German PumpFoil Masters

The first annual PumpFoil Masters took place recently in Berlin, Germany. Check out all the details from their press release below about the event.

On August 14, 2022, our first annual German PumpFoil Masters took place in Berlin at the beautiful Müggelsee. Germany's PumpFoil scene gathered on the former fishing boat, the “Freundschaft”, which was anchored at the lakeside and competed in probably the first PumpFoil contest of its kind.

The idea came from the guys from Cityfoilers.de – a foil crew from Berlin Köpenick – together with the owner of the NALANI SUP Center Patrick Villwock during one of their evening wake sessions on the Spree. “We wanted to create an event where all PumpFoil enthusiasts could meet and compete with each other in a sportive way under uniform rules. Nevertheless, our focus was on getting to know each other and having fun foiling,” Micha, Johannes and Schöni, who founded the Cityfoilers about a year ago, explained to us.

The competition consisted of four different disciplines:

The Technical Race was held directly in front of the boat, a slalom course consisting of 3 buoys. The fastest time decided the ranking. Leonard Stief, 23, from Berlin had the lead here with 16.3 seconds. Second place with 18.6 seconds went to Titus Zernial, a 16-year-old foiling talent from Kiel. Bronze went to Steffen Driesen with 19.1 seconds, who had traveled to the event from Krefeld.

PumpFoilers Team Event. Five participants per team started, who had to get from a jetty to a children's pool as fast as possible to sink a flip-flop there. Afterwards they had to get back to the starting jetty as fast as possible. Those who could foil well and far were far ahead; those who fell in had to swim. Romy from the Cityfoilers crew explained to us that the goal of this event was to form groups with mixed levels that could compete against each other. The victory went to the team “Foiltreffer” ahead of the “Cityflyers” and the “Seaweeds”. The fourth place was secured by the boys and girls of the team “Spongebob”.

The next discipline of the day was freestyle, where each foiler could show his best tricks without a time limit. Only falling into the water or the lack of breath ended the run. There were three attempts in the qualifiers and two attempts in the finals. In the end, Noel Hovekamp from Münster prevailed with a breathtaking combination of speed and tricks. Silver again went to Titus Zernial and bronze to Stefan Schönborn from Berlin.

As a side event, the “Wakethief Power Pumper Challenge” took place throughout the day. The goal was to pump as long as possible, on a foil. Whoever could prove his pumping skills for more than one minute, got a Wakethief Power Pumper hat on the spot. Titus Zernial was the winner and showed impressively in 6:45 minutes on an AXIS 1150 what is possible – unbelievable! Titus became Master Power Pumper and overall winner of the first German PumpFoil Masters. As a prize he received a brand new Cityfoilers board, which Micha (shaper of the Cityfoilers) had designed especially for the event.

All in all, the day was a successful event for the PumpFoil sport Germany and hopefully lays the foundation for many more events to come. Patrick Villwock (Nalani) told us that the event reminded him of his early beginnings with StandUp Paddling in Germany about a decade ago: “I think the guys are starting something big and I'm happy to be able to help them”. One more thing the girls and boys from Berlin told us: We will keep the event next year again and hope for the same good vibes and atmosphere that we felt this year. Soon we will say again: Come, come to the German PumpFoil Masters 2023.

Johannes (co-founder Cityfoilers) told us that there were already some prizes to be won this year. Next year will also be an opportunity for foil testing for all the competitors to evaluate the latest equipment. Sponsors be aware, something is happening – in the middle of Berlin and you can be there.