Five years ago Danny Bruch proved that a windsurfer could be towed into the Siam Park wave by Jet ski and actually pull-of some pretty radical jumps after a few trials and tribulations of perfecting his idea. Then, in 2011, Bruch took the theory a stage further and held a local competition along with the likes of Alex Mussolini and Iballa Moreno, which was pretty successful but nowhere near the scale of this year’s project. With Bjorn Dunkerbeck (Dunkerbeck-Eyewear) on board as sponsor of this year’s Tenerife, the latest master plan was somewhat ambitious, with a super session after the main event that would allow 11 riders – E11=eleven guys – (not SUI-11 then? Ed.) to compete in the pool at Tenerife’s infamous Siam Park waterpark. The smart sailors with their heads screwed on soon realized the media possibilities of qualifying, so went off in the super session in order to secure their slot for the night show. On the practice night, half of the riders could barely make it into the straps. At the point I had to leave to go shoot the official event closing ceremony, but rumour had it they kept the pool open for two more hours and by the end of the session some crazy moves were going down. Come the main event, everything was hanging in the balance. Would windsurfing emerge out of this looking cool, or, if the riders couldn’t cope, it would be an enormous flop. The pressure was on from every angle. We were banking on the skill of ‘Vilayta’, the Jet ski driver and the eleven chosen riders to nail some huge moves for the crowds and put on a show. Any doubts were soon cast aside after the first few jumps when the likes of Bruch, Mussolini and Campello were launching rocket airs and huge crashes just metres away from the fever-pitch crowds in awe on the poolside. The show just had this instant electric atmosphere with the sailors pumped up, the audience going crazy and a multitude of ridiculous moves going down. Even without wind, it really felt like windsurfing was alive and kicking! Robby Swift nailed one of the craziest moves of his career, while Campello lapped up the attention and delivered some new wild moves to take the event victory. Here is what the ‘Lucky 11’ had to say about the night!