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| Date: 18 Oct. -25 Oct. 1998 |
| Location: Fortaleza / Brasil |
| Status: Grand Prix |
| Discipline: Wave |
| Prizemoney: 100.000 $ |
| ©SSM / Dan Atkins Location... In a stark contrast to the cold north-easterly winds of Sylt in northern Germany, the PWA World Tour has returned to the tropical climate of Fortaleza, Brasil. Located just two degrees below the Equatorial line, Fortaleza, a tropical paradise is one of Brazil's most popular holiday destinations. Last year was the first time that the PWA World Tour had visited Brazil and the event received the added accolade of hosting the World Tour final. This year, the tour has returned for the penultimate event of the season and the competition is focused solely on wave performance. The relaxed and friendly atmosphere at the contest is one you would expect from a country which is famous for its love of beach life and parties. The scenery along the Ceara coastline is breathtaking. Long white sandy beaches and many palm tree fringed coves are set off by the constant surf coming in from the warm green water of the Southern Atlantic ocean. Early starts...One factor the sailors were prepared for this year is the fact that the wind at the contest site is at its strongest first thing in the morning and therefore skipper's meetings are scheduled daily for 5am. Cool Move...The younger of the two Baker brothers absolutely ripped, on both waves and jumps. The loudest 'gasp' went to Ant Baker, he landed a massive one-handed back-loop which was so extreme he grabbed the fin with his back-hand during the rotation. The Final Heats...Polakow entered the final against Matt Pritchard thinking his 1/4 final defeat in the first elimination would leave him out of the running. However, the 1/4 final demise of Nik Baker and the very early departure of Kevin Pritchard suddenly catapulted Polakow into a competition winning position. This is the sort of opportunity that a World Champion cannot afford to miss and sure enough, Jason Polakow pulled the result out of the bag. Matt Pritchard sailed a first class heat but could not match the style of a totally on-form Polakow whose push-loops, back-loops, planing forwards and massively tweaked table tops all scored highly, not to mention a demonstration of aggressive and truly radical wave riding. Event Results...Polakow's win saw him snatch the event victory for the Ceara Wind 1998 PWA Wave Grand Prix on a tie-break from US-93 Matt Pritchard. Polakow beat Pritchard 2-1 in the 3 elimination's. K-66 England's Nik Baker finished third in the event. Word Wave Ranking...A third position here for Nik Baker has moved him from second to first position in the 1998 PWA World Wave Ranking. The previous wave ranking leader Bjorn Dunkerbeck, E-11 has dropped to third position behind the come-back kid Jason Polakow and is now just 5 World Championship Ranking points ahead of US-933 Kevin Pritchard. To put the last statistic into perspective, that is 5 World Championship Ranking points from 4000 ! Overall World Ranking...Bjorn Dunkerbeck still maintains his lead in the 1998 Overall World Ranking ahead of Kevin and Matt Pritchard in 2nd and 3rd position respectively. Dunkerbeck's defence of his 10 year undefeated Overall Ranking is under a much greater threat this year than ever before. US-933 Kevin Pritchard is Bjorn's main challenger and needs to finish at least 2 positions ahead of Bjorn in the final event of the year, the Swatch Aloha Wave Classic by O'Neill. With the World Tour final returning to Maui for the first time since 1994 all top 8 seeds will be nervous, each one of them must meet an un-seeded wildcard from the pre-event trials at Ho'okipa an event which is bound to produce 8 world class challengers. There is not long to wait now. The Swatch Aloha Wave Classic by O'Neill runs from the 5th-12th November and the PWA World Tour sailors are all returning to Maui for some last-minute training. THE CEARA-WIND 1998 PWA WAVE GRAND PRIX
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