Following a year's break from freestyle, the town of Podersdorf played host to the PWA's finest style masters for their first event of 2010. The sun didn't stop shining throughout the opening weekend, which gave a group of elite show offs the opportunity to perform in front of thousands of crazy Austrian party goers. Unfortunately, the wind wouldn't play ball, but this didn't stop six of the PWA's stars from busting out their best moves to plenty of beachside beats for the crowds.

After five windless days at the Neusiedlee see, on the sixth, the wind gods awoke, and with an early rise for all, a full single elimination of flipping, sliding, and styling took place. The action packed morning allowed those that had trained hard all winter to prove their worth against the freshest fleet of freestylers on the planet.

Official Competition

The super slick and super stylish, Taty Frans (Starboard, MauiSails), stormed his way to victory on the final day of the Surf World Cup, Podersdorf, to make it two in a row, following his previous event win in Sylt.

Taty started off his mass cull by out tricking Italian PWA veteran, Raimondo Gasperini (Starboard, Severne). At 43, the living legend was the oldest competitor in Podersdorf, but his years of experience were no match for the boy from Bonaire.

Next up, Taty took down newcomer to the tour, Dieter Ven der Eyken (Starboard, Severne). Despite Ven der Eyken's exciting foray of freestyle trickery, Taty's display of exuberant style scored more highly with the international judging panel, allowing him a golden ticket to the next round.

The quarterfinal was without a doubt, the heat of the day. Taty was pitched in a play off against his brother, Tonky Frans (F2, Gaastra) for a place in the semi finals. But, also on the water, in a separate heat, was their best buddy from Bonaire, Kiri Thode (Starboard, Gaastra), who was up against, an on form, Maarten Van Ochten (JP, NeilPryde). It was like any other day down at Lac Bay, Bonaire for the boys, with moves aplenty and whoops and cheers for the best tricks laid down. The atmosphere throughout the entire heat was electric, and surely provided enough footage for a full feature length movie.

Taty managed to nudge ahead of his brother, which meant he had to beat Thode to claim his place in the winner's final. After another display of kono's, culo's, and other body contorting moves, Taty forced his way through.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the draw, having already taken down the 2009 world champion, many thought that the king of pop, Steven Van Broeckhoven (F2, Gaastra) was simply unstoppable. Taty had other thoughts though and pulled out plenty of power moves to nudge ahead and take the title in Podersdorf.