CLaiming the sword
Dieter van der Eyken took victory at the Tiree Wave Classic after a week of waiting delivered championship conditions on Saturday. When 25-knot winds and overhead waves finally hit Crossapol, it was game time!
Dieter rode the S-1 4.4 and Stone 88 throughout the finals.
Photos by John Carter / Windsurf Magazine
The finals against Phil Horrocks came down to wave selection. Horrocks threw a tweaked pushloop and tabletop forward; Dieter answered with a stalled forward, his own tweaked pushie, and the move that sealed it – a clean wave 360 that left no room for debate.
The week tested patience. What started as flat seas and a flu bug for Dieter turned into proper wave sailing conditions when it mattered. CalMac’s last-minute ferry extension gave competitors the extra day; Dieter made it count.
THE WAITING GAME
SV: You spent most of the week watching flat seas before Saturday delivered. How did you keep yourself sharp mentally and physically during those down days, and did that actually help your performance when it finally fired?
Dieter: Actually, yeah, we arrived and the day I arrived, we had some wind. I managed to get a session in – very fun, starboard tack. And then by the time the contest started, sadly enough, the wind disappeared. It was good for me in the end because I actually caught the flu. So I was down sick for three days at the beginning of the waiting period. I couldn’t even go surfing, just tried to recover. It was a long trip from Sylt, and I think it just took its toll.
By the end, I started to feel better by Wednesday, and from Thursday I just tried to start doing some activities again, trying to stay fit. I did some bodyweight exercises and got the gear ready basically for Saturday. I think it almost helped that there was really nothing on the forecast, that kind of made it relaxed. We all knew that if it was going to happen, it would be on Saturday, and it felt pretty similar to Sylt.
THE DECISIVE WAVE 360
SV: Walk us through that wave 360 in the final. What made you pull the trigger on that move at that moment. How did the conditions at Crossapol compare to your typical training grounds?
Dieter: I think it was very important in the final to get good wave scores against Phil Horrocks. I felt quite at home because the conditions were quite similar to Cabezo, maybe a little bit more onshore. The sets were definitely a lot more spread out, and it was very hard to find the right place. But I just went on instinct. I stayed a little bit more downwind in the competition area and was basically looking for that one bowl where I could do the 360 on, then take it turn by turn after that.
It felt pretty plug-and-play. I had a few in the warm-up before, and then as I did the bottom turn, I saw the lip – I knew where it was and what to do. I’ve done it so many times. It came out good, and the nice thing was that the wave gave me two or three more sections to make some turns on the reform. I knew I had a good wave, and after that, I got another good one, so I was quite confident.
SV: What gear were you running for those 25 to 30-knot conditions? Any last-minute adjustments to your setup to fit into the conditions at Crossapol?
Dieter: The conditions were probably a bit lighter than 25 to 30 knots. I think it was more like 20 to 25, sometimes a bit more by the final. It was quite tricky to choose the right gear. In the first heat, I was on a 4.8, which was fine but getting powered up. Then in the semifinal against Lucas, I actually took a 4.4 and was a little bit underpowered.
In the end, it worked out. I managed to pass my heat, but I was thinking to go back to the 4.8 for the final. Then it felt like it was picking up, so I made the choice to try the 4.4 quickly before the heat. It felt really good, so that was the call.
Board-wise, it was very easy for me. I stayed on the Stone 88. I knew I could use that bit of extra volume for the conditions. I had an 84 on the beach ready just in case, but it worked out great. Not too much switching, but critical right switching in time. Besides the semifinal, I always felt like I was on the right gear and made the right calls. The extra volume allowed me to carry a bit more speed for the fairly soft waves of Crossapol.
The Tiree Sword
SV: This trophy is one of the most unique in windsurfing. What does claiming it mean to you?
Dieter: It’s great to take home. I think it’s one of the most beautiful trophies in windsurfing, probably my second nicest trophy after my world championship in 2015 in freestyle. It was the goal; that’s why I came to Tiree. I really wanted to win that sword. It’ll get a nice place at home, it’s quite unique, really nice craftsmanship, and it made the trip totally worth it.
Similar to home
SV: You train in different conditions back home. How did you adapt your style for Tiree’s cold-water waves, and did anything surprise you about the Saturday session?
Dieter: In the end, I was a bit lucky that the conditions were very much in my favor. It was side-on, port tack – basically similar to home. There aren’t many landmarks you can focus on, so you have to adjust a lot to the break, especially with the tides, as the take-off spot changes a lot.
After Sylt, I felt pretty in tune with the waves. There are definitely a lot of different spots, and for next time I’d like to come back and train a bit more starboard tack. Saturday’s session was really nice. One thing that surprised me was that the wind stayed lighter than we expected, but on the other hand, we were pleasantly surprised by the wave size. We were expecting shoulder-high at most, and it was definitely more than that.
The direction of the wind wasn’t completely bolt onshore, it had some port tack in it. And overall, the thing that really surprised me most was how well it was all organized. They ran 70 competitors in a single elimination, everyone got a shot, and they did that within a six-hour frame. They had two competition zones at the start: an upwind and a downwind part, which was really impressive. By the time the pros started, the best conditions arrived, and it was super well organized, honestly. Great judging, great organization. Big shout-out to the crew for that.
2025 TIREE WAVE CLASSIC – PRO MEN RESULTS
- Dieter van der Eyken (BEL)
- Phil Horrocks (UK)
- Lucas Meldrum (UK)
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