At over fifty kilometres per hour, the freestylers were pulled against the stern wave of a boat by a jet ski at the weekend in Vesoul and, as always, soared high above it. Even when there is absolutely no wind, you can see crazy freestyle rotations. What was originally created to entertain the public on windless event days has established itself as a discipline in its own right on the Freestyle Pro Tour.
Action-packed weekend despite rainy weather
The conditions in Vesoul were difficult, as it rained cats and dogs on both days of the event. The riders signed up on Saturday morning and started a short training session before the main event began. Similar to 2023, locals Nascimo Fournier and Salome Fournier started the race. They were joined by Matthieu Fontaine, who has made huge progress in recent months. Leander Halm also took part in Vesoul. The young German got a taste for the tow-in discipline at the surf festival on Fehmarn and later in Vieste and is currently improving from race to race.
Three attempts, the best run counts
Once the rain clouds had cleared, the official competition got underway. The competition format, with three runs per person, only the best of which counted towards the ranking, gave the participants room to experiment. Foivos Tsoupras and Yentel Caers showed their experience and opened the competition with such good moves that their first run was also the toughest run. Tsoupras performed a pasko with 7.67 points and Caers topped this with a 360 for a 9.67 score. Maaike Huvermann and Nascimo Fournier opened with a burner, while Salome Fournier and Leander Halm took the safer route and performed an air jibe and a funnel respectively.
Leander Halm improves from run to run
Germany's Leander Halm visibly gained in confidence and completed his score sheet with an air funnel and a burner. The burner in particular was impressive, as the junior had only tried the move for the first time a few runs previously. With 5.5 points, he finished in a good midfield position. The woman from the Netherlands, Maaike Huvermann, is one of the few riders who consistently jumps Culos in the tow-in and was able to prove this once again. With 7.33 points, she overtook Leander Halm and shot into the top three with Tsoupras and Caers. Matthieu Fontaine then also performed a culo, emphasising that he meant business. But it was not enough to overtake Huvermann.
Caers and Tsoupras try to outdo each other
The two leaders had not been idle in the meantime, both pushing the limits of the tow-in in their own way and trying to outdo each other. Caers was on a double air culo mission and showed two repetitions of the radical double rotation, both in excellent scoring territory, but no better than his first run. Tsoupras went his own way and knew he had to come up with something new and surprising to beat Caers. He came very close twice, with an exotic manoeuvre that could be described as a cana brava version of a pasko. However, as he fluffed the landing, he was unable to overtake Caers.
The rest of the field were still fighting to move up the rankings in the final runs. Nascimo tried to add a difficult Skopu to his scorecard, but didn't quite make it. He will nevertheless be satisfied with his performance in front of his home crowd. Fontaine, who was level on points with Halm, managed to pull one out in the final run. Halm and Fontaine exchanged blows with high air funnels in front of the judges. Fontaine came out on top in the end and secured fourth place.
Ranking list FPT Tow-In Vesoul 2024
1st Yentel Caers, 100 points
2nd Foivos Tsoupras, 85 points
3. Maaike Huvermann, 75 points
4th Matthieu Fontaine, 65 points
5th Leander Halm, 55 points
6th Nascimo Fournier, 50 points
7th Salome Fournier, 45 points
