Freestyle Pro Tour Vieste: Yentel Caers wins first single elimination in foil style

After a slow start on the first day, the wind picked up a little today, the second day of the contest. Gliding on small freestyle equipment with fins would have been unthinkable in the slack 10-14 knots - but no problem: the Freestyle Pro Tour included the young discipline Foilstyle for the contest in Vieste. With freestyle sails of around five square metres and extremely compact boards, the ten specialists took to the skies of Vieste on their foils.

Swiss rider Balz Müller (also known as "Radiculo") is a pioneer of this young, unorthodox discipline, which has repeatedly met with great approval, but sometimes also harsh criticism. Some people love it, others curse it - only ten of the thirty registered riders competed in foil style today. Unfortunately, Balz himself cannot be in Vieste due to other appointments and his duties as a young father. Many others lack the right equipment, others have not yet mastered the tricks or simply don't enjoy it. But one thing is certain: to suddenly be able to ride a fully-fledged single elimination in these moderate wind conditions, in which it rained power moves such as burners, konos and paskos, is impressive and could almost be described as a kind of small revolution.
"Maybe some of the riders who were sitting on the beach today waiting for stronger winds while the action on the foils was going on out there are now itching to get out there"emphasises presenter Sandy Clunas in the livestream at the end of the day.

Single elimination

A total of ten heats were held today in Vieste. In the nine-minute heats, the best two tricks counted towards the final score. Everyone was impressed by the overall standard and, above all, the consistency of the riders - there were hardly any spectacular dismounts to be seen, everyone rode very safely and in a calculated manner.

The only lady registered in foil style, Lucy Honegger, took part in the men's event and made a real statement right at the start of the day with carving manoeuvres and an impressive backloop attempt.

Brit Jamie Howard and the two guys from the Netherlands, Tigo Kort and Tim Gerdes, showed that they have definitely been training on the foils recently and should not be underestimated. Power moves like burner and culo could be seen in each of the heats.

But in the end, four riders who coped particularly well with the light wind stood out: Sam Esteve (4), Steven van Broeckhoven (3), Lennart Neubauer (2) and Yentel Caers (1) catapulted themselves on their foils to another level and put on a freestyle show that has never been seen before in light winds of three to four forces.

The final between Neubauer and Caers was a nail-biter. Lennart was well ahead until one minute before the end with two clean burners, a Culo and an Air Funnel, totalling 19.64 points. In the remaining time, he tried a pasko several times, which is rated very highly in foil style, to extend his lead - but he was not to succeed in this run. Meanwhile, Yentel Caers, who had been far behind until then, conjured up a perfect pasko with 7.74 points in the final minute - the highest score for a single move in the entire single elimination.
He narrowly overtook Lennart by one point and won the single elimination with a total score of 20.64. A very exciting final.

Outlook

The first heats of the second round were ridden directly after the single elimination, before the wind slowly died down in the afternoon. With three more competition days to come, there is a very good chance of a complete double elimination in foil style. Especially at the weekend, the wind is expected to come from the popular north-westerly direction and thus turn up. Maybe that will be enough for the Finn. We are curious! When the time comes, don't forget to enter the excellent Livestream to switch on the Freestyle Pro Tour. Have fun.

Also interesting:

• Entertaining livestream from Vieste (Italy)
• Balz Müller's foil show on the pier