Wingfoil focus
Since the start of the event, the warm trade wind has been blowing at a moderate ten to fifteen knots on the Encuentro reef near Cabarete, where the competition takes place. Round, long white water rollers run slowly along the reef here and offer the wingfoilers a veritable playground that freestyle pioneer Balz Müller from Switzerland only knew from his dreams until recently: "I learn something new on every wave here - one wave after another comes along, all of which offer endless glide on the foil. For a Swiss inland surfer, it's just a dream."
In addition, the constant breeze from the north-east allows wingsurfers with wing sizes of around five square metres to shoot high on their way out.
So while the conditions are absolutely fun for the athletes with wings, the wind strength is unfortunately not quite strong enough for the other wind sports represented, such as windsurfing, to get the competition going at all. The focus is therefore currently on wingfoiling.
"Everyone can show what they can do here in this competition, in every respect. Free style! It's really fun." (Yannick Mittas, Team Condor)
Ratings at the Master of the Ocean
Wingfoiling, surfing, SUP, windsurfing and kitesurfing are all represented at the Master of the Ocean 2023. There are three classifications in total: Team, Overall and Expression. In the team classification, one specialist in each sport will compete for their team, while in the overall classificationthe Master of the Ocean: in other words, the water sports athlete who competes in all disciplines and collects the most points overall wins the overall title. In the expression session, only the specialists in the respective sports take to the water at the same time during one session and show what they can do in one run.
Yannick Mittas from Kiel is competing for the German team named after the main sponsor. Team Condor in wingfoiling and also in the overall standings, and is visibly enthusiastic about this format: "You can simply show what you can do here in this competition, in every respect. Three manoeuvres count - no matter what. You can combine waves and jumps. It's free style and really fun. It's gone really well so far and I'm still in the race - hopefully the wind will play ball tomorrow."
Outlook
There are still two more days to go here at the Master of the Ocean. Team Condor and Yannick Mittas are still in the running and will face the favourite in wingfoiling Balz Müller and his team Edelweiss in the next round. We are excited and will report on the final results. With a very moderate wind forecast, the wind sportsmen hope to get another chance to finish the contest.
We're keeping our fingers crossed!
