German Freestyle Battles

Spontaneity remains the top priority

The German Freestyle Battles made their presence felt at this year’s surf festival on the island of Fehmarn, featuring a record-breaking field of nine female riders, while 28 male competitors also took part.

Everyone was eagerly looking forward to Saturday, the first battle of the year, and the Danish Meteorological Institute had forecast winds of 4.4 m² or 4.8 m².

It quickly became clear to all participants that a southwest wind with showers isn’t exactly the most stable weather condition on the sunny island. Standing still and riding usually alternate just as frequently as the traffic lights at a busy intersection.

Meiky Wieczorek, who jogged from his sponsor’s pagoda to the Battles tent every time his heat restarted, certainly racked up enough kilometers that day to make up a half-marathon.

After constant starts and stops and a time window that was getting tighter and tighter, at least the women were supposed to get a chance to secure a result. But even that turned out to be more difficult than expected. Unfortunately, only two out of nine heats were completed. It’s a shame, because the women’s field was truly prestigious this year. Starting with the newcomers Anneke Jaap, Bijou Shahmirian, Maike Mittelbach, and Nadia Jablonski. Linda Mankova from Slovenia also joined the women’s fleet alongside Vice-Wave World Champion Lina Erpenstein, GFB winner Elena Dominik, Maike Lang, and Lina Schmied.

A tow-in battle was finally scheduled for 6:00 p.m. that evening, but the call from Marc Hollenbach, who was manning the tow-in boat, was rather sobering: “I don’t think anyone’s going to hook up here; Niclas Nebelung is consistently riding a 4.8.”

At 5:55 p.m., a decision had to be made: Tow-In, Supersession, or Super-X after all?

After a quick consultation with the riders, a phone call to the boat, and two minutes before the show was set to begin, it was clear that there would be a new format: Super-X!

The course was improvised and adapted to include a Le Mans start, followed by a maneuver of the competitor’s choice, a gybe around the boat, and—on the leg toward the beach—another maneuver had to be performed before crossing the finish line.

In two exciting and highly entertaining races, it was clear that Lennart Neubauer is not considered the best freestyler for nothing; with incredible power and energy, he powered through the first leg and then almost nonstop to victory.

Foivos Tsoupras, who quickly managed to get a 5.2 sail from his sponsor, finished second despite Lennart tampering with his mast foot position. Niclas Nebelung came in third.

The second race was also clearly dominated by Lennart, though Niclas Nebelung and Sebastian Gux secured second and third place, respectively.

After three races, there were still ten minutes left in the festival’s tight schedule, and with the evening’s final gusts, one more heat was held with the “Best Trick” as the objective. Foivos Tsoupras secured third place with a Lazy Susan. Sebastian Gux, who now calls Kiel home, fought his way to second place with a truly clean no-handed Burner.

First place went to freestyle world champion Lennart Neubauer, who earned the highest score from the judges with a perfectly executed double Shaka.