| Clement Cetran and Dhelia Birou win the Tandem Surfing World Championships |
| Tuesday, 11 January 2011 17:39 |
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Clement Cetran and Dhelia Birou are the grand winners of the 2011 ISA Tandem Surfing World Championships, held for the first time on the mainland USA. Trestles was the stage and the French pair is ecstatic. They have stormed tandem surfing by taking the title for the second consecutive time. All contestants battled a variety of conditions from small wind chop to glassy, chest-high waves, high tide lulls, and low-tide rocks. Hungry rocks tried to bite into many teams, and several boards were dinged and others lost fins and had to be replaced mid-heat. Luckily, despite many close calls where teams crashed onto the rocky shore, no one was seriously hurt, only a few bruises, which is nothing new to seasoned tandem surfers. History was made. A new format was introduced - the B Divisions - and, for the first time, the youngest competitor (Hana McEvilly, 10) and the oldest competitor (Kathy Terada, 58) had to fight each other in the Finals. Fans in the beach were pleased with the growing spectacle in the water. Tande surfing is a bit like ballet. Rico and Sarah successfully managed to execute the second hardest lift twice, the very difficult Accro. Kathy and Kalani invented some new transitions, taking the Back Angel back to the Shoulder Sit, which has never been seen before and allowed them to build some unique combinations. Clement and Dhelia continued executing their tried-and-true front-arch-split, contortions, and American/Flat maneuvers, but earned the highest surfing marks of the entire contest. After a very strong start, the McEvilly team showed signs of fatigue (Brian had surfed many of the individual divisions that day as well) and struggled to hold their lifts for the requisite 3 seconds. The final heats were intense and very close. First and second place were decided by less than half a point. Clement and Dhelia, riding their new R-World custom tandem board, had the advantage and took home the world tandem surfing title. Final A : Final B : Semi final : Kalani & Kathy (HAW) 12,51 ITSA WTT 2011 Ranking 1 Clement & Dhelia (FRA) 898 pts
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