First Freestyle event of the year

The Austria 1999 PWA Freestyle Grand Prix is the first Freestyle event of the 1999 season. The return to Austria is very special for the PWA and particularly for the Freestyle sailors. This event was the very first official PWA Freestyle event and the first Freestyle event to carry points towards a World Championship title.

Last year was a demonstration year for the new discipline which was developed from the success of contests at Lake Garda (King of the Lake) and the Columbia Gorge in the US (Gorge Games). The windsurfing industry has quickly adapted to the success of the discipline. Wave, Freestyle and Freeride equipment are now the highest selling sectors of the windsurfing market.

New moves

In it's second year as a PWA discipline, freestyle has seen major advances in the last twelve months in terms of manoeuvres and the number of people doing them. To explain better what's hot and what's not, world number 2 Matt Pritchard, former King Of The Lake champions Robby Seeger and Jesse Dossi and world number 5 Nik Baker.

Matt Pritchard

What are the hottest new moves for '99?
The Budapest and the Triple Lindsey.

Can you talk me through the Budapest?
I don't know, that's something that we are kind of keeping to ourselves until the heats start.

What else is there apart from the Budapest?
The Free Willy is kinda back with some new variations on my behalf, and a bunch of other stuff that I can't really explain. I gotta keep 'em under my hat and bust 'em out when the time permits, you know when the 8 minute gun goes off, that's when all is said and done.

Robby Seeger

What are the hottest new moves for '99?
The Spock, the Air Spock, for people that can do it, which is one of the latest manoeuvres. You have different variations on the aerial tack, you need quite a bit of wind for those, everybody is getting comfortable with the Willy Skipper - there's like 12 different variations of Willy Skipper, the Willy Skipper slide 360, the Candybar, Free Willy, even I get confused with all of the different names. There's the flip tack which is a reverse stand into the wind tack, where you flip the sail over your head, that's a brand new move. The Lazy Susan which is an aerial board 360, the Aerial duck Gybe is really hot, I actually invented that thing about 12 years ago, nobody's been doing it ever since but it's coming back and you'll see it by King Of The Lake, everyone is really training for that manoeuvre again. There are all these different pirouette moves that people are going to be doing but once they see it, everyone's just trying to play catch-up or stay ahead of everybody else, It's kind of a rat race.

Jesse Dossi

What are the hottest new moves for '99?
Definitely the Vulcan 360 - the Spock is absolutely the new manoeuvre that everyone has to do if they are coming to a freestyle competition. Last year just a normal Vulcan was something very special, very new and now we have gone so far forward that everyone does the Vulcan so easily. This latest Vulcan 360 is the newest thing that everybody should do. That definitely is the hottest move. Then there area couple of new variations on the Willy Skipper.

Can you talk me through a Vulcan 360 - the Spock?
You do a normal Vulcan and you are sliding backside then you turn 360 with the sail and the board and that's it! But you have to keep on trying to do it a lot of times because it's not that easy, it looks easy but it's not easy to do so we have to train a lot to do this kind of stuff.

Nik Baker

What are the hottest new moves for '99?
I would have to say my favourite move, and the one that I have been trying to learn in Hawaii before I came here is the Spock. You do like a Vulcan, on the flat water, basically a Vulcan full speed so you are going backwards in the straps and you have to jump around the sail and do like a 360, flip the sail and carry on going. If you can do that full speed, fully planing too, then its really good fun - you can hurt yourself a bit doing it but its really good.

Is there anything new, anything different?
Not really it's pretty much just playing around with all the old existing manoeuvres and just trying to do them a different way round, rotate the sail in a different way, jump the board round in a different way, it's all basically just what we've been doing for a long time just variating it and combining manoeuvres and stuff. Although there is no guaranteed forecast for wind at the moment everyone at tonight's wine tasting at a nearby vineyard remains confident that we will get to see some of the action mentioned above in the coming days.

The event carries full Grand Prix points and has therefore attracted a very strong fleet.

Competition got underway on the second day of the Denzel Windurfing World Cup Neusiedler See on April 25th 1999:

Sunrise brought promising, moderate, onshore winds, between 12 and 15 knots, giving light but suitable conditions at Podersdorf. After a half-hour warm up, heat 1 began using a 4 man format with the best 2 sailors advancing. Sailors were judged using the standard PWA system of overall impression, where sailors are simply allocated positions 1-4 in their heat by the international panel of judges.

Dutchman Peter Volwater, H-24, fulfilled his early promise from last year along with dedicated Austrian freestyler Michi Schweiger, AUT-54, taking out E-7, Marcos Perez, from Spain and I-0, Andrea Rosati, from Italy, in the first heat. The strong Austrian presence continued to leave its mark on the regular PWA competitors in heat 2 when AUT-10, Ossie Krupitz and virgin PWA freestyler AUT-360, Alex Humpel pushed straight passed KBA-8, Irie-Man Brian Talma, and aerobatic expert N-44, Vidar Jensen, still suffering from a recurring knee injury.

Swiss indoor and freestyle master Z-62, Jerome Bouldoires and German newcomer G-9, Andy Wolff learnt the hard truth of competing in the top 32 in the world, despite stylish performances in the lightening winds. Britain's K-77, Ant Baker and 3 times French champion F-192, Antoine Albeau worked hard and managed to crash through the lighter weight competition, into round 2.

11 time world champion E-11, Bjorn Dunkerbeck and bump and jump guru US-003, Chris Wyman, fresh from their recent head to head in Mexico went up against AUT-100, Michi Kraup and promising rookie H-72, Ramses Landman in heat 3. Unfortunately the struggling wind finally gave up and the heat had to be abandoned.

Although only 3 heats were completed, there was some promising action with the likes of Ant Baker and Peter Volwater performing fluid willy skippers and very tidy duck tacks.

The wind dropping, although bringing the sailing to an end, did not stop the fun. With countless activities on the beach and a huge crowd, the sailors had plenty to occupy their time. Everything from bungee jumping to hair styling sessions with on stage performances from most of the top names. There was a real party atmosphere for competitors and the thousands who turned out to enjoying the mixed Austrian weather.

At 4pm competition was officially canceled for the day and everyone set to work dismantling the event and packing windsurf equipment, still fully rigged, into the vehicles arranged for the move to our mid week location at the Seepark holiday village at Wieden, 10km from Podersdorf. This very picturesque location with a relaxed laid back atmosphere will host the event until its return to Podersorf on Thursday evening ready for the weekend.

28 April 1999

Grey skies and a light breeze greeted those who made it to the skippers meting at 9am today. But even as the first announcements were made small whitecaps were beginning to appear on the water creating a wash of anticipation over the assembled competitors.

A postponement of one hour was just long enough to give the wind a chance to build and the fleet went into it's warm up at 10am. By 10.15 word had spread around the Seepark holiday village and everyone had dragged themselves out of bed, some having only recently got back from the party the night before.

At 10.30 the wind had become lighter and more variable so it was not until 11.35 that the first heat got underway.

With the conditions better but still fluctuating, World Champion E-11 Bjorn Dunkerbeck, accompanied by AUT-100 Michi Kraupp, US-003 Chris Wyman and H-72 Ramses Landman, headed out to the competition area. Almost perfectly timed, the wind steadied slightly and the contest began again.

Once more the conditions were light but good enough and the Austrian onslaught continued, with support from Wyman, leaving Dunkerbeck and Landman in their wake.

The next heat saw even stronger conditions giving an opportunity for K-66 Nik Baker to demonstrate his new party piece - The Spock - and KC-1 Sam Ireland to show that he can cut it with the best of them taking out I-157 Raimondo Gasperini and E-69 Beat Steffan.

Heat 6 saw the biggest showdown of the event so far, with USA-6 Josh Stone, Wave World Champion KA-1111 Jason Polakow, former King Of The Lake I-21 Jesse Dossi, and current King Of The Lake G-307 Robby Seeger. With a line up like that it was any body's guess who would prevail but there had to be 2 losers. Stone sailed well and Dossi excelled in the light wind conditions making it hard for Polakow and Seeger to keep up, both having selected sail sizes not ideally suited to the conditions. Stone and Dossi landed safely in round 2.

Heat 7 drew freestyle specialist D-99 Lars Peterson, G-33 Wolfgang Weifling, more Austrian lake sailing talent in the form of AUT-19 Frank Lewisch and the mighty German G-16 Bernd Flessner. With the wind once again falling lighter, there was a slight delay but eventually battle commenced. Lewisch once again held the Austrian Flag high to slip comfortably into the next round, and with Flessner struggling in the marginal conditions the battle between Weifling and Peterson was tight with Weifling eventually triumphing.

Once more the wind left a gap in the schedule and sailors from heat 8 were forced to wait. Soon enough though the whitecaps were back and last years Austrian victor US-10 Matt Pritchard led freestyle virgin A-211 Francisco Goya, D-0 Michael Viscovitch, and Gran Canaria double looper E-19 Orjan Jensen out towards the contest area. With more specialised and quite simply bigger equipment, Pritchard was flying, and the fight was to see who would join him in round 2. Eventually it was a stylish Goya who narrowly out-smarted Viscovitch to leave him and Jensen junior behind.

Despite repeated attempts by the race committee the wind failed to allow any further competition and eventually competition was officially cancelled for the day. With 8 heats completed and the fleet down to the top 16 there is now an official result to count towards the overall freestyle title for the year.

PWA - Grand Prix , Neusiedler See - Final Results

1 GRAUP, Michael AUT-100 / Arrows, F2,

1 HUMPEL, Alex AUT-360 / Neil Pryde,JP Aust., Burton,Black Flys

1 IRELAND, Sam KC-1 / North Sails, Fanatic, Tectonics

1 STONE, Josh USA-6 / Neil Pryde,F2,JetSet, Oakley, Red Bull

1 WYMAN, Chris US-003 / Naish,Mistral,Split, W/Surf Hawaii,Oakley

1 PRITCHARD, Matt US-10 / Gaastra,AHD,O'Neill, Oakley,Fiberspar

1 ALBEAU, Antoine F-192 / Neil Pryde,AHD, Select, ATAN

1 LEWISCH, Frank AUT-19 / Gaastra

1 SCHWEIGER, Michi AUT-54 / Neil Pryde, Mistral, Sunshine,Denzel,Oakl

1 KRUPITZ, Ossi AUT-10 / Arrows, F2,Mozdo

1 BAKER, Nicholas K-66 / North Sails,Mistral, Silk Cut,North Shore

1 GOYA, Francisco A-211 / Naish Sails,Fanatic, O'Neill

1 WEIFLING, Wolfgang G-33 / Neil Pryde,F2, Adrenalin

1 DOSSI, Jesse I-21 / North Sails, Mistral, Hawaii Surf,Ciessui

1 BAKER, Antony K-77 /Arrows, F2, Silk Cut

1 VOLWATER, Peter H-24 / Arrows,F2,Quiksilver, NorthShore Fins,Reef

17 PETERSEN, Lars D-992

Remark: 16 (!) Competitors are sharing first place  , due to equal points

©SSM Freesports unless credited as source: SSM/Dan Atkins

Last updated: 16.05.99