VICTORY
The 3rd and final stop of the Canarian leg on the PWA world tour happened on the island of Tenerife. After 6 days of waiting for conditions to finally materialize, it all came down to the final day with no room for errors, as there was only enough time to run a single elimination in both the men & women fleets. Jaeger Stone took his first-ever victory in the men’s while Iballa Moreno claimed the first place in the women.
In the Woman, we saw the return of Lina Erpenstein to the fleet after missing out on the first stop of the tour due to her medical studies in Germany. Impressing the judges by her solid wave riding, Lina puts down her best result to date in Tenerife just missing out on the podium by the smallest margin to finish the event in 4th.
Iballa in the meantime bounced back from a slow start to the season to claim another event victory down in Tenerife to put her straight back into the title race, only trailing Justyna by the smallest margin of points with potentially 2 more events to go.
We caught up with our team riders to find out what they had to say about the event and the conditions:
Iballa:
“Tenerife was all in one go. After a week with not much going on, we had the perfect conditions on the last day. The last 6 months have been hard for me due to a knee injury. After coming from Pozo with a bad result, I was happy Tenerife was a bit more surfing orientated this time, which is always better for me. I’m really happy with my result here, especially considering the fact that I wasn’t at 100% yet after the last months. I’m really happy with my new equipment which works amazingly and I’m looking forward to using it for the rest of the summer. During the event I was using the new Nano 72 and my Blade Pro 4,7- 4,2 and in the final my Blade 4,0”
Lina:
“The time in Tenerife has been really fun for me. I didn’t plan to come in the first place, because I was too busy studying, but as I made progress on that front, I realized I could actually make it happen. Knowing that I had put in lots of work to be there, made me enjoy every second of the trip.
It has been really fun to be back competing on the tour. We had to wait the whole week, but in the end, Sunday brought us suitable conditions to compete. I used all the sails from 4.8 down to 3.6 in that one day together with my Nano 73 and 78. The waves were really fun during my heats and I felt comfortable with my surfing. In the end, I was lacking a better jump to progress more in the event, but I’m really happy to take home 4th place with my focus really having been on different things lately.“
In the men, we saw a new winner take home the event, with a victory that was more than overdue after getting so close on different occasions in the last year. Jaeger Stone focused on his own strengths by riding the wave like nobody else to claim his maiden victory on the PWA world tour and to climb up the rankings to a second place, which puts him in world title contention for the season.
Jaeger statement:
“ I’m really happy to win my first PWA event in Tenerife. It was a long week of waiting for the wind and waves to show up but we finished the contest with a really fun day of sailing in good conditions. I used my 5.2 S-1 Pro in my Round 2 heat and then used my 4.4 S-1 Pro and 76L Ultrakode for the remainder of the day. I just tried to focus on my own windsurfing and having fun because every heat and opponent is so tough. To win is awesome and I’m glad I made the most of all my opportunities! ”
PHILIP KÖSTER
Falling just short of an all Severne final, Philip took home the 3rd place after an excellent losers final, putting him 3rd on the overall rankings.
Philip had this to say:
“It has been one of the hardest contests ever since we have been on stand by to compete in very marginal conditions. Luckily on the last day, we got some conditions, got my big contest stuff ready 5.7,5.3 and 5.0 and 105, 99 and 93 ltrs boards.
The morning heats were all about being lucky to get the right waves and then towards the afternoon it turned on and got good for jumping and wave riding. Overall I’m stoked on my 3rd place. I didn’t expect to get that far with those light winds but the big gear definitely played an important role in this contest.“
Ultimately, it was Liam who took the victory and impressed by coming back into the final with an excellent back loop and a high scoring wave ride within 30 seconds of changing to a bigger sail size.
Liam about his victory:
“I’m really excited to win at Tenerife el médano the U17 category. The conditions were really nice for frontside riding and try new moves I had never tried before. The spot is really different from Pozo where we are used to the much stronger winds. I’m really happy to also be able to win in these light wind’s because I don’t get many opportunities to train in these conditions very often. Now I’m looking forward to train further at home and sail with my dad! ”
