NOVOTNA BATTLES THROUGH FOR BACK-TO-BACK EVENT WINS

The Czech rider extends her tour lead after an epic effort during the women’s surf-freestyle in Lanzarote 

Wednesday 6th July 2022
Words: Liam Dredge
Photos: Svetlana Romantsova
Videos: Mintautas Grigas

Tour stop number three and the GWA hits the Canaries for GWA Wingfoil World Cup Lanzarote. The focus for this event is Surf-Freestyle and Lanzarote offers a playground for water sports with numerous locations to score an epic session across the island. We’re in the well-known Costa Teguise to seek strong winds and make use of the varied water conditions that hit the reefs.

The forecast for the week looks great for competition. Although the waves could be bigger we should see 20 knots of wind on most days with the wind swell giving some nice rolling ramps for our athletes to ride and use as kickers! Expect bigger and better freestyle moves from our competitors over the next four days and, with a live stream, you can follow the action every step of the way. 

Day one – Wednesday 6th – delivered strong winds from start to finish with the waves getting bigger as the tide got higher. Surf-Freestyle heats commenced for both men and women.

WATCH LIVE HERE! 

REGISTRATION

With a prize pot of €10,000 and important ranking points up for grabs, 48 of the most accomplished wing foilers worldwide are here to compete. Different nationalities from all over the world and with a slightly different test of skills to the previous two tour stops in France and Switzerland, we’re excited to witness the fleet going bigger than ever before. 

Costa Teguise has hosted numerous watersport events over the years but never before has the GWA taken a tour stop here. It will be really exciting to see how the riders adapt to the conditions and whether a building wave consistency could change the outcome of some heats.

WOMEN’S SURF-FREESTYLE

The rankings were tight and it was all to fight for coming into Lanzarote! During the short break in the tour calendar since round two in Silvaplana, we’ve witnessed backflip attempts from Paula Novotna (CZE) but we’re yet to see one land in the women’s division. 

Both Orane Ceris (FRA) and Paula attempted a handful but were unable to stomp it. That said, the level was higher than ever with all four riders pushing to the absolute limit. 

It was Paula Novotna (CZE) who prevailed beating teammate and rival Nia Suardiaz (ESP) in a close battle in which the lead swayed between the two riders from start to finish. The seesaw rocked from one end to the next while the pair were firing from both cylinders. Trick after trick, wave after wave it was full throttle until the buzzer went. The heat was tight until Paula nailed a toeside frontside 360 wing pass scoring 7.10! Backing this up with a solid 4.73 wave ride towards the end of the heat secured the win over Nia’s earlier score of 2.50 for her wave ride. When the final scores came in and the overall impression was added, Paula scored an impressive 23.50 with Nia chasing behind on 21.40!

That’s back-to-back wins for Paula Novotna and keeps her in first place in the rankings with the gap stretching out.

For the mini-final, we had a French fight on our hands between Orane Ceris (FRA) and Flora Artnzer (FRA). It was Flora who grasped third place with a 17.28 over Orane’s 13 but great to witness both ladies pushing the limits and going all out. Backflips were attempted along with successful frontside 360 lands.

WINGFOIL WORLD CUP LANZAROTE
WOMEN’S SURF-FREESTYLE RESULTS: 

1. Paula Novotna (CZE)
2. Nia Suardiaz (ESP)
3. Flora Artzner (FRA)
4. Orane Ceris (FRA)

MEN’S SURF-FREESTYLE

42 men lined up and the crew fired through round one and five heats of round two. Round one focused on three scoring tricks with an overall impression score. As the higher tide pushed in over the afternoon the judges wanted to provide athletes with a wave scoring opportunity. Heat times were extended to 12 minutes with three scoring freestyle tricks, one wave riding score, and an overall impression to conclude. 

As the day finished some highlight performances came from Jeremy Burlando (ESP) who got the highest score in round one with 26.46. Local rider Jorge Padilla (ESP) also scored a whopping 8.07 on what was the highest-scoring wave of the day.

Although the women have finished we still have plenty of competition to bring you this week and tomorrow we continue with the men. We’ll be kicking off the day with round two and hope to get deeper into the competition! 

Similar conditions are lining up for Thursday so it’ll be an action-packed day of heats, incorporating both freestyle and wave riding. 

At the end of day one, A massive congratulations goes out to Paula Novotna, tour leader in the women’s Surf-Freestyle after her second event victory on the trot!

Get more detail from Wednesday’s action through the liveticker text commentary and heat ladders / results on the GWA Wingfoil World Cup Lanzarote event page here

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