Ruben uitgeschakeld door Lothe.. Toch vierde geworden.

19.07 hours: Aaron, dominating the Tour the whole year gathered enough points already - with one event to go - that he is announced World Champ! Here in the final he had to go up to Martin Vari, Champ 2003. Martin, injured on his ribs could not give his best but Aaron was very unlucky with loosing his kite twice! He used 3 kites in one heat, that must be a record! Third in came Etienne Lothe who had his revenge against Ruben Lenten from which he lost yesterday in the single elimination. Memorable heat was Lenten - Aragno, the two Cool Skin teammates battled heavily and it was probably the best heat of the day. Lenten won by a minimum. So, we congratulate Vari with his win here and Aaron with his Championship title!

The event in more detail:

Competition, double elimination

Men
Reinier Korstanje (HOL), Chris Gilbert (USA), David Tyburski (USA) and Christian Holley (ESP) got a by to the second round of the double.
The first 2 heats had pretty light winds and most riders went down wind fast. Danny Seales (UK) and Soufiane Hamaini (MOC) both lost in that heat, the conditions were very light and it was hard to stay upwind. Mark Shinn (UK) tried to go out with his injured wrist, he did some handle passes and unhooked kiteloops but went downwind straight away and was out the area, the same happened to Jo Ciastula (ESP), no wind and went downwind, though most boys were on pretty big kites. It was rather bad luck!
As from the second round the wind picked up a bit but would not last for more than 2 heats. A lot of times the postponement flag had to come up and heats were delayed. Sky Solbach dropped his kite in his first heat of the day and Jose Luengo (ESP) took the opportunity to get some moves in and won the heat, Jose went up all the way to 9th place. He won from Reinier Korstanje (HOL) and lost from Ben Meyer (USA) in the fourth round. Jose did a lot of kiteloops; double back loops, railey’s and so on. Ben Meyer won from Jose with high kiteloops, front rolls, and grabs with kiteloops. In the next round he lost from Gianni Aragno. Gianni Aragno won from Alvaro Onieva (ESP) in the fourth round; Alvaro was too overpowered in his heat and came back to the beach to get a smaller kite though he lost too much time. Dave Tyburski (USA) started the day really well with winning from Christiaan Brouwer (HOL) with handle passes, kiteloops and a lot of smaller but very nice moves, he also won from Marc Ramseier (SUI) and in the heat with Jeremy Eloy (FRA) bad luck hit him, he lost his kite in the first minute of the heat, he finally came back to the beach took another kite, did some more moves and he lost the kite again. Jeremie Eloy in the mean time did not sit still and did kiteloops and a high handle pass.
Jaime Herraiz (ESP) started all good too, he went against Cesar Portas (ESP) and won in third round, he advanced to the next round against youngster Kevin Langeree (HOL) and did a non Jaime heat, he tried loads of stuff and went really high doing kiteloops, he did kiteloops with sliding handle passes but had some landing issues, Kevin took the winning place with kiteloops and high jumps. Gianni Aragno competed against Ruben Lenten (HOL) and the heat was super close, Ruben advanced and went up against Etienne Lhote (FRA), Etienne won in the previous heat from Jeremie Eloy with kiteloops, handle passes and grabbed jumps. Jeremie did really well; he went up all the way to 5th place. Ruben Lenten (HOL) ended up in 4th place after he lost from French star Etienne Lhote, Etienne was all over the heat and advanced to the semi final where he did some huge jumps but dropped his kite twice and ended up coming in before the end of the heat. Aaron took the winning place and advanced to the final against Martin Vari (ARG). Martin got injured on his ribs yesterday while doing a double kiteloop, he went with a seat harness and did some good moves, Aaron went for a front Mobe, a railey to blind with a surface handle pass and a front Mobe on the way out, he broke his leash and lost the kite. Someone brought him another kite but lost it again doing another move. In the mean time Martin went for a Mobe, a KBG and front to blind. It was pretty clear that Martin advanced and won the double elimination, congratulations Martin and Aaron!!

1. Martin Vari (ARG)
2. Aaron Hadlow (UK)
3. Etienne Lhote (FRA)
4. Ruben Lenten (HOL)

Girls
The first 2 rounds of the girls were a dingle elimination, there were not enough girls to fill the heats and some riders would go up to 7th place without competing. In all fairness the girls decided dingle elimination was fairer. Jo Wilson (UK) had a by in the first heat. CJ Jones (AUS) and Aurelia Herpin (FRA) advanced over Pauline Boussard (FRA) in the first round. In the second round Angela Peral (ESP) and Andreya Wharry (UK) both advanced over Jo Wilson. So did Gabi Steindl (AUT) and Aurelia Herpin, CJ Jones lost in the second, she crashed her kite and had some problems getting it up and lost quite a lot of competing time. In the third round Andreya Wharry was underpowered and had some troubles completing jumps and moves which Angela took as an opportunity to keep on being busy with kiteloops, railey’s and railey with a kiteloop. Gabi Steindl started the heat really well with a high jump just in front of the judging tower and Aurelia dropped her kite but once the kite was up again Aurelia did some nice moves and her landing were more consistent than Gabi’s. As from the 5th round only 2 girls were on the water, Angela Peral versus Susi Mai, Angela did some high jumps with grabs and railey’s and kiteloops, Susi went big too and did some nice moves but lost from Angela, Susi ended up in fifth place. On the other side of the draw Petra Goeschl won from Aurelia Herpin, she did a really nice back to revert with a surface handle pass, kiteloops and more jumps with grabs and so on. The semi final went between Petra Goeschl and Ingrid Köllbichler, both girls were working their kites half way through the heat, the wind was pretty up and down but both managed nice moves, jumps with grabs, a nice toeside to toeside move for Petra, high jumps for Ingrid and so on, Ingrid landed a little bit more consistent and advanced to the final.
In the final Kristin went for a couple of railey’s, front to blind with a surface handle pass, jumps with grabs, s-bend and blind to 360, while Ingrid went for big jumps, one footers, a board off, 720’s, front rolls and so on.
Kristin won again in the final and won overall in the freestyle, her first win on the PKRA! Congratulations Kristin!!!

1. Kristin Boese (GER)
2. Ingrid Köllbichler (AUT)
3. Petra Goeschl (GER)
4. Angela Peral (ESP)

10.01 hours: earlier this morning the wind was quite strong but it died out again. Skippers meeting is coming up and after that the waiting starts again. Yesterday at the party it was quite with riders as they all needed their rest for the second elimination round.