With the year 2012 being a big success for the European Freestyle Pro Tour the whole team went into the well deserved ‘winter break’ just after the last event in the UK. We were using the rather quiet months to discuss future plans for the tour, making necessary adjustments, exchange with our supporting brands and media partners and last but not least we seized them to plan and organize new events.

Like last year we are going to start off the season with the Chiemsee European Tow-In Championship in Podersdorf, alongside the huge PWA event. We are expecting a large number of spectators, floodlit tow-in action and an exciting battle for this years title! Steven Van Broeckhoven, reigning European tow-in champion will have to defend his status against riders like Dieter Van der Eyken (Starboard), Maarten Van Ochten (JP/Neilpryde), Frenchie Julien Mas (Sailloft) and local hero Max Matissek (Fanatic). We do know that all the riders did their homework over the winter season and do not underestimate the value of some tow-in training. We are looking forward to see the show!

The first exciting news considering freestyle contests came from Premantura, Croatia which already gained popularity due to the famous ‘Hallowind’ event, which took place many years before it got quiet around this spot in Southern Europe. This year new keen organizers stepped in. The event ‘Catch Me If You Can’ will be held from the 30th of October through the second of November with 10.000€ prize money for grasp. We are still in ongoing negotiations about a potential bigger tow-in event there on top of the ‘normal’ freestyle contest and will keep you updated.

Just after signing the contracts for Croatia, one of the EFPT’s top ten riders in 2012, Vladimir Yakovlev (JP/Neilpryde) from Russia contacted the press office. He declared his interest in running an event in Eysk, Russia at the Sea of Azov. Sponsored by the AQUALETO hotel, we could shortly after sign the contracts for the second 10.000€ prize money event this year! Yeah! The Aqualeto Cup will take place from the 20th until the 25th of May in Eysk and the pre-registration list is growing day by day. We’ll see big names like Steven Van Broeckhoven (JP/Neilpryde), Philip Soltysiak (Starboard), Dieter Van der Eyken (Starboard), Yegor Popretinsky (JP/Neilpryde), Mattia Fabrizi (North/Fanatic) and top freestyler from the UK Adam Sims (Sailloft) battling it out amongst many other riders. Furthermore the organizers will make the riders feel like rockstars, granting free transfer, free accommodation and free food throughout the whole competition.

Beyond those confirmed events we are still negotiating with organizers in Greece, France and the UK and are still hoping to run our final event there. The King of the Wind in 2012 left everybody involved impressed and we are hoping for more in 2013!

I am looking forward to give you more insights and more details in the next EFPT monthly!

Stay tuned!

Hanna

EFPT Press Officer

Firstly, the current proposed calendar can be seen in the picture below.

According to that there is €30,000 up for grabs this year across six events, the last time the tour saw this kind of calibre was in 2009, so are we seeing a bit of a bounce back? We decided to chat with the EFPT themselves, which revealed some interesting facts and could well see a tour reach 40 even €50,000 this year.

BS: So far the EFPT has six stops on its calendar and this has been growing over the past weeks, would you say we are seeing a re-emergence of freestyle windsurfing and what do you think it could be down to?

EFPT: We think that due to the better way of presenting the sport via video productions, photos and over social media, helps promote the exciting action better. It builds fans and followers from all over the world, not just Europe. On top of that the moves are getting much more aerial and as a result the public find it more thrilling to watch, especially in a time where all other sports are progressing with more radical moves and ways of documenting it, there really is no reason why it should go back when you compare it to the trends in other sports like snowboarding, mountain-biking, parkour, etc…

BS: We found this one of 2012 European Freestyle Pro Tour Champion, Davy Scheffers training!!!

BS: With the EFPT tour in its 10th year is there anything new or additional that we can expect in 2013?

EFPT: Certainly, we’ve been chatting to some potential new places like Portugal and even Russia which are both looking to host an event this year. As well as this, some old favourites could return, including Milos Beach and Lake Garda.  Actually Lake Garda never made it on to the EFPT Calendar before but is famous for building up the heart of freestyle windsurfing with it’s King of the Lake event and we are excited to be heading there with some of the worlds finest talents of modern day freestyle. So we may well see the addition of a couple more stops.

BS: Will we see Lake Garda local boy Mattia Pedrani ruling on the tour next year, check out his latest clip and tell us what you think in the comments below…

BS: We noticed the first event is tow-in only. Cheimsee seemed so impressed by it last year they have asked for the championships again, will we see any further development on this?

EFPT: Yes certainly, tow-in has been growing in popularity and there is a lot of talk out there about it and where it could possibly take place. The EFPT is discussing plans about the future of this side of the sport on a daily basis. For this year we won’t see too much action on those discussions however, we could well be finding ourselves with a tow-in event at Brouwersdam and an up-scaled one in the UK. We plan to set a standard (in terms of organisation and prize money) for the tour and hope to try to implicate it this year, if not then 2014 will see the official tow-in tour kick off.

BS: Last years European Tow-In Championships produced by Hauft.at

For fans of watersports then this video will quench your thirst, it includes some nice action from Kai Lenny as well as the XXL surfing awards and mark our words, there is some serious eating it in there!

Lastly, this cool one with a nice sound from the wakeboarding scene.

Good news, we are all still here. Even better news, Boardseeker brings you a healthy update this morning. Check out the action that went on around the world in the last few days before the apparent end of days.

Jason Polakow and Robby Swift report in with this edit from their recent trip to Chile. Outstanding action.

Up next is one for spanish listeners or just fans of top level windsurfing. Having featured in our afternoon news section yesterday, Gollito now stars in another movie which shows off the champions that have come out of Venezula.

Something esle of high quality is this sweet looking website from the Austrian slalom sailor Marco Lang, keep up to speed with the Marco as he progresses on the 2013 PWA tour – www.marco-lang.com.

More from the five times World Freestyle Champion, Gollito Estredo. Team QSW recently hooked up with Nik Baker to interview the freestyle champion himself, if you’ve ever wanted to find out what goes on inside the head of Gollito then this is one of the best chances.

Finally for those interested in the European Freestyle Pro Tour, it looks like the calendar for next year is beginning to appear on their website. So far just a couple of events but rumour has it that there is quite the potential for 2013. Check it all out here – www.efpt.net. Whilst you are there be sure to take a look at the nominees for the European Freestyle Pro Tour Rider of the Year and get your votes in. For the UK we have Adam Sims and Andy ‘Bubble’ Chamber nominated, a fair chance for a Brit to hit some pretty decent headlines. Obviously there are also a few others in contention…

Until this afternoon.