester landed a perfect stalled double forward right in front of him as he was coming in... it was pretty easily the best jump of the round and Ben didn't have too much to come back at him with after that!! A good effort but not quite enough for two upsets in one day...
It was all going pretty much to the form book with the exception of local Marcos Perez kicking out Volwater and Voget, before being stopped by koester, the old dog was ripping!
Dario did some spanish killing, taking out Jonas Ceballos and Alex Mussolini, who didn't look best pleased? i thought he'd sailed well and was unlucky to go out..
Brawzi upset Swifty and Ricardo on his way to the bottom half of the final four, where he met Victor Fernandez for a shot at the final...
It was the final we all thought would happen but not the result we all thought would happen, which was kinda cool to see. Victor was sailing pretty averagely for him prior to the contest but he seems to have stepped it right up since the flag's have come out..
He's been sailing brilliantly in his heats and the final was right up there with the best of the day, he must have changed something in his sails over the winter or been away and practiced a bit because he's got his whip back into his doubles and he nailed some to rival koester..
Koester on the other hand had looked dangerous prior to the heats but when it came to the crunch he just seemed a bit off the pace (the pace he has set in the past i'll add) he was almost a bit lethargic and not really on his game? perhaps the difficult conditions slowed him down a bit? his jumping scores are always busting out off the page, but when it's tough his riding isn't all that amazing, like today, and Victor was the deserved winner.. hat's off to you old bean...
Daida did the usual and creamed it in the women's, with the exception of her sister in the final the only one to anywhere near challenge her.. isn't it about time there were some more powerful women wave sailors coming through to challenge them, these two will still be lifting trophies in Pozo in 20 years time unless somebody like Sarah Quita Offringa decides to get into waves.. maybe she will?
With a spare hour or two and to set up for the grand stand finish tomorrow, Dunc started running the double elimination this evening, keen to get through some heats today we were cast out to do battle in a total chopfest! It was the most difficult conditions you can get in Pozo i thought? one wave every 5 to 10 minutes and soooooo choppy it was unbelievable, with only 8 minute heats it was pressure stuff, you can't risk a fall or it's over red rover!
I came unstuck to french ripper Jules Denel, he's fast becoming my nemesis!! twice in two comps he's done me in the double elimination, i didn't really help myself though and did well to bite my tongue of a few choice words i wanted to deliver to the head judge after the heat for putting us through that garbage!
It's all set up for a big day of competition tomorrow and all the boys will be fired up to get stuck in... again Proffitt's supposed to be first up... so we'll be up bright and early breakfasting as skippers is at 8.00 with a first possible start at 8.15
Now i'm out of the contest, I'll try grab a quick session in the morning but i imagine i'll be cheering on the team mates and bringing you lot anything i find interesting to write about...
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/07/2010 | 8:42pm by Phil Horrocks.
