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Josh Angulo must have been praying hard as you couldn’t have asked the Lord to deliver anything better for the inaugural event on the Island of Sal in Cape Verde: mast high, perfectly peeling, very powerful, very gnarly waves breaking onto a razor sharp reef with a light offshore wind. Sounds like hell to us mere mortals and in fact many Pros did have their brown trouser moments and broke more kit at one event than they normaly do over an entire season. But having competed in waist high waves in Pozo & onshore mush in Sylt for many years, this was a real treat and the 32 Pros rose to the occasion.
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Top Five Rides
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(CV-1)
These days trying to beat Josh Angulo in starboard tack, down-the-line, mast high waves is out of the reach of every wave sailor in the world with the exception of one Brazilian! Why? He would probably not like to hear this but he is becoming Mr.Consistent; simply put when it matters, he delivers the goods (one-handed aerials, top turn smacks, wave selection) all without getting his hair wet. A final point, in the final, where Kauli was on a 4.5m sail, Josh was on a big board and a 5.8m sail! |
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(BRA-253)
This guy is taking wave riding to the next level combining traditional bottom/top turns with freestyle moves & wave tricks. He was outstanding in the single elimination and beat Josh in the final with style. In the double, bad judgement in wave selection & kit choice saw a revived Josh beat him twice to win overall. Saying that, in the second sail off of the double, Kauli had spent so long swimming in the first, that he was completely knackered and barely had energy to get out through the sets let alone ride in! |
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(US-3)
Kevin is really sailing well in the waves despite his claim that he is concentrating more on racing this season! He is more stylish and inventive than in previous years and his repertoire of wave tricks has increased. At this event, however, his sailing will be remembered for the biggest aerial we have ever filmed (see later in feature). But despite that move of the year, he couldn’t get past local boy Josh Angulo nor Kauli. |
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(KA-111)
Let’s forget Day 1 of the contest for Jason – not good. Instead let’s look at the sailor on day two where he launched the comeback of the competition to get to the last 4. He was the best wave rider on the water that day but by the time it got to the last, all important heats, he was exhausted having gone full tilt, ending up on the reef several times and wrecking five sets of kit! He lost to a fresher Kevin Pritchard. |
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(K-66)
Nik was getting some awesome barrelling waves and it was real “ballsy” stuff to watch. His bottom turn was magical combined with really late top turns. This guy just improves with age! |
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Aerial Fest
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(E-30)
After watching Alex’s aerials you wonder why he didn’t finish higher up the rankings, but that was the problem. The guy was so obsessed with getting monster aerials, that he forgot he had to also rack up the points and continue riding the wave! Our favourite aerial is the second one in this video montage – super cool - although number five is kind of jammy!
Enjoy some technically perfect wave aerials!
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Super Session Highlights
Of course the problem with getting good conditions straight away, was that the contest was over by the first weekend leaving spectators and sponsors potentially put out. So a Super Session was organised, sponsored by Boards Magazine. Anything goes was the order of the day, so long as it was radical or had never been landed before.
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As you can see, the waves weren’t the monsters of previous days which is why Marcilio was awarded the victory for his ability to pop a rather high one-handed aerial off a smallish wave. |
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In terms of jumps off the lip, we are not sure if these two ever had potential to land back on the same wave, but never-the-less, they looked damn cool! |
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This is going to be an awesome move as even the wipe-outs look cool! Keep working on them John, we want to be there to record your first one. |
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Our Five Favourite Clips
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Watch his top turns, his bottom turns, his flaka down the wave & his ponch to finish off - genius! |
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Apologies for the grainy footage as Kevin’s aerial was filmed during a local sand storm, but you get the picture. Just count to yourself how long he was air born - the first section of the clip is real time!! |
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This is a slightly bizarre looking top turn where Thomas, who looks like he was a bit too late in going for this section, gets inside the top lip of the wave and smacked back down to ground level with a vengeance. How he regains control is a mystery! |
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He was firing during the double elimination, just watch his top turns - absolutely awesome, no other words for it. |
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These guys really did hold their own against the full time professionals. They also had no respect for their body or kit as they just went for it on really massive, punchy waves resulting in some painful looking wipe-outs. |
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RESULTS: TOP 10
- 1. Josh Angulo
- 2. Kauli Seadi
- 3. Kevin Pritchard
- 4. Jason Polakow
- 5. Nik Baker
- 6. Levi Siver
- 7. Keith Teboul
- 8. Alex Mussolini
- Joint 9th Scott McKercher & Bjorn Dunkerbeck
- Joint 11th Ross Williams & Jonas Ceballos
 View inside line Movie
The next PWA event is a Slalom event in Ulsan, South Korea from 5-12 May.
All photos courtesy of PWA/John Carter.
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