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I watched the round 2 heats for a while and then spotted some action a bit further down the beach. I walked closer and realized that the waves down here were much better than at the contest site. A few of the contestants had realized this too and had a warm up session here that provided as much spectacle as the current heats if not even more.
A bit later clouds started to block the sun and with them the wind picked up another significant notch. The storm had reached its full force now. The 40 knot gusts showed some of the riders their limits but the top guy like Leon Jamaer, Lars Gobisch and Moritz Mauch kept it under control and showed the full range of modern wave-sailing and jumping repertoire. The two best jumps and the best wave ride counted and so versatility was the key for success.
I was particularly impressed by Gran Canaria local Moritz Mauch´s performance, he had a very fluid style and showed extremely long rides on the difficult to read waves of Weissenhaus that he treated with a wide variety of manoeuvres from sharp front-side cutties, to airs to wave 360s to backside 360s, always making sure that his fins got some air.
After a while the wind seemed to drop a notch so I decided to go out myself again.
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