The final two days of the PWA World Freestyle Championship in Bonaire saw much lighter winds than usual due to a tropical storm passing over the Dominican Republic and disrupting the regular trade wind pattern.

These unusual conditions posed no problem for 18-year-old Ricardo Campello of Brazil (JP, Neil Pryde), who continued to impress the judges with his outstanding routines and highly complex manoeuvres. It was no surprise to anyone that Ricardo walked away with both men’s trophies. Other contenders who were noted by the judges were the Frans brothers Tonky and Taty (Gaastra, AHD). The Bonaire locals along with Douglas Diaz, Kauli Seadi and Kevin Mevissen worked together to raise the overall level of the competition to new and incredible heights.

Britain’s Robby Swift (JP, Neil Pryde) has suffered a disappointing event. Despite coming to Bonaire as winner of the Fuerteventura leg of the contest, in joint first place for world freestyle champion with Ricardo Campello, Swift seemed to struggle in Bonaire’s light wind, flat water conditions. His performance in Bonaire afforded him 10th place in the King of the Caribbean contest and just third in the overall PWA World Freestyle championship.

The women’s competition was a much closer contest. Although last year’s winner, Karin Jaggi (F2, Arrows) seemed the strongest in the race for the queen of the Caribbean title, Daida Moreno (Mistral, North) pulled off some impressive moves to slide her back in to second place, therefore taking both the overall pwa title and Queen of the Caribbean. Her sister Iballa Moreno (Mistral, North) took a comfortable third place.