Semi-Finals
Riccardo Zorzi continued building upon his impressive earlier performance, landing the majority of his trick attempts and achieving 4 scores in the 6’s. Julian Salmonn made a great effort to catch up to him, but Zorzi closed the heat with a massive Frontside 7 scoring 7.73 points, opening the door to the final for the young Italian.
The second Semi-Final of the day saw Balz Muller push hard once again, though not gaining scores as high as in the previous round. He gained a slight lead over Swiss Maxime Chabloz who couldn’t quite gain the scores he needed, and went through to face Riccardo Zorzi in the finals.
Small Final
Julian Salmonn and Maxime Chabloz hit the water at midday in the small final, to decide who would finish 3rd and 4th at this event in Tarifa. Salmonn started strong, but then crashed 6 of his trick attempts in a row. Maxime Chabloz seized the opportunity, and pulled out some outstanding tricks, including a Backflip, Backside 3 and a Frontside 3. He took the lead and grabbed the 3rd podium position for the Tarifa Wing Pro.
Final
The final was a major showdown between experienced waterman Balz Muller, and 15 year old up-and-coming rider Riccardo Zorzi. Balz wasn’t messing around for the final, and locked down an 8.03 point Backflip to get started. Riccardo Zorzi was fully focused for his first-ever final, and he threw down some massive tricks, with incredible height and execution. His Frontside 7 scored him 7.5 points, and together with his 3 other high-scoring tricks, he took the win by less than one point from Balz Muller. It was a truly incredible result for this 15 year old rider!
The final results for the Tarifa Wing Pro Surf-Freestyle discipline are:
Men:
1st Riccardo Zorzi (ITA/Slingshot)
2nd Balz Muller (CHE/Ensis)
3rd Maxime Chabloz (CHE/F-One)
4th Julien Salmonn (GER)
Women:
1st Bowien van der Linden (NLD/RRD)
2nd Olivia Piana (FRA)
3rd Flora Artzner (FRA/F-One)
4th Orane Ceris (FRA/Airush)