The 35th edition of the Fuerteventura World Cup is one of the best ever seen.
Ten days of solid wind combined with stunning, magazine-turquoise waters set the perfect scenario for the 48 fastest slalom windsurfers and the 40 best freestylers to battle their way towards a 2023 World Title.
15 years later, the Women’s Slalom returned to Fuerteventura, and Severne rider Blanca Alabau clinched one of the podium spots. So did Matteo Iachino, Oda Johanne Brodholt, and Maaike Huvermann in their respective disciplines.
There were countless inspiring moments during this year’s Fuerteventura World Cup.
Balz “Radiculo” Müller had all eyes on him while performing a new “tabletop backloop” move during a heat. Blanca Alabau raced her foil gear to third place in 40 knots of wind, and Amado Vrieswijk showed his insane speed during the slalom. Needless to say, Amado hadn’t forgotten how to spin his freestyle gear.
To mark the 20th anniversary of the SEVERNE brand, the achievements of the slalom team, and to kickstart the upcoming freestyle contest, Severne paired up with iNNSiDE BY MELIA, and RENE EGLI to throw the ¨ 20-YEAR BASH¨.
Celebrating ¨20 years of the SEVERNE brand¨ at iNNSiDE by Melia
WOMENS SLALOM
In yet another great performance, Blanca Alabau was the first Severne rider to secure herself a podium spot. Consistently being close to the win, for this event Blanca had to settle for third as the fins of Sarah-Quita Offringa and Marion Mortefon showed slightly more speed in the hardcore Fuerteventura conditions.
As Blanca is armed with years of experience and countless training hours, she was the only woman to do all races on the foil. In combination to her Pozo Izquierdo result, she maintains the lead of the Women Slalom PWA World Ranking.
SEVERNE RACE GEAR USED BY THE WOMEN IN FUERTEVENTURA:
Blanca Alabau
Overdrive M4 4.6
Femke van der Veen
Mach 6 5.5
MENS SLALOM
A consistent set of results put Matteo Iachino in third place at the end of the event. And at times, within striking distance of second place.
Amado Vrieswijk, the 2021 freestyle World and European champion, has found devastating speed. Making most of the slalom finals, Amado seemed to have pushed himself over the limit of his foil, therefore, some crashes ranked him just next to the podium, in fourth place.
SEVERNE RACE GEAR USED BY THE MEN IN FUERTEVENTURA:
Matteo Iachino
Mach 6 5.5
HyperGlide 6 6.0 / 7.0
Amado Vrieswijk
HyperGlide 6 5.0
Cedric Bordes
Mach 6 5.5
HyperGlide 6 6.0 / 7.0
Hydro 79
WOMENS FREESTYLE
Year by year, the Severne freestyle team shows to be growing.
On the women’s side, the wave sailor Lina Erpenstein made her first freestyle World Cup appearance, and after a great run in the single elimination, she ended the competition in fifth place.
Vice World champion Maaike Huvermann had to battle with her team buddy Oda Johanne to determine their positions on the podium. After seeing an immensely close heat, Maaike took the win by only 0.3 points and stepped onto the second podium place. Sarah-Quita Offringa was the rider to beat in the final, but the Aruban found her way to score just 3 points more than Maaike Huvermann, so taking the win.
All in all, the female SEVERNE freestyle team put on an amazing performance, ending with Maaike Huvermann in second place, Oda Johanne in third, and Lina Erpenstein in fifth.
SEVERNE FREESTYLE GEAR USED BY THE WOMEN IN FUERTEVENTURA:
Maaike Huvermann
Freek 3.6 / 4.0
Psycho 86
Oda Johanne Brodholt
Freek 4.0
Lina Erpenstein
Freek 3.6 / 4.0
Psycho 86
MEN’S FREESTYLE
Synchronized freestyle. Is that the discipline of the future? Amado Vrieswijk and Yentel Caers certainly lead that ranking for now as they opened their heat with two perfectly timed ¨shifty´s¨. Amado, not only fought for race podiums, he also went back to the roots in Fuerteventura. Even though his focus is on racing at the moment, the talented Bonaire jumped his way to fourth place in the freestyle category.
If synchronized freestyle is not the future, let´s give Balz Müller some time to determine it. The Swiss waterman, one of the best windsurfing ambassadors in the world, got creative and landed his new move ¨Table top – Backloop¨ during his heat against teammate Bodhi Kempen. Another handful of high level moves took the Swiss to the top ten of the competition.
After an early exit in the single elimination, Lennart Neubauer turned on his ¨FREEK¨ mode and started the double elimination by taking down every opponent on his path by throwing the biggest double power moves. Double “culos”, double “burners”, “air funnel-burners”, you name it, Lennart did it.
The Greek-German held onto his winning strike for five consecutive heats. The sixth heat against Jacopo Testa was a close tie, but the Italian took victory with the last move on the buzzer. After the amazing comeback, Lennart Neubauer finished in sixth place. In his own words:
“I feel hungrier than ever! The World Cup on Fuerteventura was an amazing experience in many ways! Now it’s time to put in the work before the next @pwaworldtour on Sylt in about 6 weeks.
After that early exit, I looked at the double-elimination as a challenge! We all have bad days from time to time so I put that heat behind me and tried to start the competition from the beginning in that double. I took one move at a time and tried to enjoy the moment of competing :-).”
SEVERNE FREESTYLE GEAR USED BY THE MEN IN FUERTEVENTURA:
Amado Vrieswijk
Freek 4.4 / 4.8
Lennart Neubauer
Freek 4.4 / 4.8
Balz ¨radiculo¨ Müller
FoilFreek 4.0
Pyscho 94
Dieter van der Eyken
Freek 3.6 / 4.0 / 4.4
Pyscho 86 / 94
Bodhi Kempen
Freek 4.0
Pyscho 86
Takumi Moriya
Freek 3.3 / 3.6 / 4.0
Pyscho 72 / 86
Robin van Linden
Freek 4.0 / 4.4 / 4.8
Pyscho 94
SEVERNE 20 YEAR BASH
To celebrate the 20th-year milestone for the Severne brand, everybody was invited to a special event at the iNNSiDE by Melia in collaboration with René Égli Fuerteventura.
A huge projector was set up on the large terrace of the “iNNSiDE” for the screening of some unseen videos, as well as, images dating back to the very beginning of the brand.
Apart from the guided tour down memory lane, everybody was also able to mingle with some of the biggest stars in the game. This included the likes of Bjorn Dunkerbeck, Balz “Radiculo” Müller, Matteo Iachino, Amado Vrieswijk, and many more.
RESULT 2023 FUERTEVENTURA PWA GRAND SLAM – WOMEN’S SLALOM
1st Sarah-Quita Offringa (ARU | Starboard / NeilPryde / Maui Ultra Fins)
2nd Marion Mortefon (FRA | Fanatic / Duotone)
3rd Blanca Alabau (ESP | Starboard / Severne Sails)
4th Justine Lemeteyer (FRA | FMX Racing / S2Maui / LOKEFOIL)
5th Jenna Gibson (UK | Fanatic / Duotone)
RESULT 2023 FUERTEVENTURA PWA GRAND SLAM – MEN’S SLALOM
1st Nicolas Goyard (FRA | Phantom / Phantom Sails / Phantom Foils / AL360)
2nd Johan Soe (DEN | FMX Racing / Point-7)
3rd Matteo Iachino (ITA | Starboard / Severne Sails)
4th Amado Vrieswijk (NB | Future Fly | Severne Sails)
5th Pierre Mortefon (FRA | Fanatic / Duotone / Phantom Foils)
6th Maciek Rutkowski (POL | FMX Racing / Challenger Sails)
7th Bruno Martini (ITA | JP / NeilPryde)
8th Daniele Benedetti (ITA | FMX Racing / Challenger Sails)
9th Enrico Marotti (CRO | JP / NeilPryde)
10th Nicolas Prien (GER | JP / NeilPryde)
RESULT 2023 FUERTEVENTURA PWA GRAND SLAM – WOMEN’S FREESTYLE
1st Sarah-Quita Offringa (ARU | Starboard / NeilPryde / Maui Ultra Fins)
2nd Maaike Huvermann (NED | Severne / Severne Sails / Maui Ultra Fins)
3rd Oda Brødholt (NOR | Starboard / Severne Sails)
4th Lisa Kloster (GER | MB-Boards / Sailloft Hamburg)
5th Lina Erpenstein (GER | Severne / Severne Sails)
RESULT 2023 FUERTEVENTURA PWA GRAND SLAM – MEN’S FREESTYLE
1st Yentel Caers (BEL | JP / NeilPryde)
2nd Adrien Bosson (FRA | Fanatic / Duotone / Maui Ultra Fins)
3rd Antony Ruenes (FRA | Tabou / GA Sails)
4th Amado Vrieswijk (NB | Future Fly / Severne Sails)
5th Jacopo Testa (ITA | AV Boards / Point-7 / AL360)
6th Lennart Neubauer (GRE | Starboard / Severne Sails / Maui Ultra Fins)
7th Youp Schmit (NB | Tabou / GA Sails)
7th Steven Van Broeckhoven (BEL | Starboard / GUNSAILS)
9th Niclas Nebelung (GER | Fanatic / Duotone / Maui Ultra Fins)
9th Sam Esteve (FRA | JP / NeilPryde)
9th Antoine Albert (NC | Goya Windsurfing)
9th Balz Muller (SUI | Severne / Severne Sails)
