| Ben Van der Steen takes the Oxbow IFCA 2008 Worlds in Big Bay |
| Monday, 12 January 2009 22:06 |
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This morning the competitors learned that we would start with one or two slaloms and then finalise the Wave event. Wind was predicted to be the 'normal' south-easterly growing during the day up to 35 knots with 2.5 metre swell. By 11 the wind was 15-20 knots and a 3 mark slalom was set. In slalom 4 Ben Van der Steen had the inside on the finish line and finished milliseconds in front of Ross Williams. The heat was on, both had 2 first and 2 second places so it would all be decided in the last race slalom 5. In slalom 5 Ross had bad starts in both the semi-finals and the finals due to timing problems. In the final Ross (Tabou/Gaastra) finished only 4th behind a surprising Chris Pressler (Starboard/Severne) and Klaas Voget (Fanatic Neil Pryde). The win was for Ben Van der Steen (Exocet/Simmer) securing the World Title slalom 2008. Meanwhile the wind increased and Olaf Van Tol (NED) decided to stop slaloming and start heat 10B of the wave performance. First surprise came in heat 11B when local Matthew Swart took out Ross Williams. In the quarter finals we lost Andrea Rosati, Andreas Oleandersson, Ben Van der Steen and Matthew Swart. Semi-finals between Kevin Mevissen, who won the event last year, and Phil Horrocks and Klaas Voget and Ben Profit. Phil and Klaas came out winning despite some freestyle tricks from Kevin and the 2 attempts of Ben for double forward. In the losers' final Kevin got the better of Ben and in the winners' final it was very tight until the last jump where Phil Horrocks set a double forward and took the event home. A Girls heat was run with Natasha Petersmann from South Africa taking the win. The famous Cape Docor wind took 4 days to come but when he came it was full on spectacle on the beach of Big Bay. 2 speakers, a good sound system and a lot of spectators enjoyed together a spectacular final of a beautiful 5 day event. Oxbow, Glider sunglasses, Bestlife, Westkaap Kultuursake en sport, Kenings (car rental), Bay sands Lodge, http://www.4beaches.de/ guesthouse, Cinnabon were the sponsors and hosts of this event. http://www.windsurfingafrica.org/ and Steven Rhodes the organisers and the Big Bay Surf Life Saving Club the hosts. Olaf, Penny, Wendy, Piet, Vincent, Dirk, Liz Metcalfe from http://www.capesessions.com/ and yours truly were the workers. See you next year for another Big Bay Classic!!!
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