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King of the Wind – Day 104.11.12

A great opening day for the first ever CENTAUR King of the Wind. Hundreds rolled through the event site during the day, and the action will be just as thick and fast tomorrow, make sure you come and visit, first briefing at 9am and the forecast is firing…

For those interested, scroll down to see today’s single elimination and tomorrows double elimination.

Adrian Beholz (Fanatic/Sailloft) flying through a Kono

Day one of the Centaur King of the Wind EFPT event was packing everything a European championship spectator could wish for.   The early morning featured a classic Weymouth forecast; strong winds, flat water and sunshine.  This accompanied by music and euro stars was a winning combo.  After briefs the first possible start was at 11am, there were constant heats until just before dark when the wind dropped after a bit of a freak storm.  Just before it died there was some intense wind and the latter heats were quite spectacular as everyone was stacked, even after mid heat sail changes.

Jamie Drummond (Starboard/Severne) watches on

All but the finals of the single elimination were completed, so tomorrow morning we kick off with a spectacular show as the final four meet to do battle.  Next the first round of the ladies Femi Pleasure Queen of the Wind event will run and following that will be the mens double elimination.

This first EFPT event in the UK had a strong force of home-grown competitors.  There were twelve UK guys and six out of the seven entered girls.  Of these twelve, four got through their heats.  Andy Chambers, Jamie Drummond, Nick Bentley and Adam Sims all made it through to the second round.  Unfortunately three of these were all in the same second round heat (heats of four) and only Andy Bubble Chambers made it through.  Bubble, the 2012 UK freestyle champion then cruised through the semi-final and found himself alongside Adam Gavriel, from Israel, for the losers final competing for third place overall (26 riders).

Andy ‘Bubble’ Chambers (JP/Neilpryde) flying the flag for the Brits

It’s safe to say that Portland harbour has never played host to so much spectacular freestyle action.  In most of the heats it was difficult to watch as you didn’t know where to look, six judges were needed as the top guys would go from move to move in seriously quick succession.  Today we saw a massive shuv-it spocks, culos, skopus, futures, flaka-shaka and a huge kabakuchi  If you don’t know what these moves are, come watch tomorrow and you will see first-hand, we have another strong forecast and fully expect to get the finals run and most the way through a double elimination as the event is now fully set up courtesy of XPLG. The judges have the system tied down under the watchful eye of head EFPT judge Tom Hartmann.

Belgian, Dieter Van der Eyken (Starboard/Severne) a favourite for the win

There will be some sick footage and pics to follow, but for now we have to get our beers on and hit the Globalshots Royal Rave – so here’s a few, but rest assured, with three of four dedicated media guys cutting film as we speak, there will be something pretty special appearing on continent seven pretty soon.

If you don’t have a ticket but want to ride the rave, get yourself down to the Lazy Lizard, there are a few tickets still available, this is going to be a memorable party for sure, don’t miss it!

XPLG team

Elimination Ladders below:

Single Elimination – single1_weymouth2012_day1

Double Elimination – Double1_weymouth2012

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