EUROPEAN FUNBOARD EXPRESSION – SIX FOURS LES PLAGES – 27 / 31 OCTOBER 2012
European Windsurf Championship – Stage of the European Freestyle Pro Tour EFPT.
Mentre le previsioni di oggi annunciano un cartella di vento da est/nord est con picchi intorni ai 70 nodi (la videata di Windfinder con il colore nero era un po’ che non si vedeva!), ieri gli amici dell’EFE si sono dilettati con… una Tow In session! Report from Hanna Poschinger/EFPT - Photos by Raffi Cherbedjian.
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French raid on the Tow In session
Just as forecasted the southern shores of France didn’t see much wind throughout the day.  Accompanied by a lot of sunshine though, the tow in final was scheduled for 2.00 pm this afternoon. After an hour of training, where the two towing boats could have been seized not only by the finalists but also by all the other riders who wanted to give it another go and have some nice time on the water, Tom Hartmann gave the permission to start the final.
Every rider had two runs and chose to get towed in from the right or the left side of the beach. A very well organised and experienced team on the boats managed to provide a perfect process of competition.
Really impressing and quite surprising was the solid performance of young French sailor Romain Pinocheau. Romain was one of the riders that we presented in our fresh faces category earlier this year. Pinocheau started freestyling only two years ago and circled two perfectly popped and dry landed double funnels into the glassy waters of Le Brusc. This maneuver secured him the third place today!
Julien Mas showed two high scoring moves but it was not enough to convince the judges for the first place. Therefor he ended up second, clearly disappointed but with a high motivation to strike back as soon as possible he was seen asking around for lifts to the UK event - CENTAUR King of the Wind.
Furthermore, we saw sick action by Antoine Albert from New Caledonia. Albert was the only one who didn’t show funnels or burner combinations, but switch kono attempts! After he landed the first one perfectly, he went for a skopu in the second run and almost nailed it! This was rewarded by the crowd and the judges and brought him a well deserved first place! The young rider jumped from his board in celebration and later was found smiling from ear to ear on the podium and stated how happy he was to win in an international competition for the first time!
Even though the podium has been fully under a French commando, there have been some great performances by Italian North/Fanatic rider Mattia Fabrizi who showed burner/funnel variations and ended up 4th. 5th place was taken by freestyle talent from Austria, Max Matissek (Fanatic) with a double funnell cana brava, a very clean, technical and well executed move.
The spectators on the beach saw once again a nice show and the prize giving happened straight afterwards in the tent. Trophies were handed out and the amount of photographers gave a hollywood style.
The organisation announced a social evening tonight with a pasta party that will be free for all competitors. Afterwards it will probably be a short evening and therefor longer night for the competitors, as the skippers meeting for tomorrow is scheduled for 9.00 am and the program is: COMPETITION! The wind forecast predicts offshore wind with a strength of up to 67 knots in the gusts! Make sure not to miss a piece of action and follow us on the live stream!