The race organisers only gave the green light for the season finale on the Brouwersdam 72 hours before the starting signal. A ten-day standby phase was scheduled for the contest. Due to a solid wind forecast and in order not to let anything go to waste, the first three days of the period were chosen to hold the contest.
A full fleet of 32 men and six women made it to the Brouwersdam at short notice. Unfortunately, nobody had expected the wind to not play along one hundred per cent in the end, as is to be expected in a standby event that starts on a forecast. Nevertheless, a complete single elimination was held and the European champions for 2023 were crowned. It was only in the final heats of the second round that a heavy rain front finally paralysed the wind on Friday evening.
Pool party?
The original plan was to turn the event into a big "pool party" and hold a competition for the first time in the famous, small freestyle pool directly in front of the surf centre. However, the pool is so small that you need a certain wind strength to gather enough speed for manoeuvres on the short stroke and to maintain height at the same time. However, the wind was not nearly strong enough on the morning of the first day. As a result, the single elimination was initially started in marginal conditions on the outside of the Grevelingermeer.
Single elimination, lots of excitement on day one
The first to attempt to climb the leaderboard in the challenging light wind conditions in the morning were local Bodhi Kempen and tour newcomer Kiril Kirilov. Kiril, who had travelled all the way from Bulgaria, impressed on his debut, but unfortunately could not match Kempen's experience. Kempen won together with the Dane Mathias Vingaard, who is currently celebrating his comeback after an injury. Brouwersdam Local Kempen later had to compete against Lennart Neubauer, and despite a good run he was defeated by the Tour leader, who was in good form. Neubauer had warmed up well when he was drawn against local Nick van Ingen in the first round. Van Ingen was considered the secret favourite at this event, and he did not make it easy for the young Greek. With a heat score of over 30 points, the Dutchman made life difficult for Lennart and landed an impressive kabikuchi. In the end, however, Neubauer was one point ahead and his title hopes remained within reach.
Sebastian Gux was another regular at the German Freestyle Battles alongside Niclas Nebelung, Felix Volkhardt and Julian Wiemar. The match-up against George Grisley was certainly one of the most exciting in the first round. The wind wasn't quite there yet, which favoured Gux. Grisley struggled to fill his scoresheet and therefore had to concede defeat to the Kiel player. Gux then had to compete against shallow water specialist Sam Esteve. Even though the heat was still out in the chop, he couldn't quite keep up with Esteve's manoeuvres. Esteve, who is in a good position in the overall standings, then came up against another title-hungry competitor: Steven Van Broeckhoven achieved the second-highest heat score of the day and showed that he meant business with a series of double moves. In doing so, he eliminated Esteve and secured himself a place in the semi-finals.
On the other side of the table, two riders stormed to the top: Niclas Nebelung and Jacopo Testa had a run. Nebelung beat Stefan de Bell and Tim Gerdes in his favourite conditions, flat water, to meet Testa in the quarter-finals. By this point, the competition had moved to the pool and the assembled spectators were treated to an insane show. Nebelung managed to narrowly but deservedly prevail against Testa with a solid performance in which he showed many power move combinations. This put the German in the top four, his best placing at an international EFPT event to date.
With Neubauer, Van Broeckhoven and Nebelung already qualified for the semi-finals, the newly crowned world champion Yentel Caers was the last to join them. Yentel strolled through the single elimination without much trouble. When the competition was moved to the pool, he opted to start his run outside the pool and increase his score with a little chop. Only after the first half of the heat did he surf into the pool to give the local Tigo Kort the final chop there.
During the pool party, Arianne Aukes and Lisa Kloster battled for a place in the women's final. Aukes recognised the deteriorating wind conditions, quickly grabbed a bigger sail at the start of the heat and quickly picked up some good points. The German Lisa Kloster struggled to get going and when she also changed sail, it was already too late to fight back. As the wind was getting weaker and weaker, the heat between the other semi-finalists de Bruijn and Maaike Huvermann was cancelled. Shortly afterwards, the entire competition was finally cancelled for the day due to a lack of wind. Everyone was now looking forward to the forecast for Friday, the second day of the event.
Completion of the single eliminations on the morning of day two
With another early morning patrol, the day began first with the completion of the single eliminations. The wind was generally too southerly on Friday to allow competition in the flat water pool, so the whole day was spent tricking on the outside. Only the top four women and men were still in the race. The wind from the south-west slowly but surely freshened up until the first green flag was waved and the showdown began.
In the women's event, Arrianne Aukes had already made it to the final and was up against Maaike Huvermann, who had previously won against local up-and-coming talent Maud de Bruijn. Huvermann showed her competition experience and filled her scorecard with some safe moves in the still quite tricky conditions. Aukes struggled to do the same and had to settle for second place in the single elimination. In the small final for third place, Lisa Kloster found her rhythm again after a disappointing semi-final the day before and finished third.
In the men's semi-final, Lennart Neubauer had a clear goal in mind. If he made it to the final and Steven Van Broeckhoven didn't, he would have already secured the European title. Yentel Caers was probably the toughest opponent on his way, as the Belgian was also aiming for a podium place in the European rankings. In the heat against Neubauer, Caers scored the highest heat score of the event at the time with an air funnel burner, a double culo and a stylish air flaka shaka, among other world-class manoeuvres, and won by a whopping four points. Neubauer now had a big task ahead of him to climb to the top of the annual standings.
Van Broeckhoven's success in the other semi-final did nothing to change that. By beating an impressive Niclas Nebelung, he moved into an all-Belgian final against Caers. Caers repeated his flow from the semi-final and won the single elimination.
Into the second half of the season without losing time
There were a number of exciting stories in the 32-strong fleet of riders in the second half of the season, as the professional freestyle scene saw a real generational shift. To name but a few, we saw young local Tim Gerdes knocking out freestyle veteran and legend Nick van Ingen, 14-year-old Leander Halm winning his first ever EFPT heat and Eugenio Marconi storming up the rankings over the second round. Marconi in particular impressed when he knocked out Sam Esteve in the fourth round of the competition. Another standout was Tim Ruyssenaars, who improved to ninth place and now shares a rank with established names on the scene.
Towards the middle of the afternoon, the predicted strong wind finally arrived. As if someone had flicked a switch, the wind picked up from an average of 25 to well over 40 knots within a few minutes. The equipment flew around on the beach and the riders hurried to rig their 3.6s and 4.0s - the excitement for the final was building! The first heat in the crazy conditions was a matchup between Testa and Kempen. Both struggled with the heavy rain and 50-knot gusts, but it was two-time European Champion Jacopo Testa who got a better grip on the conditions and secured his place in the battle for fourth.
The drenched, loyal spectators were then treated to a unique show: In a re-match of the single elimination semi-final, Testa once again faced German powerhouse Niclas Nebelung. The strong wind worked in the favour of the multiple freestyle battles champion, as he achieved by far the highest heat score of the entire event and sent Jacopo Testa back to the beach.
Nebelung's double air culo was particularly impressive, surprising the crowd and the judges. Testa responded with his typical Shove-It Spock into Spock, stylish Kabi's on both sides and a Spock Culo, but to no avail. Nebelung proved that beating Testa in the single was not just luck, but that he is now a serious contender for the top spots in international events.
The decisive heat: Neubauer against Nebelung
After his victory against Testa, Nebelung now posed a real threat to Neubauer's title ambitions. In the battle for third place, however, the wind eased somewhat and the young Greek's experience with larger sails paid off. Nebelung had to settle for fourth place, but said afterwards that he still felt very well beaten as he was now a real competitor in the premier league. Neubauer's victory secured him the European Freestyle Championship title, regardless of how the rest of the event went, as Steven van Broeckhoven could no longer catch him on points this season. Five-time European champion Steven van Broeckhoven had to settle for second place this year.
Calm after the storm
When the wind had dropped significantly after the storm front had passed, Yentel Caers won the event thanks to his victory in the single elimination. This puts him ahead of Jacopo Testa and puts him on the podium in the overall season standings.
The wind was also too weak in the women's event after the storm. In the double elimination it was still enough for a small comeback: Janika Rayers from Germany climbed to fourth place after winning against Maud de Bruijn in crazy storm conditions. In the battle for second place, Arianne Aukes once again prevailed over Lisa Kloster in a similar situation to the first round, when the wind died down and Aukes' competitive experience helped her to gain an advantage. As there was no wind in the final, Huvermann retained her top spot and cemented her position as European freestyle champion. She was joined there in second place by Lisa Kloster, who backed up her result from Brouwersdam this year with an impressive third place in Vieste. Third in the annual ranking was Oda Johanne Brodholt, who unfortunately could not be present at Brouwersdam.
One thing is for sure, there is a paradigm shift going on in the freestyle scene and we can't wait to see what the new generation of freestyle talent will bring next year after Lennart Neubauer showed what is possible.
- HERE go to the complete results
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