Lenten crashes out, Hadlow wins the crown!

 Photo: Nick Muzik/Red Bull Content Pool 
It was a final day full of mega loops, handlepasses and much to the crowds delight, wipeouts of epic proportions. For Aaron Hadlow, the day ended atop the coveted King of the Air podium, but for Ruben Lenten, the event favourite, his day ended in hospital.

Picture a mega loop, a real mega loop in the 8m+ range. Then imagine a handlepass at the top of said loop, and then cringe as you think about landing in knee deep water. That’s the situation that Ruben Lenten faced as he went for broke in the semi finals. Resulting in a snapped board instantly scratching his chances at the title. Understandably, he was pretty annoyed at the situation, so decided to make things infinitely worse. Punching the beach, and dislocating his wrist. Lenten explained the situation later in the day on social media, but to this crash has to be seen to be understood.

“I mistimed and crashed really really hard… broke my board in half and felt my body was pretty beat. Feeling all the frustration of seeing my dream vanish in minutes I hit the sand and hurt myself even more… luckily only dislocating my hand!”

On a lighter note, the final was quite literally the stuff dreams are made of. Right on the starting horn, the wind increased and riders were treated to the strongest winds of the event.

“The final didn't exactly go the way I wanted,” Said Jesse Richman, who bombed out in the finals. “The wind picked up and I went from fully lit on my 9m Naish Torch to pretty much totally out of control. Had a few big tricks and definitely took a few big crashes and ended up taking 4th place.”

The other finalists didn’t have such a hard time though, and the top three were incredibly hard to pick for the judges. All three riders had very different styles of riding, with Hadlow going technical, Langeree choosing to ride with straps and bust big boardoffs, and Jerrie doing loop after loop.

Gracious as ever, Kevin Langeree was disappointed in his second place, despite throwing some of the highest jumps of the event. His fluid boardoffs were inspiring to say the least, and we’ll bet that beaches around the world are about to be treated to up-and-coming riders attempting these soon!

“As an athlete I of course want to win but unfortunately it didn't happen for me this year,” told Langeree after the event. “I guess you win some and you lose some... But I must say a 2nd place almost makes me almost more motivated for next year.”

Want to see all the action? Check out the highlights reel from the whole event below. The Semi final is the one to watch if you’re interested in Ruben’s ‘moment’.