Surf Festival powered by Salitos: Lennart Neubauer wins Super-X and "Best Trick" at the German Freestyle Battles

The German Freestyle Battles also made their presence felt at this year's surf festival and, with nine female riders, the women's field was bigger than ever before, while 28 men's battlers did the honours. The Saturday of the event was looked forward to with anticipation, as the Danish weather service forecast winds of 4.4m² or 4.8m² for the first battle of the year.
All participants quickly realised that south-westerly winds with showers are not the most stable weather conditions on the sunny island. Standing and driving usually only alternate so often at the traffic lights of a busy junction.

Changeable wind conditions prevent elimination

Meiky Wieczorek, who jogged from his sponsor's pagoda to the Battles tent with every restart of his heat, certainly clocked up enough kilometres for a half marathon that day.
With the whistle blowing and the time window getting narrower and narrower, at least the ladies would get the chance to get a result. But even that turned out to be more difficult than expected. Unfortunately, only two of the nine heats could be completed. A pity, because the women's field was really prestigious this year. Starting with the newcomers Anneke Jaap, Bijou Shahmirian, Maike Mittelbach and Nadia Jablonski. Linda Mankova from Slovenia also completed the women's fleet alongside runner-up wave world champion Lina Erpenstein, GFB winner Elena Dominik, Maike Lang and Lina Schmied.

Spontaneity remains the top priority: Super-X instead of Tow-In

In the evening, a tow-in battle was finally to be held in front of the festival audience at 18:00, but the call from Marc Hollenbach, who was sitting in position on the tow-in boat, was rather sobering: "I don't think anyone will be hanging on behind here, Niclas Nebelung is suddenly gliding at 4.8 all the time."

At 17:55, a decision had to be made: Tow-in, supersession or super-X after all? After a brief consultation with the riders and a phone call to the boat, it was clear two minutes before the start of the show that it would be a new format: Super-X! Improvised and adapted, there was a Le Mans start, followed by a manoeuvre that could be freely chosen, a jibe around the boat and on the beat towards the beach, another manoeuvre had to be performed to then start the finish.

In two exciting and very entertaining races, it was clear that Lennart Neubauer is not currently regarded as the best freestyler in the world for nothing. With incredible power and energy, he pumped the first stroke and then almost continuously to victory.
Foivos Tsoupras, who quickly organised a 5.2 sail from his sponsor, finished second despite Lennart manipulating the mast foot position. Niclas Nebelung came third.
The second race was also clearly dominated by Lennart, but Niclas Nebelung and Sebastian Gux were able to secure second and third place respectively.

"Best trick" for the crowning finale

After the races, there were still ten minutes left in the tight festival schedule and, with the last gusts of the evening, it was possible to ride a heat with the aim of "best trick". Foivos Tsoupras secured third place with a Lazy Susan. Sebastian Gux from Kiel took second place with a really cleanly jumped no-handed burner. First place went to freestyle world champion Lennart Neubauer, who earned the judges the highest score with a perfectly executed double shaka.

We would like to take this opportunity to once again thank Marc Hollenbach, Leon Delle and Oliver Tom Schliemann from Racer of the Sea, who slipped the boat they had just brought ashore back into the water in freestyle style and supported us with all the means at their disposal wherever possible. Thank you!