On the second day of the PWA World Cup in Tenerife, the women took centre stage and delivered an action-packed show during an exciting single elimination. In the first rounds, only wave rides and no jumps counted towards the score. From the semi-final onwards, it was then decided to include two waves and a jump in the scoring. After a somewhat slow start to the final, Lina Erpenstein rallied brilliantly and deservedly secured victory in the single elimination.
Lina Erpenstein impresses with powerful turns and good timing
The current leader of the World Tour, Lina Erpenstein, proved today that she belongs right up there at the front. With plenty of power and good timing, the German smashed the waves of Cabezo. She always seemed to be in the right place at the right time and threw plenty of spray in the air. In her semi-final against Alexia Kiefer Quintana, Maria Behrens and Marine Hunter, she took control early on after landing a textbook backloop followed by an excellent wave score of 8.12 points. Things didn't go quite so well at the start of the final, however, after she crashed a backloop and didn't quite get to grips with the waves as well as before. Lina was undeterred, however, and remained calm before recording her first real wave score just under halfway through the heat with a long carved, solid rail turn that got her back into the game. The 27-year-old scored 5.38 points with another good set wave to take a deserved lead. As no more significant points were scored in the final minutes, she secured victory in the single elimination at the end of the second day and thus leads the World Cup in Tenerife - at least for the time being.
Alexia Kiefer and Sarah-Quita Offringa complete the single elimination podium
Alexia Kiefer Quintana finished second behind Erpenstein in the final. The 19-year-old, who has been on the podium at the last two events, has already secured another podium finish thanks to her second place in the single elimination here in Tenerife. The Spaniard has impressed throughout with her powerful, aggressive approach to wave riding and continues to have a ground-breaking season.
Sarah-Quita Offringa overcame a minor scare in the quarter-finals but eventually won by a narrow margin before also winning her semi-final ahead of Iballa Moreno, Pauline Katz and Justyna Sniady. Offringa got off to a brilliant start in the final, but then couldn't find the waves she needed to take the win. The 24-time world champion from Aruba therefore finished the second day in third place.
Comeback of five-time world champion Iballa Moreno
Iballa Moreno made her first appearance of the season on the World Tour today. The former five-time PWA Wave World Champion made no mistakes and secured her place in the final with her fluid, dynamic wave rides. Things didn't quite go to plan for Moreno there, so she currently has to make do with fourth place and will try to manoeuvre her way towards the podium places via the double elimination.
Meanwhile, Katz and Behrens share fifth place ahead of Sniady and Hunter. Hunter prevented local Maria Morales from reaching the top eight in the quarter-finals with a buzzer beater after she produced a solid late hit.
The top ten is currently completed by Morales, Caroline Weber, Sol Degrieck and Blanca Alabau, who made her debut on the PWA Wave World Tour at her home spot.
The waves subsided in the afternoon, good forecast for tomorrow
After the women's single elimination had finished, the plan was to start the men's elimination, but unfortunately the conditions didn't play ball for the rest of the day, so the riders were sent home at around 6pm.
The good news is that tomorrow looks promising with similar strong winds and waves as today, so hopefully the men's single elimination can get underway. The skippers meeting is already scheduled for 9am (local time) tomorrow.
