Day 1 and the Opening Ceremony

With some wind forecast for the morning many of the big named riders opted for an early night. With the likes of Steven Van Broeckhoven, Phil Soltysiak, Dieter Van Der Eyken, Adrian Beholz, Max Rowe and many more ready to do battle the riders were up for a quick breakfast then straight down to the beach, however they were greeted by calm waters as the stronger wind had blown through in the small hours of the night. For the rest of they day the conditions gradually declined and so did the chances of competition. However, all was not lost as a DIFFERENT climbing competition was put together by the hotel owners where the riders went head to head with each other as they scaled two different walls as fast as possible, their times were averaged and a winner decided and awarded a pair of DIFFERENT sunglasses. In the end it was Adam Sims from the UK who took the top spot with a rapid time of 39 seconds, followed by fellow team rider Adrian Beholz who did it in 41 seconds and Rick Jendrusch in 3rd with 43 seconds.

The evening program consisted of an opening ceremony with all the riders being introduced to the locals in both Russian and English. Light winds were predicted for the following day and so the opportunity was taken for a bit of a party with the organisers and crew involved in this event, check out the official Opening Ceremony video below, which includes a fire show, some light wind freestyle action and some funny shots of the riders.

Read the official EFPT Day 1 report HERE

Day 2 – Light Winds = Tow-In

Tow-in windsurfing was really the highlight of the day, with practice runs taking place all afternoon and into the night the tow-in was fine tuned so that the official competition for €1000 at the end of the week will run smoothly. Other than that some of the riders took the chance to visit the local markets in town and just chill-out at the pool. Check out the video clips of some of the tow-in runs below and read the full report from day 2 HERE.

Day 3 – Wind Forecast

A long day for the crew and competitors as wind was forecast from lunchtime onwards, with a promising start there was a hive of activity as the crew set up the event area and the riders prepared their kit. The postponements begin and not long after a few people hit the water and made it through a few moves, however they were few and far between so the competition was put on hold again and again. The day continued much like this until 8.15pm when it was finally decided to official abort any attempts to start the competition and so the evening program begins. With a climbing show put on by some of the local hotshots, followed by a trampolining display from Russia’s Olympic Team, who train here in Eysk, then finally wrapped up with a Karaoke night the Aqualeto Hotel really know how to entertain their guests. Pictures and video are to come, so stay tuned and join us tomorrow for more updates and news on this battle for €10,000 prize money and the title for EFPT Russia.

Words from the crew:

When was the last time you changed the weather purely with your mental strength? In this short movie, Steven Van Broeckhoven, Phil Soltysiak, and Max Matissek, did what seemed the impossible: WINDBREEDERS…
Dead calm, no wind at all. The scorching Egyptian heat was unbearable, and it seemed like an endless spell. There was no sign of change. We summoned every last bit of strength we had, and made it OUR mission, to bring back the wind.
We sped up time
Meditated
And even did some crazy voodoo shit.
Only god knows which of our actions brought back the wind, but one thing is for certain, we never want to suffer 3 windless days, ever again!

A Lake Alliance Production; be part of it: facebook.com/lakealliance

Every shot of this Clip was filmed with a GoPro Hero 3.

The riders:
Steven Van Broeckhoven – stevenvanbroeckhoven.com
Phil Soltysiak – philipsoltysiak.com
Max Matissek – maxmatissek.com

Check out the pictures and Oda’s full report on her website – odajohanne.com