One more Dieter Report! Last time, we left Dieter after a trip in Corsica and Sardinia. This time, we catch up with him right after his 5th place at the PWA Freestyle World Cup in Fuerteventura!

Hello everybody!

The second PWA World Cup stop of the year has just passed and saw two full double eliminations completed during six days of competition with not the strongest Fuerteventura wind yet but still 4.4m² weather almost every day!

It’s only the 4th time that I can remember doing two double eliminations on a PWA World Cup, after 3 years of competing. It’s also the first time ever I see so many amazing heats with a super high level starting from Round 1 (I had a close heat in the beginning against Yarden Meir, which made me realize I was sailing too safe...)! For me, the contest went super good, I felt prepared and on the new Severne Freek I felt super comfortable! I could reach a much higher level in my heats than in Podersdorf and felt I was getting closer to the top riders and sailed some of the best heats so far which could get me even higher in the future.

To make the 6-day competition a bit shorter I’ll just pick out the best moments:

Heat 2 - 1st Single Elimination vs. Amado Vrieswijk:

After the first and close heat against Yarden, I was straight up against one of my best friends and teammate Amado Vrieswijk from Bonaire. Knowing he is one of the young guys to watch out for this year and managed to upset a few top riders in Podersdorf, I knew I had to sail one of my best heats to win. I had my best heat so far in the competition landing: spock culos , culo spocks, burner 900°... etc. And big switch moves on the way out to make sure I would win this heat and make it in the Top 8! I was super stocked when I won but I would have preferred to meet Amado later so that we both could have a good result... Which he still got in the end with an amazing 7th place!

Heat for the Top 5 in the 1st Double Elimination vs. Anthony Ruenes:

Anthony and I have already had a lot of close heats in the past years as we usually end up against each other in the single elimination and I always have to sail my absolute best to win against him! And I did sail at a level where I could have gotten further than 5th: I landed a massive skopu on the way out, a big shaka flaka and a lot of good moves on the way in making me score 53 points on the judging sheets. I wish I could have done this over again many more times but sadly enough, I peaked a bit to early to go further in the Double Elimination (I lost with a 2-1 decision against Kiri Thode in the heat after that). Being a bit tired after sailing so many heats back to back could also explain it.

Heat 2 of the 2nd Single Elimination vs. Adrien Bosson:

In my mind, Adrien Bosson was one of the most impressive guys in Fuerteventura, as he really showed a great level. So, once again, it wasn't an easy second heat, which forced me to sail really good again as I didn’t want to lose my 5th place from the first Double Elimination! I sailed again a 50+ scoring heat and got the feeling I could win my next heat if I sailed like this again against Steven van Broeckhoven. And I did on the way out but on the way in, I missed my big moves from the heat before which made it impossible to score a Top 4 position in the Single Elimination for me.

In the end, I finished in 5th position twice in the Double Eliminations and had the feeling I could do even better. But I will bring all this positive energy into my training for the next event at Brouwersdam as I would really like to keep my 4th place ranking on the PWA... Which will be hard but not impossible!!

Cheers!

To find out more about Dieter van der Eyken, visit his blog here!

- Pictures are courtesy of John Carter / PWA World Tour -