Zane wins Pistol River Juniors

Zane Schweitzer Wins Junior Division of the Pistol River Wave Bash in Oregon.

ZANE SCHWEITZER AND BERND ROEDIGER IN THE JUNIOR FINAL AT PISTOL RIVER

After a 10 year hiatus the Pistol River Wave Bash came back to Oregon with a vengeance.With over 75 Windsurfers traveling from as far away as England,France, Canada, Hawaii,and Ireland. They gathered on the Oregon Coast to compete with many of the sports top sailors in a double elimination wave format competition.

With mast high waves and strong, steady winds for most of the contest the sailors were able to impress all on the beach with their jumping, looping and wave riding

skills. Head Judge Matt Pritchard said "After 25 years of traveling all over the world for wave events, I would rate Pistol River as one of the top 5 spots."

Kevin Pritchard won the Men's Expert Division, with Franciso Goya in 2nd and Kai Katchadorian finishing in 3rd. Both Kevin and Francisco pulled of double forward loops in their final heat! In the Women's Division Canadian Ingrid Larouche won 1st Place followed by Tanya Saleh in 2nd.

But the Juniors Division was the talk of the event. With the top two sailors making
it all the way to top 13 in the Expert Division as well. The future of windsurfing was on high display. The top five juniors were all from Hawaii and flew to Oregon to be able to compete in this all star event.

Zane Schweitzer won the single elimination heats to sit at the top of the winner's ladder and waited to go head to head with Bernd Roediger the winner from the double elimination.The Juniors who are 16 and 14 years old respectively sailed well beyond their years, nailing push loops, back loops, and front loops in rapid fire. Their wave rides were
stylish with huge aerials as well as sliding through freestyle moves on the faces of the waves. The rest of the competitive field were blown away by the level of Zane and Bernd's competition and many commented that they had the most entertaining heats of day three. Zane Schweitzer took the victory.

Bernd and Zane both also competed in the Expert division and managed to beat out many seasoned pros to end up in 11th and 13th place respectively in Pro Division
as well. I am sure we will hear their names much more in the future of the wave sailing scene.

Zane commented, "I am so stoked that Samantha Bittner pulled off such a great wave event. We need more competitions like this the US. I have really had to travel all over the world
to be able to compete in wave events. I was really glad that I just came back from Sardegna Italy where I won 1st place there in the Chia Classic Waterman Event, and then flew to Morocco to compete and train there with my team mate Boujma Guilloul and friend Kai Katchadorian. But I really loved be able to come back to the US and be able to compete with so many of my friends right here in America with such epic conditions. I will definitely be back next year!"

Press release by Catapulting Aaron and Schweitzer Sports, Photos by John Carter

ZANE SCHWEITZER


Pistol River, OREGON