Photo Courtesy Marco Di Gianvito - ACTIVEYEPHOTO
Day 1 of the 5th Annual Pro Kids Freestyle follows on the heels of the IFCA Bonaire World Slalom Event. It seems like the winds shut down a bit making the order of the day, light wind freestyle and flowstyle. There were 23 competitors from the ABC islands ready to compete. The sailors were tossing between old school moves and new school with the Bonaire Flowstyle, crazy unique moves. Kiri Thode is back from the PWA Tour to defend his title. He and Caesar Finies, the light wind freestyle kind duked it out with two very different styles. Kiri was throwing Funnels. Grubby’s, and Ponch’s making it look effortless to get into a plane in light winds. Caesar was up to his old tricks with his classic sail creations flowstyle. His sail was in the air more than it was attached to his board. He is the master of this technique. Sara Quita Offringa from Aruba went up against her teammate talented Nicole van de Velden. Nicole was doing some old school gymnastic type moves with sail spin combinations. Sara was able to pump into a plane and push out some Spocks and Vulcans. Andrea Simal Nava stuck with her classic freestyle moves to impress the judges. Bonaire’s Bjorn Saragoza and Victor Wederfoort from Curacao duked it out in a heat with Archuendro Finies and Hendryck Balentien. Archuendro had some smooth moves and Hendryck followed but Bjorn and Victor dominated the double eliminations for day 1 tossing some swift planning moves. In the 14-15 grouping Bonaire’s Amado Vrieswijk dominated over Rich Cicilia from Aruba and Dylan Robles of Bonaire. These three talents showed off their planning freestyle in incredibly light winds. Amado took the top spot today. In the 12-13 category it was neck and neck Aruba with Nick van de Erenbeemt vs. Mathias Ver Ploeg. Mathias has been training but it was Nick who took over to place first today. Kaj van der Lubbe from Curacao put forth an admirable effort. In the 10-12 age group Steven Lageveen held the reigns in the top spot. This talent from Curacao has been on tour 6 weeks competing in Holland, Sardinia, Aruba and now Bonaire. He’s not done yet and has his eye on the top spot for his age group. He was seen chatting with Jeff Henderson from Hotsails, his sponsor. Jurgen Saragoza from Bonaire has been training and it shows. He was throwing some aerial freestyle with Curacao’s Mitchell de Palm choosing old school techniques to follow. Rover Dullart from Bonaire is the one to watch in the youngest group. He was showing some smooth moves including a few flawless gecko flacka’s the trademark Bonaire move. Oscar Etmon from Curacao was also on fire today. Serginho Finies shows off the Finies tradition with his freestyle finess. Christopher Thuis from Curacao was not giving up and stayed with the heat showing off his talent.
At the end of the day there was Bolas competition and music into the wee hours. Today is day 3 of competition and a grande finale party at Sorobon.
Photo Courtesy of Marco Di Gianvito - ACTIVEYEPHOTO
Travel Bliss 