Philip Köster and Daida Moreno ones more King and Queen of Pozo.

The 30th  anniversary  of  the PWA Worldcup at Pozo Izquierdo and the first time ever equal price money for the woman made this event very special, even before the 2018 PWA Pozo had started. With a firing forecast of wind and waves every single day of the week it was going to be a perfect week of wavesailing-action with the world best sailors.

The wind often reached 50 knots and everyone was pushing their limits. This provided us with a blistering 7 days of competition for nearly a 100 competitors divided over the Men, Women and Youth disciplines. A new level of sailing was reached and after a week filled with incredible action our Severne Team can only be more than pleased with the results.

WOMEN Wave

For the women this was the second stop of the year. At the first competition we saw Iballa Moreno take an early lead in the world title race by winning the Morocco event. However with Pozo as second stop of the year Daida, with her blistering record of 18 wins there, was definatly the favorite for this event.

Ones again Daida proved, with her amazing sailing skills, in the strong winds of Pozo why people call her the Queen of Pozo. After a great dominating final in the double elimination Daida can look back at some of her best sailing from the recent years with multiple high scoring heats, her first heat scored a blistering 35 points out of 40 points including a 10 point waveride. Showing probably some of the best jumping and wave riding of the competition by woman to date. This shows she is still pushing her level year after year.

Daida about her 19th victory at home:

"What a great event this year, plenty of wind and waves every single day. We completed a whole double elimination for men & women with also still all juniors getting their chance in great conditions. It was fun to watch and fun to sail against all the girls who were ripping.In the double I was hoping to have Iballa in the final because she was sailing really solid during whole the single elimination. She just missed a small score on her wave scores to pass through against Sarah Quita (SQ). It was a close call but that’s how competition goes. In the final against SQ I tried to pull off all my jumping moves at the start of the heat before I concentrated on my waveriding, all went perfect and I managed to score one of my best scores of the event. My new sails are working amazing and I could really go bigger and bigger all the time. I had lots of fun and I’m happy all my trainings and efforts paid off at the end. Happy to share my podium with all my family, friends, sponsors and my fans around the world.”

Iballa on finishing 3rd:

“It’s hard to drop down a spot in the double (from 2nd to 3rd), specially when I knew I was just missing a very low score in surf but I simply couldn’t find a second wave to surf. But that’s how competition goes! It’s hard to be 100% in every single heat and I’m still very happy with a podium result in an incredible Gran Canaria wind and waves festival 2018. A year to remember for me both from organization point of view and with the impressive sailing level from Daida in the final. Perfect conditions everyday, I couldn’t ask for more! Thanks Severne for the support as always. I’m really loving the new Blade sails! “

Just missing the podium this year was Lina Erpenstein, who after a small misstep in the single can look back at a comeback to score another 4th place this season to confirming her place as one of the best female wave sailors in the world. 

Lina Erpenstein 4th:

“ I’m very happy with my performance and my fourth place in Pozo. I just finished my first year of full time studies and because of that I couldn’t come to Pozo as early than the years before. Still I somehow found my way to adapt to the strong winds and had a lot of fun in the heats too, so I really enjoyed the whole event! Soon I’ll be going over to Tenerife to prepare for the next PWA there. I’m already looking forward to the next competition! “

With Nayra Alonso, Maaike Huvermann and Oda Johanne finishing respectfully 6th , 7th and 9th we are more than happy to see 6 of our female teamriders in the top 10!

Men:

After a 9-month breake it was finally time for the Men to show their skills again! Who would challenge Philip Köster and how much did everyone’s level improved over the winter was the main question?. It is pretty fair to say that the bar once more has been raised to the next level with some incredible heats taking place and some absolute insane jumping! However only one man is King of Pozo and for the second year in a row Philip Koster remains unbeaten in Pozo.

So what where the 3 highlights of the men’s side event?

• Jaeger Stone 11 points push forward against Philip in the QF of the single elimination.
• Philip Köster scoring in that same heat within 30 seconds 24.15 points for his jumps by landing a double forward, push-forward and a massive one footed backloop on the first 3 ramps he got which might have been the most dominant start to a heat ever.
• Moritz Mauch’s 10-points wave ride. He might not be known as the best jumper of Pozo but above the lip he might be the most skilled sailor of the tour and ones again showed why Pozo is about more than just the jumping alone.

With all of our riders that entered in the top 20 the Men also can look back at a great event. Read some of their comments below:

1st place Philip Köster:

“I’m super happy to win the event. It has been an amazing week with every day tons of windand good waves with some amazing jumping conditions! I’m alreadylooking forward to the next competition in El Medano Tenerife.”

6th place Jaeger Stone:

"Pozo was absolutely howling again this year. I came in to the event wanting to push myself and to hopefully be competitive amongst some of the best. I feel like I achieved that by trying my hardest in each heat, attempting my first stalled double and landing a pushforward during the event that was rewarded an 11 by the judges. Am looking forward to continue pushing and improving myself further in the next event."

9th place Dieter Van der Eyken:

“The last few months have been pretty hectic, working full time for Severne now and moving to Tenerife took up some of my sailing time. Although I wish I could have sailed a bit more before the contest I’m incredible happy with my sailing. I made some steps forward again and for the onshore waveriding the Nano is just working excellent. I still got plenty to learn but after injuring myself last year in Sylt I’m absolutely stoked to reach a top 10 result in the waves to start of the year, next up is Freestyle in Fuerteventura!”

Moritz Mauch 17th place:

“The 2018 PWA Pozo was definitely one to remember. 7 days non-stop action with epic conditions for all competitors. I was really happy with my performance throughout my heats getting good scores on my waves and pretty happy to earn a 10-point wave in one of my heats. The Nano 73 and S-1 was the perfect setup to handle the extreme conditions. I´m looking forward to Tenerife and hope I can advance some more heats there.”

Amado Vrieswijk 17th place:

“I’m satisfied with my shared 17th place in my first PWA Wave-event. This event has made me eager to continue practicing my wave skillz and get better for the next contest. It will be a challenge to divide my time between 4 disciplines but I love them all, as long as there is wind I can be doing what I love the most WINDSURFING!”

Youth:

Besides the Woman and Men also the next generation came in action in the different youth divisions. With and incredible level in all age groups we are extremely happy to see a full Severne podium in the under 15 category. Lennart Neubauer caused the upset by winning in front of Liam Dunckerbeck and Yahdan Tyger .

Our young freestyle rider from Greece already won the youth devision in Freestyle at Lanzarote and now shows he knows how to sail waves as well taking his second victory of the summer. 

Liam onces more impressed us with his incredible wave rides and just missed out on a second good jump to claim victory. Jahdan Tyger couldn’t find his rhythm  this event but will be more than pleased to still be on the podium and the performance of his new costume 45 liter Mako!

Next up, Fuerteventura!