Competitors woke up this morning at El Faro Adventure Resort in Pacasmayo Peru, to see waves for the first time during the contest window. The call was made to start with the Amateur heats right in front of the hotel at 2pm. The wind was light, but waves were peeling down the point, and beyond the hotel.
In the first round, Nicolas Schreir from Peru blasted ahead of the crew with several high scoring waves. Tom Soltysiak from Canada sailed well edging just ahead of Ole Baeumer from Germany, who is new to the AWT. Local Maria Bazo an RSX (Olympic Class) sailor wowed the crowd with a perfectly timed aerial halfway through her heat.
The second heat of the day showcased another newcomer to the AWT, William Perez, from the mountains of Peru. William is 19 years old and only started windsurfing this March. Throughout the heat he showed how much he had learned in such a short amount of time, with outstanding rides and top wave selection. His new wave-sailing skills are shockingly impressive, and he tallied a well earned heat victory. Placing second in the heat was Maxime Fevier from France who has been training in Pacasmayo for the last month. Local organizer Carolina Butrich sailed very well placing third with another lovely lady, Bjorte Purschel from Germany, also new to the AWT, rounding out the heat.
Heat 4 of the Amateur showcased AWT regular, and judge, Mike Colee, Charles Real from France, Andrea Ciccola from Italy and Kate Barker from Australia. The heat was closely matched between the four riders with only a 0. 83 point differential between first and fourth place. Charles, who has supported the tour from the beginning, but is new to competing, ended up in first place with Mike, Kate and Andréa closely behind him respectively.
Providing the Amateurs with a bit of a break, the youth were up next. The four youth showed impressive skill, and look like they will be moving the future of the sport forward if they stick with it. Maria Bazo again impressed the crowd, and proved her skills in wave selection and knowledge, placing her at the top of the fleet with an overall score of 10. Alessio Botteri from Lima came in 2nd with impressive power in his turns. William was close behind Alessio, while the local crowd cheered him on loudly. Simon Sousa unfortunately got caught in the local fishing nets, but recovered nicely to finish up his heat with an impressive wave.
Round 2 of the Amateur division saw Ole Baeumer, Carolina Butrich and Andrea Ciccola. Carolina showed her local knowledge finishing on top with a score of 8.1.
Heat 6 of the Amateur included Maria Bazo, Bjorte Purschel, James Broomhead, and Kate Barker. With light winds and long waits between sets it was James Broomhead who came out on top with an impressive 11.74 score ahead of Maria who scored an 8.27.
Women’s heat 1 was up next including Maria Bazo again for her 4th heat of the day. Carolina Butrich and Bjorte Purschel were on the water again after their Amateur heats. Bettina Gonzales from Peru was also out in the contest for her first heat of the day. Unfortunately the wind made an extreme drop during the women’s heat bringing increasingly challenging conditions to the table. The only thing the ladies could do was wait for sets, while trying to position themselves upwind. Carolina found a decent selection of waves bringing her to first place until the last few moments of the heat, when Maria found her best wave far down wind from the judging tower, bumping herself to first place.
Wind was light and and the waves became inconsistent as the sun was setting, bringing the contest to a close for the day after the women wrapped up their heat number one.
A special thanks goes to Xavier Fourcade who provided us with RideScoreMobile.com today. The application was used by judges to provide live scoring for spectators. Check out the AWT facebook page for a link to follow the contest live tomorrow.
The forecast shows the swell on the rise, so expect more good action tomorrow.
