On 31 May I was in Maurik to compete in the Open Men Category of the International Board BattleTour/Boat Edition.

The event started with a slight delay, as the organisation had to adapt to several issues. New rules of the local authorities, a new racetrack of WSV Maurik and so improvisation was needed to position the obstacle course.

With conditions far out from perfect, cold weather, increasing winds and hammering rainfall  the contest had to be repeatedly stopped during the day because a number of re-runs had to be made.  After a quick meeting between the judges and the Race Office the decision was made that it was no longer feasible to continue the LCQ’s in this way and so the decision fell to use the preliminaries as selection for the finals.

This was obviously not fun for the dropouts, but it was the only way to complete the contest in these weather conditions from start to finish.

The ladies opened the finals, and as always, Elke Venken (BE) dominated the competition, bad weather or not! Tess Bouwman (Ned) was unfortunately she fell two times, trying to stick her tantrum. Tess van Gestel (Ned) had a steady run that put her in second place, followed by Yentl Siemons(Ned).

When the Junior Men entered the starting dock the sky went dark and strong winds followed by heavy rainfall.  Marc Kroon took first place, followed by Sebastian Viane and Antoni van der Wekken.  

But the highlight of the day was obviously the final of the Open Men. After a number of runs the finals where again interrupted because of the hammering rain followed by the heavy winds. David Vervenne(BE) would not risk an injury and decided not to deploy more inverts. The remaining riders than decided how to start their run to adjust. This resulted in a third place for Ricky Lukassen (Ned),  Michael Timmers (Ned),   took second place and the winner is Rocco van Straten (Ned).

Despite all improvisations and bad weather conditions, in general it was a good competition day nicely closed with by a warm price ceremony.

Results Tourstop 02 - Wakeboard Boat - Maurik