Vassiliki Freestyle 2008

For the first time in the history of the EFPT, they hold a competition in this spot!

The creme de la creme of the european freestyle got together, Andre Paskowski,Normen Guenzlein,Antxan Otaegui,Nico Agazciyan, Jakub Kosmowski,Andy Bubble Chambers and many more are ready to fight for this title!

Day 1

It was around 2 pm when the wind kicked in from the normal direction,and after the registration,we got straight startet with the single elimination-well i had to do the qualification first ,as the were so many riders!

The wind was very shifty and a bit light but i sailed alright and could qualify for the event!

In the first round i had to it with Nico(F400),one of the favorites for this event-the wind was now almost onshore which is very unlikley to happen normaly,i went out on my 5.2 and could hardly get planing,i managed to catch to gust and made 2 moves-don't know how but nico to managed to use every ever so slight gust to pull out some good moves,i thought the heat get canceled but as Nico made enough moves the let it through,and he advanced!

The wind than after a few heats got canceled got stronger and with it more fair for all the rideres that were still in! There were some very good heats on a very high level,amazing to watch for the crowd on the beach!

When it came to the semifinal everybody was well excited about who of the 4 riders-Andre,Normen,Antxan,Nico-would make it to the final, and again it was a very close decision as all of them pulled out some big moves,in the end it was Antxan who was on fire,and Nico who made it.

After a little miss understanding with the judges Antxan almost missed his final, he had to hurry to get on the water and was now abit under stress, Nico sailed a solid heat and could beat Antxan. A great day for Nico as it also was his birthday!!!

Than we saw the losers final with Andre and Normen, and to be fair this should have been the real final, this guys pulled it all out of the bag,double switch chachoos and double eslider,Toad from Andre,Burners Konos(switch) Spock into Culo from Normen to only name a few of the big moves they did-worldclass!!!!!!!

Anyway the result from the Single:

1.Nico

2.Antxan

3.Normen

4.Andre

The forecast is looking good for tomorrow so we hopefully can go straight into the double where i want to fight back aswell,so stay tuned!!!

Day 2

The forecast was looking good but it seemed that the clouds destroyed the hopes to finish the double elimination today,we hope we will have some wind tomorrow,...

Day 3,4

Unfortuantely the wind hasn't kicked back in on the last 2 days so the event finished with the result from the single elimination-but there has been some heavy partying going on instead,.......

next event: Milos Beach, North Lefkada!

Russian Lightstyle Comp 2007

As every summer since about 4 years, our russian friends organized a little Freestyle competition here on the shores of Dahab(Baby Bay)!

I have to admit here that it was again a very well organized one-thanks for the great effort Olga!

This time it has possibly seen the most competitors out of all the previous events,and the level was pretty high, with having all the top russian boys and not to forget Andre Paskowski(G-2,current European Freestyle champ) taking part,and of course i did'nt want to miss out on my chance to enter,although it has been pretty trickey,because i am also centre manager from Club Dahab,but luckily for me it worked out fine and i could show apperance in my heats!

Day 1

We hit it perfect,as with first day of competiton we could start straight with the single elimanition,having wind around Force 4-5.

From the first heats you could tell that all the riders  were well motivatetet,seeing fairly advandced newschool freestyle!

Some of my team members,who also entered advanced to the 2nd round-i was already set for the 2nd round-bit lucky i know!!

When it came to my first heat i was, parts very nervous but also highly motivatetet,as also it's kind of my homespot,really wanted to do well and it paid off,i sailed a fairly solid heat showing a range of normal stance as well as switch stance moves and only fell in once at the very last second of the heat,so i advanced to the next round!

The more it was going towards the final stages,the more the level in the heats raised to a very up to date standard!

With the wind droping the responsibles called it a day-but we would straight going back on to it the next morning!!

 

Day 2

After the very gusty offshore wind in the early morning the wind switched back to normal direction and we were ready to finish the single elimination!

My next heat was against one of the young guns from the russian team,Max,only 15,but very talentet,and knowing the spot as well as me. Again i was very focused and concentratet and again sailed a good heat,and this time not droping a move,Max sailed very good too,but  fell 2 or 3 times,so again i could advance to the next round, the semifinal,where Egor Propretinsky(RUS-11)was already waiting,he is currently the best russian sailor!-i was pretty stoked after the heat as i haven't been falling of and so  i was very motivatetet for further challenges! 

It was a very close battle between me and Egor, but he just sailed amazing,doing pretty high shakas,which scored high-i was trying to do my best,and sailed a good heat,but it wasn't good enough in the end to beat a well on fire Egor,who advanced to the final to face Andre who,due to his experience didn't seem to be beatable on his way to the final!! but it wasn't over at this time for me as i still could come 3rd if i do well in the losers final!  

Andraz Zan SLO49, a very talentet sailor,who has also been seen on the EFPT quite abit, appeared to be my next competitor i had to go against, i got a bit nervous again,as i lost to Egor, but i also knew that i was on good form this day! Unfortuantely the wind has picked up,so he had to use a sail from his friend,which he obviously wasn't use too. i tried not to see a big advantage in that though, i knew i had to do well to beat Andraz,and i seemed to be back on track,sailed a solid heat with only falling off once, so i ended up in 3rd in the single.

The closest heat of the day was the final,where Egor took everything out of his pocket to fight with Andre for the win,Andre sailed as everbody knows him,very controlled,safe and due to experience very clever!! Still it was a very tight decission,but he won in the end! 

Single Elimination Result

Andre

Egor

Marco

Andraz 

 

Double Elimination 

 

As the wind  was still pretty consistent , after half an hour break nothing was in the way to go straight into the double elimination!

They finished a few heats before they had to call it a day again,because the wind seemed to drop alot very quickly, but  as the forecast was pretty good, it would be going to go ahead the next day.

 

Day 3 

Although the forecast was pretty good, and they could finish a few more heats,the decission had to fall on the last the of the Competition, and  due to the good forecast it seemed promising to finish the double!

 

Final Day 

This should be the windiest day of the whole event. With having wind around Force 5-6,i could use my 4.7,and was well powered up, which is abit of an advantage for me,as it's that what i'm used to, so it all looked good to at least keep my 3rd place!

The outstanding guy in the first few heats of the day was Max, who fought his way back through the double, kicking out everyone until he had to sail against Andraz!

They had a very close battle,but Andraz seemed to be more fresh,and could beat Max, without having get his hair wet-you could tell he was well up for the revenge against me in the next round.

slightly nervous,but in a good mood i went on the water to face Andraz again, as the horn went i knew i had to give my best to beat him again as he was clearly on fire, and i did, i think i possibly sailed my best heat in the whole comp,exactly when i needed it, not falling off once,doing puneta into cf puneta combinations,shaka, double flakas eslider,loop ,switch chachoo, to name a few, i could advance to the semi to face Egor once again!

As i came back to the beach,Andre was doing his best to give me motivation,to do better this time, and i knew i can if i would just sail like the heat before!

the horn went for the semi and off we went,i tried to play safe in the beginning and done a flaka and and than a spock, what i haven't seen was that Egor just pulled out a very nice double spock as we sailed towards each other he crashed a flaka,and from than i knew this is the chance i been waiting for,again i kept sailing pretty solid, and after i saw Egor falling 1,2 more times i was convinced to have won that heat,and i did, and i was more than over the moon as Andre gave me the sign from the beach that i had won!

So i had to face Andre in a true German final, my expectation was not very high but i still tried to give my best-with an agreement of Andre and Me we had to do at 3 or 4 oldschool moves in the final heat,which was pretty fun. i sailed alright but Andre just dominatet it with doing the "Thode" at the end, but it didn't bother me to much at that point,as i already reached more than i expectet!!

And although the Event doesn"t count at all, it was still a good experience,......

Final Result 

Andre

Marco

Egor

Andraz

 

And than it was Party time, and who knows the russians,will know how they like to party,......