Pozo World Cup – Day 6 – Koster wins the Super Session
A super session saves the day and wows crowd
The 25th anniversary of the PWA Pozo World Cup didn’t quite play out as everyone was anticipating after the wind and wave God’s deserted the shores of Pozo for almost the entirety of the week, meaning that – incredibly – no official results were obtained, with neither the men’s or the women’s competitions even beginning. Seventeen year old Moritz Mauch (Starboard / North) deserves a special mention as the youngster claimed the Junior’s title. Despite the lack of wind and waves the PWA Gran Canaria Wind&Waves Festival was still a fantastic event with plenty of action off the water throughout the days and well into the evenings. The final day of the event did see the return of the wind, combined with a selection of sporadic waves, which enabled both a men’s and women’s super session to be held and the action was nothing short of exceptional.
Super Session
Men’s Final
After the top two sailors from the four qualifying heats had been decided the final boiled down to fifteen minutes of jumping madness, in which the top two jumps would count for each sailor. Qualifying for the final from heat one were Ricardo Campello (JP / NeilPryde / MFC) and Eleazar Alonso (Tabou / Gaastra), whilst heat two and three saw Philip Koester (Starboard / NeilPryde / Maui Ultra Fins), Jose ‘Gollito’ Estredo (Fanatic / North), Marcilio ‘Brawzinho’ Browne (Goya Windsurfing / MFC) and Jules Denel (JP / NeilPryde) all successfully advance into the final. The remaining qualifying heat saw Victor Fernandez (Fanatic / North) and his fellow teammate Alessio Stillrich (Fanatic / North) secure the top two places.
In the end the reigning PWA Wave World Champion – Philip Koester – proved exactly why he is number one in the world. The nineteen year old started off the final in emphatic fashion as he exploded into one of his trademark, bolt upright double forwards, before later adding a quite exquisite – yet ridiculous – no-handed backloop to seal his place at the top of the fleet. Meanwhile, it was almost impossible to separate Fernandez, Campello and Browne such was the closeness of their performances. Eventually Fernandez and Campello completed the podium positions in second and third place respectively, with Browne being forced to settle for fourth place. The only real separating point between them was the cleanness of their landings on their double forwards. The reigning PWA Freestyle World Champion – Jose ‘Gollito’ Estredo – also showed his jumping prowess with monumental shakas and a perfectly executed air chachoo, whilst the youthful talent of Stillrich showed his potential again with fully planing tweaked pushloops.
Women’s Final
Daida Ruano Moreno (Starboard / Severne) proved why she has so often dominated Pozo through the years with an accomplished display in the super session final. The multiple times world champion showed off her repertoire of moves, which ranged from brilliant tabletop forwards to one-handed backloops. Iballa Ruano Moreno (Starboard / Severne) didn’t finished far behind but this time around the reigning PWA Wave World Champion had to settle for second place. Iballa opened the heat with a clew-first backloop before going on to land a clean forward, but it wasn’t enough to see of her sister. The remaining spot for the podium saw a hard fought battle between Karin Jaggi (Patrik / Severne) and Steffi Wahl (Patrik / Sailloft Hamburg), but eventually the Swiss gem managed to claim third with a clean backloop being the decisive factor.