Entering day six of competition, the majority of the single elimination had already been completed, leaving only 6 heats to be run in order to declare an official event winner. Following the skippers meeting, the last of round three’s heats got underway in a steady force 4 breeze.

Andre Paskowski (Fanatic, North Sails) put up a stellar fight against his rival, Frenchman Nicolas Akgazciyan (Starboard, Gun Sails) but failed to provide an answer to Nicolas’s smooth repertoirethat , including a super tech voquech diablo, granting Nicolas passage into the quarter finals.

The first quarter final pitched Tonky Frans (F2, Gaastra) against team mate, Kiri Thode (Starboard, Gaastra) and Taty Frans (Starboard, North Sails) against his team mate, Gollito Estredo (Fanatic, North Sails). The steady breeze allowed the riders to throw down their full arsenal of moves. Kiri unleashed his signature kono, but failed to take down an on form Tonky Frans, who was killing all his moves. Gollito took no prisoners as he ended Taty Frans’s campaign with a run including no handed flakas and a burner.

The second quarter final saw the exit of Ricardo Campello (JP, NeilPryde) to stable mate Spaniard Antxon Otaegui (JP, NeilPryde), and current world champion, Marcilio ‘Brawzinho’ Browne (Mistral, Gaastra) defeat Nicolas Akgazciyan to advance them into the semi final.

The semi final got off to a shaky start after it was cancelled within the first minute and re-run four hours later, only to be cancelled again. For two hours, the entire lake glassed off, making many believe the event would run out of time before the final two heats could be completed. Following a windless two hours, a line of dark clouds emerged on the far side of the lake, and a line of wind started to move towards the competition area. The riders scrambled to the water and minutes later the semi final started in a gusty 17 knot breeze.

Tonky Frans challenged Gollito in the top half of the draw and Antxon Otaegui battled it out with Brawzinho in the bottom half. Highlights of the heat included Gollito’s now trade mark no handed flaka and Brawzinho’s huge ponch in front of the judging area. Underdogs Antxon and Tonky gave all they had, sliding into regular stance chachos and flaka 720’s respectively, but failed to match the calibre of Brawzinho and Gollito.

Aftert a quick break to collect the semi final results, the final got going in testing conditions. Gollito and Brawzinho went head to head in the winners final and Antxon and Tonky duelled in the losers final. Brawzinho wasted no time, laying down a mix of switch stance chachos, one handed bobs and a massive port tack ponch. His rival, Gollito, replied with an assortment of ponch combinations, more no handed flakas and starboard tack burner.

On the other side of the heat, Tonky threw down an aggressive array or Culos, flaka 720s and switch stance chachos. Antxon struggled to get to grips with the heat, crashing many moves that he was consistently making earlier in competition.

Following ten minutes of epic freestyle the horn blew, ending the heat, and signifying the end of the first stop on the freestyle tour. The crowd rushed to the main event stage to hear the final results announced. First place went to Gollito, second to Brawzinho, third to Tonky and forth to Antxon. We caught up with Gollito and Brawzinho:

Gollito “Really, really happy! My final was really good, I competed with Brawzinho. It was really physical with the light wind, but I got my best moves in, I’m just really happy!”

Brawzinho “ I’m pretty happy, I’ve been training a lot for waves in these last few months, so I was pretty anxious about how this event would go, especially when it comes down to light winds and cold conditions, but I’m pretty stoked!”

That concluded the day’s action and the 2008 PWA surf world cup in Podersdorf. The PWA’s next stop is in Korea for the first leg of the slalom 42 series starting on the 12th of May.

Source: PWA World Tour