Day 5:Sarah-Quita Offringa stamps down her authority on Lac Bay and claims her crown as Queen of Bonaire!
On the fifth and final day of competition, Bonaire erupted into a freestyle frenzy, as the sailors brought everything they had to the table in an attempt to progress through the double elimination. Women’s Fleet
Heat 46 in the women’s double elimination saw Xenia Kessler (JP / MauiSails) and Mio Anayama (NeilPryde) work their way past Maxime Van Gent and Daniela Simal with a series of spock variations and an inspired clean flaka from Kessler.
Next up was Anayama versus Kessler; Anayama opened the heat with a spock 540 but then failed to land a number of critical moves. Kessler took the advantage with her forward loop securing her place in the next heat to challenge Arrianne Aukes (RRD / Simmer / Dakine).
Kessler put up a great fight and attempted to match Aukes for every move; however Aukes played her consistent card and barely dropped a trick throughout the heat, earning her pass into the next round to face Yoli De Brendt (Fanatic / North).
De Brendt disposed of Aukes with her more varied repertoire of switch maneuvers and a double flaka to seal the deal, and then went onto face Swiss freestyle specialist Laure Treboux (Fanatic / North).
Treboux was on fire in the heat and left the water steaming. She garnished every maneuver with an extra element of style, nailing her moves one handed or fully planning. The judges recognized her efforts and rewarded her with a place in the final.
Women’s Final
Bonaire witnessed one of the finest women’s finals of all time. Sarah-Quita Offringa (Starboard / Gaastra / Mystic) and Treboux took to the water for the fourth time this week. With one more opportunity to break Offringa’s stronghold on Lac Bay and the top spot, Treboux pulled out all the stops. On recognizing Treboux’s effort Offringa decided it was time to reveal her big moves. The end result was a spectacular show and a final to remember as both women pulled out all the stops for the cheering crowds. Despite Treboux’s fighting every inch of the way, Offringa squeezed past Treboux with her incredible moves and took her fourth final win at this event and the title of event winner.
“I was quite nervous for this event and on the first day I didn’t sail as well as I wanted but I still managed to win. Slowly it got better even though the wind was light. Today was the cherry on top of the cake because the wind was really strong. In the final I was powered up on my 5.2 sailing against Laure; usually we have a really good time when we are sailing. I think it was my best heat ever I landed a double spock, a kono, an air funnel and a funnel diablo. I was really happy, I saw that Laure was sailing really well and that motivated me even more so, I think this was one of the best women’s finals ever. I am really excited for Aruba, the forecast looks great.”
Super Session
Having completed the official competition and the wind still blowing a gale the judges took the opportunity to run a super session for the crowds on the beaches. The sailors were allowed thirty minutes to try performing their most outrageous and impressive moves. Alongside some big crashes huge culos, konos and burner’s went down. The victory was claimed by Anthony Ruenes with his super high and stylish no-handed flaka.
The PWA crew will now make the short trip over to the dazzling island of Aruba for round four of the freestyle and slalom world cup taking place on 19th-26th June.
Scope the action
For information on all the entrants, and to keep up to date with every piece of the action, navigate to www.pwaworldtour.com Here you can use our: • Live ticker service for heat-by-heat bulletins • Check live elimination ladders • View results • Read daily news summaries • Browse awesome action photo galleries
Or for more information, please contact the PWA office via [email protected]
