WINDSURFING WOMEN WAVE WORLD CUP
SYLT, 5th October 2009
All women wave riders had to meet for the last time of the year in Sylt, Westerand, Germany, to show one more time what they are able of on the water with their windsurf gear. They are coming here from all over the world, to reach their objective of becoming windsurfing world champion. They train hard all the year long to live their dream of being a professional windsurfer: they prepare themselves physically, technically and mentally to give their during every contest. Windsurfing is a complete sport, always pushing oneself to defy the elements: taking the best wave, jumping the highest possible, being the most radical, simply, going beyond ourselves...
Presentation of the stars
THE MORENO TWINS, IBALLA & DAIDA (E63 & E64 from Spain)
Multiple Freestyle and Wave World Champions, the Moreno sisters pushed away the limits of women windsurf by jumping higher and moving faster. They are so impressive on the water that lots of guys would prefer not to have to compare themselves to the canarian women, in case of! The leave in Pozo, a small island in the spanish Canarians, where the wind blows every single day and where the water offers them perfect sailing conditions to become world champions one more time. Iballa & Daida organize each year some windsurfing girl training camps, where young ladies can learn from their experience on the water and from their ability to manage their career of professional windsurfer.
KARIN JAGGI (Z14 from Swiss)
Karin is one of the most talented, and complete windsurfer in the world. Her professionalism should be an exemple for every rider and lead her to the highest level. She has been several times World Champion too, and is at ease in every single discipline. She is the Windsurf Speed World Recordwoman, that means that she's the fastest woman windsurfing in the world. Karin is conciliating brilliantly high level windsurfing and professional accomplishment, and she works tirelessly to promote the uptake of the women's sport.
NAYRA ALONSO (E4 from Spain)
Another fiery, red-hot Spanish talent. Born and bred in the relentless wind of her native Gran Canaria, Nayra’s abilities are feared by even the champions. Known for pushing her limits within competition, Aged 28, a quick learner, and fizzing with energy, she is one of the fastest learners in the sport and highly likely to climb the rankings further. Nayra joined the pro scene after windsurfing just for two years, and she's now one of the best!
STEFFI WHAL (G303 from Germany, the local one)
Born in 1978 in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, Steffi has been addicted to water sports really early thanks to her father, she studied business management and now she is able to windsurf at the Baltic Sea, Klitmøller or whereever, whenever it gets windy. She loves big waves, strong winds, windsurfing with her friends whatever the conditions may look like and her hometown Kiel. Whenever she got enough money and time, she tries to escape from the cold winter in Germany to Capetown / Southafrica and the Canary Islands to be able to windsurf the whole year round.
Here is a summary of what have been seen on the water in Sylt some days ago:
In the early heats, Evi Tsape (from Greece) put together a great repertoire of jumps and wave rides to take down the freestyle legend Sarah-Quita Offringa (from Aruba), and claim her ticket into the next round. Steffi Wahl (the local german one) also showed her home crowds how it’s done by linking together numerous turns and squeezing every ounce of power out of the tricky onshore waves. On the other side of the draw, Laure Treboux (from Swiss) made it through her first heat with ease taming some North Sea monsters on her way.
In the quarterfinals, Iballa Ruano Moreno (from Spain) had an easy ride because neither of her opponents qualified for the round. Nayra Alonso’s (from Spain also) first outing was against Treboux, she managed to stop the Swiss girl dead in her tracks with an impressive display of backward rotating jumps. In the other half, Karin Jaggi (from Swiss too) disappointed the home crowds by seeing off Wahl. And current tour leader Daida Ruano Moreno (from Spain) quickly put a stop to Wahl’s plans of progressing any further. Wahl was unlucky to get caught on the inside for much of the heat making Moreno’s life that little bit easier.
Jaggi sailed well to beat Alonso in the losers final and claim third place. In the winners final, Daida got plenty of jumps in, but failed to score as many high scoring waves as her sister, Iballa getting at least six turns on one of her highest scoring waves. This left the crowds wandering for quite a while, but when the scorecards were counted, Iballa had done enough to secure victory.
This leaves Iballa and Daida neck a neck for the overall title, with Daida no doubt hoping for a double elimination to take place over the next few days.
Iballa Ruano Moreno tame mast high growlers to claim victory in the North Sea. Meanwhile, Daida Ruano Moreno claim the 2009 Overall Wave World Title.
With a huge low heading straight for the North Sea, the head judge made the excellent call to start the wave heats early on the eighth day of competition at the Colgate World Cup Sylt.
The women hit the water first whilst the conditions looked a little less brutal, but it didn’t take long for the wind to increase and the shore break to build, creating an amazing scene for the thousands of spectators gathered on the beach. With a constant 25 knots and gusts of up to 40 knots, it really was an incredible sight, and the women put in a solid performance in the toughest of conditions.
Iballa Ruano Moreno was sitting pretty at the top of the single elimination, so by the time it came to her first heat she had barely sailed. Her sister Daida Ruano Moreno on the other hand was already in tune with the conditions having sailed against Nayra Alonso to defend her position. Daida upped the level and actually sailed a better heat than most of the men did in their early rounds, landing huge tweaked push loops to beat her sister. This meant a second final would have to take place to decide the event winner. Second time round, both of the Moreno twins were pushing hard and getting some excellent jumps and riding in. Iballa however pushed the sailing a notch higher and landed a huge push loop followed by a high scoring ride, which just edged her out in front, winning her the heat, and the event.
All of the women sailed extremely well in the tough conditions but some better than others. Evi Tsape stood out in the early rounds with some great forward loops and an excellent riding style, but she was halted in her tracks by an on form Alonso. Alonso was hitting heaps of sections with plenty of power, and going for some frighteningly high push loops. Laure Treboux also looked more comfortable in the port tack conditions and was unlucky not to progress further.
Final results:
Women's Wave in Sylt
1st Iballa Moreno (E63)
2nd Daida Moreno (E64)
3rd Nayra Alonso (E4)
4th Karin Jaggi (Z14)
5th Evi Tsape (GR2)
Women’s Wave Overall Rankings 2009
1st Daida Ruano Moreno
2nd Iballa Ruano Moreno
3rd Karin Jaggi
4th Nayra Alonso
5th Evi Tsape
