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A day to savor for Amado Vrieswijk as Dieter van der Eyken moves to the top of the event rankings and Sarah-Quita Offringa shines again.

It was another intense battle on the penultimate day of the freestyle in Fuerteventura as the second double elimination of the women’s contest was completed first thing - with Sarah-Quita Offringa maintaining her 100% record with another supreme display. However, on the men’s side of the draw it was all change as Amado Vrieswijk turned the double elimination form on its head to claim his first ever single elimination victory on the PWA Freestyle World Tour, ahead of Dieter van der Eyken, who continued his excellent form to make his second winners’ final in a row, whilst also moving to the top of the event rankings for the first time in his career.

Men's Single Elimination 2

Amado Vrieswijk didn’t allow a couple of mistiming errors, which caused two of his heats to be resailed, affect his focus today as he transformed his double elimination form. Vrieswijk had mentioned earlier in the day that his knee had felt better than at the start of the contest and it clearly showed as he replicated the kind of form both witnessed and expected by him in the recent past. The Bonairean began his storming comeback by defeating Max Rowe, before dispatching of one of the standout sailors of the double - Yentel Caers. Vrieswijk then caused a major upset as he defeated the - at the time - current event leader - Kiri Thode. This setup a duel against Nicolas Akgazciyan, but the Frenchman could do nothing to stop Vrieswijk setting up a final against Dieter van der Eyken. Whilst Vrieswijk will obviously be delighted with his days work, Dieter van der Eyken may be even happier as he heads to the top of the event rankings, after another scintillating display. The Belgian is now on the cusp of not only his first overall podium finish, but also hist first event victory!

Men's Single Elimination 2 - Winners' Final

Over the past couple of year’s both Amado Vrieswijk and Dieter van der Eyken had been threatening to break into the top two and today both of them deservedly featured in the winners’ final. Van der Eyken continued his supreme form, whilst Vrieswijk found his groove to create a scintillating final. The Belgian made the better start to the final as he glided through a shaka 360 and a powerful culo, which he quickly followed up with a perfect spock into culo. However, Vrieswijk soon found his stride to respond with an exquisite double culo and from here the momentum shifted. Van der eyken was still able to land a kabikuchi, but Vrieswijk soon landed a trademark, almost air kabikuchi, to edge the duel.

Davy Scheffers also turned the past on its head as he forgot about the form book of past year’s to claim third place in the single today. The Dutchman used to be known for his light wind, sliding moves expertise but has proven over the course of the last four days that he can go big, if not bigger than anyone else. Scheffers threw himself into air chachoos together with combos such as spock culos and culo spocks to defeat Nicolas Akgazciyan in the losers’ final.

Women's Double Elimination 2 - Winners' Final

Oda Johanne and Sarah-Quita Offringa faced each other for the third time in four finals after the Norwegian narrowly defeated Maaike Huvermann in the previous heat. Offringa opened with a smooth e-slider before adding a shaka 360 and an amazing culo, which was landed ankle-dry. Even a wardrobe malfunction, after landing a forward loop, couldn't stop Offringa from marching to her fourth successive victory of the week - and an eighth world title now looks inevitable for the Queen of Freestyle. Oda Johanne performed well with a big shaka and a regular kono, but it wasn’t enough to upset SQ Offinga’s domination.

The opening round of the men’s second double elimination was also concluded before the close of the day and tomorrow promises to be another intriguing day. The skippers’ meeting has been called for 10 AM with the action commencing from 10:30 AM. Don’t miss any of the action by tuning into PWA World Tour.com.

Day 3: Dieter van der Eyken storms back through the double but can’t quite stop Kiri Thode, whilst Sarah-Quita Offringa dominates

The women took center stage first on day 3 of the Fuerteventura PWA Grand Slam as the double elimination was completed in 20 to 30 knots of breeze and slightly flatter water as the remaining top five girls put on a great display. However, there was still no stopping Sarah-Quita Offringa, who powered to an emphatic victory in the double elimination and also the second single elimination. In the men’s, Dieter van der Eyken was on fire, but even he couldn’t stop Kiri Thode from retaining his single elimination crown.

Men's Double Elimination

The real standout today was Dieter van der Eyken, who won a total of six heats in the double elimination - with four of those victories coming today. The Belgian maestro took on the reigning world champion - Jose ‘Gollito’ Estredo - first and he came flying out of the starting blocks exploding through a pasko 360, an amazing planing spock into culo and stylish one-handed burners on both tacks. Gollito sailed extremely well too, especially considering the fact he has under the weather with an ill-timed bout of chicken pox. The six-time world champion spun through a super stylish no-handed burner, which was probably the pick of his tricks, before suffering a broken mast on the landing of a backloop. Luckily Mattia Fabrizi was on hand to sail a new set of kit out to him and Gollito was able to land a spock culo of his own to end the heat. In the end there almost nothing between the two sailors with two tie breaks on the judges score sheets, but van der Eyken was given the nod.

The Belgian then faced Tonky Frans, but even a timing error - meaning the heat had to be resailed - couldn’t knock Dieter out of his stride as he progressed again. Nicolas Akgazciyan suffered the same feat before Antony Ruenes also felt van der Eyken’s wrath. Ruenes wasn’t happy with his own performance in the heat, but realistically the Belgian maestro would’ve beaten anyone in the world with the way he sailed in Heat 50 as he accumulated the highest score of the whole contest with an incredible 58.5 points from a possible 60. Van der Eyken again landed perfect spock into culos, stylish one-handed ponches and stunning paskos, but it was his amazing air skopu which really stole the show and goes down as the standout move of the day.

Men's Double Elimination - Winners' Final

Waiting in the final was Kiri Thode and the Belgian looked to be continuing his outstanding form into the final as he made a better start than his rival as he flew through a shaka and sailed away from another spock into culo, whilst Thode crashed a massive shaka before dropping what would’ve been a sick culo. However, Kiri Thode then started to find his groove as he landed a culo and shaka on his second attempt before quickly rattling off a burner and a ponch.

At this stage van der Eyken may have been edging the duel as he added a pasko and a backloop, which was landed cleanly. However, the pendulum then swung as the Bonairean landed an exquisite air kabikuchi, which he planed out of before finishing with a high kono. Both sailors completed their score sheets with a minute to spare so it was then down to a nervous wait for the judges verdict. In the end, Thode came out on top as he successfully defended his single elimination crown to take a strangle-hold over the event title. Van der Eyken though will be absolutely delighted with his work today and was rewarded with his best result ever in a double elimination as he sailed his way into second place with a scintillating display.

Women's Double Elimination

Yoli Freites de Brendt picked up where she left off from yesterday as she clinically dispatched of Arrianne Aukes in Heat 48. The Venezuelan rotated through clean spock 540’s and punetas together with fluid flakas and shakas to progress by way of a 3-0 decision.

However, next up for Freites de Brendt was Maaike Huvermann. Unfortunately Freites de Brendt couldn’t replicate the form she showed in the previous heat, but Huvermann was in great form as she enjoyed the lighter winds and flatter water to advance. The seventeen year old then dispatched of Oda Johanne as she landed flakas and shakas on both tacks as well as spocks and switch konos, whilst also attempting regular konos.

Women's Double Elimination - Winners' Final

Huvermann’s reward for winning against her Norwegian rival was a duel against Sarah-Quita Offringa, who was once again in a league of her own. The Aruban gem is on the verge of an eighth successive world title and was never going to give her opponent even a slight chance of victory as she combined amazing burners and culos with a double flaka and big shaka to take the double elimination crown.

Women's Single Elimination 2 - Winners' Final

Just as in the first single elimination it was Oda Johanne who navigated her way into the winners’ final to face Sarah-Quita Offringa again, but she was powerless to stop Offringa from marching to another emphatic victory. Johanne landed a nice shaka and a switch kono, but it wasn’t enough as SQ Offringa again exploded through flakas, shakas and ponches together with a planing e-slider and a stylish burner to once again stand at the top of the podium.

Women's Double Elimination 2

The second double elimination was started, but will be completed tomorrow after the evening wind became more patchy.

The forest promises further wind tomorrow and both fleets will meet again at 10 AM for the skippers’ meeting, before the action gets underway from 10:30 AM onwards. Don’t miss any of the amazing action by tuning into PWA World Tour.com - here you’ll be able to follow everything as it happens via the PWA live stream and live ticker.

Day 2: Close calls, mega moves and only 6 men and 5 women left standing at the end of second day

The men’s and women’s double eliminations began on the second day of the Fuerteventura PWA Grand Slam. The level in the men’s division was extremely high right from the opening heat of the first round with the world’s best freestylers rotating through the latest power moves. This resulted in several close calls as some of the sailors proved almost inseparable. Unfortunately, the wind dropped before the conclusion of the doubles, but there was still plenty of standout moments over the duration of the day.

Men’s

Jose ‘Gollito’ Estredo looked backed to his old supreme self today, after being slightly under the weather and slightly under par yesterday. The reigning world champion defeated Italian Francesco Cappuzzo, Adrien Bosson, Balz Muller and Julien Mas as he posted the highest scores of the day to begin his comeback through the double elimination. The Venezuelan started the day in joint 9th and will now face Dieter van der Eyken in the battle for 5th and 6th place respectively after flying through trademark paskos, pushloops and monster shakas.

Taty Frans also won four consecutive heats today as he dispatched of Paul Simmerl, Aron Etmon, Adrian Beholz and Rafael de Windt to move up to joint 13th in the double elimination. However, Julian Mas then proved too much in Heat 45 A to end the Bonairean’s come back.

Amado Vrieswijk will be disappointed to have not advanced from Heat 44 A against Yentel Caers. The Bonairean looked to be sailing in better form today but unfortunately for him two of his moves on port tack were judged to be outside the area, and therefore had an incomplete score sheet. One of those moves was a brilliant pasko, which in the end cost Vrieswijk dearly in what was an extremely close heat otherwise.

Adam Sims enjoyed a great day and even a broken extension couldn’t stop him. The Brit first defeated Marco Vinante in the opening round before also going on to dispatch of Adam Gavriel after stomping a sick pasko, big pushloop and a shaka just before the buzzer to complete his score sheet.

Move of the Day

Marco Lufen landed one of the moves of the day as he landed an ankle-dry shifty, just a Nicolas Akgazciyan did yesterday, whilst also landing the biggest shaka of the day. The German advanced one round today, before narrowly missing out to Antoine Albert in a close fought affair.

Women’s

The women’s fleet has been whittled down to the top five women at the end of day two and it was Yoli de Brendt who came storming back through the double after navigating her way past Jazzy Zwerus and Maxime van Gent to set up a duel with Arrianne Aukes in the battle for 4th and 5th.

Looking ahead to tomorrow the forecast promises further wind, although the swell looks smaller. The skippers’ meeting has been called for 10:30 AM with the action commencing from 11 AM onwards. Make sure you tune into PWA World Tour.com to see the conclusion of the double eliminations - who do you think is going to win?

Day 1: Sarah-Quita Offringa places one-hand on an 8th consecutive world title, whilst Kiri Thode strikes first

The inaugural day of the 2015 Fuerteventura PWA Grand Slam saw extreme conditions as howling winds in excess of 40 knots and super choppy waters meant the world’s best were pushed to their limits. At the end of the first day Sarah-Quita Offringa has taken a huge step towards her eighth consecutive title as the Aruban gem remained un-fazed by the tricky conditions to produce another spectacular display of sailing. Meanwhile in the men’s division Kiri Thode struck first to take the single elimination crown, as he showed the consistency needed to come out on top in a day where many of the top seeds fell earlier than anticipated.

Men’s Single Elimination - Winners’ Final

Kiri Thode lined in up against Antony Ruenes in the opening winners final of the week. The Frenchman had been in inspired form in the run up to the final, but things didn’t quite click for him in the against Thode despite landing a trademark no-handed burner, an explosive pasko and coming extremely close to landing a massive air shaka. On the other hand, Kiri Thode sailed a near perfect heat when it really counted. The 2013 World Champion made his intentions clear right from the moment the green flag was raised as he rotated through a textbook spock into culo, before quickly adding a stylish shaka and an air funnel into funnel to his score sheet. Thode then hammered the final nail into the coffin with an exquisite kabikuchi to take the single elimination crown.

Nicolas Akgazciyan achieved his first podium finish on the PWA Freestyle World Tour, in what proved to be another fine day in the windsurfing world for the French contingent. On his way to claiming third Akgazciyan defeated Jeremy Plüss, Bjorn Saragoza and Balz Müller, before defeating Tonky Frans in the battle for third and fourth. The Frenchman sailed brilliantly over the duration of the day, but he also claimed the move of the day with an amazing ankle dry shifty in Heat 9. Akgazciyan will now look to defend his place on the podium when the double elimination begins tomorrow.

Tonky Frans was the King on the way out in Fuerte today as he showed off his extensive repertoire of jumping supremacy. The Bonairean landed several of his trademark bongkas together with backloops, paskos and pushloops to dispatch of Loick Spicher, Adrien Bosson and rising star Yentel Caers.

However, perhaps the biggest story of the single elimination involved the aforementioned Yentel Caers and reigning world champion - Jose ‘Gollito’ Estredo - who sailed against each other in Heat 20 B. Many thought that with current world tour leader - Steven Van Broeckhoven - out of the equation due to injury, that victory for Gollito may be somewhat of a formality. However, things are never quite as simple as they may see. The six-time world champion was reportedly under the weather, but you can take nothing away from Caers, who caused the biggest upset of the day, whilst claiming the biggest scalp of his career thus far to defeat the reigning world champion. Earlier this year in France, Caers, had shown glimpses of how dangerous he could be and during his seven minutes against Gollito he was unstoppable as everything he tried came off, whilst oozing power and style. The twenty-year old landed skopus, paskos, monster culos, a pushloop, kabikuchi and perhaps the best of the bunch a quite brilliant double burner to earn his best result to date - 5th. In the meantime, Gollito now faces a huge uphill task to fight back from joint 9th in the single elimination.

Also sharing joint fifth at this stage of the competition are Dieter van der Eyken, Julien Mas and Balz Müller - with the latter causing one of the other biggest upsets of the day as he defeated Amado Vrieswijk in Heat 17 B. Muller knew that he would need to go big against the Bonairean to stand a chance of advancing, and go big is exactly what he did, much to the delight of the crowd on the beach. Muller exploded through a huge air shaka, clean skopu, one-handed forward - which was received huge cheers - and his trademark Chewbacca toad to progress. Vrieswijk will be another sailor looking to storm back through the double elimination tomorrow after a disappointing day.

Women’s Single Elimination - Winners’ Final

Oda Johanne set up a tie with Sarah-Quita Offringa in the women’s final after defeating Ziva Trajbaric, Maxime van Gent and Arrianne Aukes. However, there was no stopping the Queen of Freestyle and she produced another flawless display to put one-hand on an eighth consecutive world title. The Aruban gem combined sliding moves such as funnels and punetas with powerful air flaka 360s and shakas, whilst earlier in the day landing the latest power moves such as burners and culos. Johanne also threw down some big tricks with a smooth flaka and a high shaka being the pick of the bunch. It does look as though it will take a super human effort though to knock Offringa off the top of the podium.

There was an all Dutch battle for the remaining place on the podium between Arrianne Aukes and Maaike Huvermann and this time around it was Huvermann who got the upper hand of proceedings. The seventeen year old showed great consistency throughout the day as she landed spocks, grubbys, flakas and even shakas to cement third place.

The forecast predicts more wind for tomorrow in Sotavento, although slightly less than today, which may not be a bad thing. The skippers’ meeting has been called for 10 AM with the action commencing from 10:30 AM. Don’t miss any of the explosive action by tuning into PWA World Tour.com - here you’ll be able to follow everything as it happens via the PWA live stream and live ticker.

- Text and pictures are courtesy of John Carter / PWA World Tour -