European Freestyle Pro Tour, Austria from. April 22-25, 2021
I left Bonaire to join the foil- and slalom-trainingscamp on Tenerife, Spain and to practice freestyle in other conditions than home in the first week of March . Planned was to return back home on April 4th, but mid March the European Freestyle Pro-tour announced a confirmed freestyle event in Austria at Lake Neusiedlersee.
In between Tenerife and Austria I could finally lay hands on the brand new Future Fly freestyle-board “Tamado” .
Together with chief Future Fly Arnon Dagan , my fellow Islandboyz Taty Frans and myself have worked on this new board and it was a great moment when I could pick it up and could start training on it.
In freezing conditions in The Netherlands , packed in gloves, shoes and wetsuit I really enjoyed our result, the Tamado. The board comes in 2 different sizes – 101 and 93 liters.
With only a few days of wind and training on the Tamado, team-mate Taty Frans and I drove the 1250 km to Neusiedlersee in Austria.
Ofcourse we had to test negative for Covid-19 before departure and during the event we got tested every morning. No audience, family or friends were allowed on the eventsite, only competitiors, organisers and event-crew. This was a strange feeling, but we put aside missing the audience, because it was great to see all riders/friends after a long time and everybody was stoked to have a competition again.
The registration took place on Thursday April 22nd and 28 riders from nine nations registered for the event. Shortly after 12.30 the event was “on” as the north westerly wind kicked in and the single elimination was underway. Soon the wind became unstable and after some re-sails the organisers switched from freestyle to the tow-in discipline with qualification-round 1. This first day I could stay dry and warm as my heat was further on the eliminationladder and in the tow-in I was in the 2nd qualifier-group.
Day two had been started early with really high expectations. The north-westerly wind had been forecasted from the morning onwards, so the riders and crew were called to the even-site at 6.30 am by race directorDanny Kater. And this is were we could see the beauty and the curse of this sport – you can be as prepared and ready as you want, if the weather doesn’t play ball, there is nothing you can do about it. Severneal heats were started but also cancelled again. It was a long day waiting.
The penultimate day at the Surf Opening in Austria has been ‚tow-in day‘.
All 10 of the 2nd qualifier had 2 runs to give their best. Only the best 5 could go into the final and with 8 points I could finish in 3rd place
Pictures by Alex Lang / Christian Steinbrenner
Comments from the jury: Amado Vrieswijk landed a smooth and slightly stalled air funnell into burner, which scored him 8 points, but it was the double air culo he tried in the second round that was really impressive. Unfortunately he couldn’t make the landing, however his place in the final was already secured
The final was at sunset and the temperatures were not so friendly. Each finalist got 3 runs. As this is not my favorite discipline, and one can almost never practice this (as you need a jetski and and a boat to make a ramp) I was happy to finish in 5th place. Congrats to Severne-teammate Lennart Neubauer taking the win and ofcourse Kiri Thode in a second place. It was a great show and via live-stream the world could enjoy this Saturday-evening entertainement. Thumps up for the camera/streaming team.
All eyes were on the last day , everybody was eager to at least finish the single elimination. The forecast was excellent so with fingers crossed we started the last day. After being tested again, breakfast and checking the gear the single elimination could continue. The wind filled in very well and my scoresheets as wel.
It felt great to win the single elimination and secure at least a podiumplace.
All hopes were focused to continue the double elimination to get a complete result of this first event here in Austria. The wind stayed with us and soon the double-elimination was on it’s way.
For me it was a long wait, but great to see all riders in action, the vibes on the shore were awesome and again the livestreaming took care of the entertainment for all who had to stay home and has the love for the sport.
At the end of the afternoon the windlighter but it was still possible to finalize the competition.
My opponent in the final was again Jacopo Testa. The lighter wind was not in my advantage. Jacopo weiging at least 10 kilo less was planing around as myself had to put in everything I’ve got to execute a proper move.
In the end I came a few points short and we had to race the Superfinal.
Again this were not the best conditions and the leading switched from Jacopo, back to me and visa versa. In the very last minute my culo gave me the win of the event and I was over the moon.
After the award-ceremony it was time to pack our gear and drove back to the Netherlands. 1250km up and down but all worth it.
A special thanks to the organisers ,volunteers, supporters of the Surf Opening in Neusiedlersee, Adam Sims , Dany Kater and crew of the EFPT and not to forget my sponsors :
All pictures by Alex Lang and Christiaan Steinberger
Plan : Friday April 30st I will fly back home for a few weeks to continue training and prepare for the next phase of 2021. More info about that will follow soon .
Cheers
Amado Vrieswijk
NB20
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