Youri Zoon confirms winning form in Tenerife

August 15, 2011 | Kiteboarding
Youri Zoon: the permanent winner

Youri Zoon and Kari Schibevaag were crowned champions of the 2011 PKRA Tenerife, in Spain. The freestyler got the most of the 25-knot side shore winds and waves rolling into the bay.

The Spanish championship saw the amazing come back of local rider Alexandre Bournay, who went from last place (he lost his first heat in the singles) to the finals. Alexandre had to fight through a lot of heats to come back and even had to face the leader of the Spanish tour, Alvaro Onieva.

Alvaro secured his heat with a couple of powered moves while Alex had his kite higher and didn’t land all his tricks. Onieva has now won the Spanish title for the year.

Advancing into the finals were Hebert, Rondina, Corniel and Zoon. The wind got stronger but the riders remained on their 9 and 10 meter kites despite the 25 to 30 knots.

Tom Hebert was now starting from scratch in these finals and went against Ariel Corniel. The heat was very tight as both riders went for a wide variety of tricks. Tom crashed a lot of his moves but ended up landing a perfect NIS and a handle board off pass that outshone Ariel’s simple board off and wakestyle moves.

The semis kept going with Alberto Rondina against Youri Zoon. Alberto reckoned that, “I didn’t have a good heat as the wind was a little more gusty than usual and I couldn’t perform my wakestyle tricks as well as I’m used to”. Meanwhile Zoon kept landing trick after trick and advanced into the finals against Tom Hebert.

First the loser’s final for the third place welcomed Corniel against Rondina. You could tell that both riders had learnt from their past heats and were now going for a complete variety of tricks with high jumps and powered moves.

The gusty conditions played on Alberto’s mind meaning he crashed a few of his moves. Ariel however landed his powered tricks early enough to then concentrate on flying in the bay of El Medano, he showed a nice long one foot and multiple board offs to win the heat.

In the girls division Angela Peral and Kari Schibevaag met in the finals. Both girls were overpowered and concentrated on high jumps first, to test out the conditions.

Kari then decided to display her new school moves while Angela had a hard time unhooking in these winds. Kari Schibevaag takes the win of this Kite Masters and the two girls are now going to concentrate on their wave riding training.

The final heat of the day was a spectacular show as both riders jumped higher than ever! Tom Herbert was out on a ten meter and Youri Zoon on a nine. They both reckoned that they wanted to be overpowered in order to get height but had a hard time unhooking as the wind was now very strong and gusty.

Judge Antoine Jaubert explained that Hebert won the old school part while Youri won the wakestyle side of the points. Overall however Youri claimed the victory, something he must be getting used to as this is his sixth event title this year.

2011 Tenerife Kite Masters | Results

Men Freestyle
1. Youri Zoon (NED, Slingshot)
2. Tom Hebert (FRA, North)
3. Ariel Corniel (DOM, Ozone)

Women Freestyle
1. Kari Schibevaag (NOR, Ozone)
2. Angela Peral (ESP, North)
3. Cristina Resinas (ESP, North)