With another two events done on the PWA Worldtour , team Severne continues it’s excellent form taking home another 5 trophies and 2 event victories.

PWA Costa Brava:

After a 10-day break from the Asian leg our team made it down to Costa Brava for the 3rd stop of the PWA Slalom Worldtour. With Foiling being added this year the event scored it’s first ever-perfect wind record with 6 out of 6 days competition. The event was mainly dominated by Foiling. They completed  11 eliminations, with a surprising new winner coming trough, our Vice Freestyle world champion Amado Vrieswijk!

Despite having no Formula experience, compared to many of the other competitors and only being 22 years old Amado proof his dominance on the Foil. He held off  3 contenders over the week after his fair share of disaster! During all races Amado used the Hyperglide 9.0 and showed excellent control of the foil, completing some near impossible maneuvers to make the difference compared to his competitors 

Amado Vrieswijk comments on winning his first PWA Foil event:

“Over the winter I trained foiling as much as possible. It's a great new discipline and makes it possible to be active on the water even without that much wind. Living on Bonaire foiling has really allowed me to sail nearly every day end this is one of the main reasons I like this new discipline a lot!

Starting the tour and the foil competitions I was curious to see if I progressed on the foil compared to previous years. In Japan it didn’t really go well but after missing out on the podium by just 0.7 points in Korea I just couldn’t wait to start the foil racing in Costa Brava.

With a perfect start on the first 2 days it was a looking perfect with a commanding lead but than everything turned from bad to worse. In the 6th elimination I got pushed into the starting boat and after severely damaging my foil I almost missed out the semi final in the 7th elimination I suddenly didn’t have any room for errors anymore. In the end I had 3 guys challenging me for the win but after a blistering 11 races I managed to come out on top and win my first ever PWA racing event on the foil! Besides winning I learned so much again during this event by staying cool under high pressure!”

In the Slalom only one elimination got completed. Some said that the ones who decided to keep there focus only on Slalom, probably benefited out of that the most.

One of those was Cyril Moussilmani. He managed to get back on the podium after 2 years of absence. The Frenchman managed to shake of the frustrating results from the Asian leg and returned to his prime form to get back on stage. Another outstanding performance was made by Tristan Algret who managed to equal his best performance to date for the second time this season finishing 4th.

Cyril Moussilmani back on stage:

“After a tricky event with plenty of foil racing and only one full elimination of Slalom I’m more than happy to be back on the podium finishing with a 3th place in the Slalom. The wind was light all week and after making the decision not to compete in the Foiling discipline I was able to fine-tune my Mach 1 9.4 to perfection for the racing on day 5. I felt comfortable with my speed and could make it to winners final relatively easy. After a bit of a safe start I managed to catch up a few places on the first mark and eventually finish 3rd to get back on the Podium for the first time since 2016. Now I’m eager for more!”

PWA Portugal:

After a long 6 days of foil racing the whole fleet packed up to go to the other side of the Iberian Peninsula to a new stop on tour in the north of Portugal, Viana Do Castelo.

What started off as an unknown spot for many turned out into some of the best Slalom and Freestyle conditions windsurfing could ask for. Starting with flat water on the first 2 days and more wavy conditions as the event progressed. Combined with up to 40 knots of wind proved that this new spot on tour was ideal for a proper World cup competition.

With 5 days of non-stop wind, which saw 2 double-eliminations in the Women’s Freestyle and 7 eliminations in the Mens & womans Slalom completed, our team managed to take a few more trophy's home.

After missing his first winners final of the season in Costa Brava, Matteo Iachino came back in amazing form by not missing a single final. He only finished out of the top 3 twice this event to take home his second event victory of the year! With 2 out 4 events won Matteo remains tour leader going into Fuerteventura, a event title that is still very high on his wish list for 2018 and could be diciding for the world title race.

Matteo’s comment on winning the second event of the year and keeping the lead on the overall rankings:

“It was a great event with 7 eliminations completed in some of the best conditions you could have. We had 5 days of strong winds and waves at the beautiful spot of Viana Do Castelo. It’s probably been one of the best events I ever witnessed and to win it is simply amazing! I really hope to come back here next year for more high wind Slalom. During the event I was most of the time competing on my 90 liter Isonic board and Mach 1 sails in the size’s 7.0 , 6.2 and 5.5 . The sails simply feel amazing and I really have found the perfect trim for all the gear now. It’s only my first year on Severne but I already feel super comfortable on all sizes. I’m already looking forward with confidence to the next event on tour but now it’s first time to relax, celebrate and get some wavesailing done!  See you in Fuerteventura!”

Besides the amazing slalom action the Womans freestyle fleet came into a league of it’s own with some of the best conditions in years. That the level is higher than ever has been shown ones again and despite having Sarah Quita still as the unbeaten Queen of Freestyle our Female Severne teamriders are defiantly closing in! Maaike Huvermann & Oda Johanna both gave her a good run for her money and fought out some super exciting freestyle heats between each other for 2nd and 3rd. It was so close between both of them it even had to come to a sail off to determine who would take the 2nd place.

In the end Maaike Huvermann took the victory over Oda Johanna even though they equally deserved that 2nd place.

Maaike Huvermann comments on finishing 2nd:

“It’s a wrap, the first freestyle event of the season is over. It has been a very windy week that gave us the perfect conditions for some hardcore freestyle moves. Not having much wind at home for the last 3 months lowered my level to the point that I couldn’t show what I really learned last winter. That really upset me. It was the first time ever I really struggled with the mental part of the competition. Oda pushed me to sail on a level I haven’t reached in competition sailing yet, but I know that I am able to. As the competition went on I started feeling more at ease and learned how to deal with the pressure. I honestly feel like there is not really a 2nd or 3rd in this event, Oda deserved it just as much as I did and I just got ‘lucky’ by performing the best at the right moment to make the difference. But I guess that’s what’s competition is about, performing when it counts most. I’m super happy to finish second and I’m really looking forward to my roadtrip to the Canaries to prepare better for the PWA in Fuerteventura next month!”

Oda Johanna comments on just missing out on 2nd after an amazing performance.

“The Portugal event gave the girls some of the best conditions in years, if not the best. I was very happy with my sailing during this event and could score some of the highest heat scores so far on the PWA tour. Landing consistently moves such as backloops, burners and skopus really gives me a lot of confidence for the rest of the year. In the end the 2nd place just slipped away between my fingers in the sail off against Maaike after the second double elimination. I was already concentrating on the Slalom in my head when they announced the sail off and I couldn’t really find my rhythm in that heat. This event has really pushed me in both Freestyle & Slalom with some really extreme conditions and many close heats. It all just motivates me more and gives me the feeling anything is possible. Now my focus is on Fuerteventura where I will be able to concentrate 100% on freestyle and hopefully get a better result. Overall it has been a great event with Womens Freestyle really putting on a great show. We could really show everyone how much we have progressed of the last few years and hopefully inspire a lot of other girls to follow our footsteps!”

Current PWA overall standings of our Severne riders:

Slalom Men:

1st place: Matteo Iachino

8th place: Tristan Algret

12th place: Cyril Moussilmani

18th place: Amado Vrieswijk

24th place: Gonzalo Costa Hoevel

Foil Men:

1st place: Gonzalo Costa Hoevel

3rd place: Amado Vrieswijk

11th place: Matteo Iachino

16th place: Steve Allen

20th place: Tristan Algret

Freestyle woman:

2nd place: Maaike Huvermann

3rd place: Oda Johanna Brodholt. 

PWA Overall constructors title Sail Brands:

1st Severne