WHAT AM I DOING HERE?LENNART NEUBAUER CRASHES THE TENERIFE WAVE FINALWHAT AM I DOING HERE?LENNART NEUBAUER CRASHES THE TENERIFE WAVE FINALLennart Neubauer was the surprise package of the Tenerife World Cup, launching himself into the top four with a barrage of enormous push-loop forwards, clinical double loops and powerhouse wave rides that left the wave specialists wondering where exactly this freestyle guy had come from! But while his jumping is already right up there with the best, Lennart admits there is still plenty to learn when it comes to actually riding the wave.We caught up with the 2024 freestyle world champion to find out how he crashed the wave final, why he felt like he was being ganged up on by the big guns and how his ambitious plan to split his time between freestyle and waves could ultimately lead to one very big goal: becoming PWA / WWT Wave World Champion.Photos: PWA / WWT Carter Video: Rafa SoulArtWINDSURF MAGAZINE: Tenerife 2026, you were the surprise package in the fleet. You must be over the moon?LENNART NEUBAUER: Yeah. I was just telling Ben Proffitt, it feels like its not even real. It feels fake almost, but yeah, it happened.I think it almost means more than winning a freestyle event.It definitely does because in freestyle I always expect to, lets say, win or do good. Here, I expected to maybe make a round and I was going to be happy already.For me, actually, the biggest happiness came after making it to the semi. I was like, Whoa! Then making it to the final, I was like, Well, I already just went to the semis, so why not do the final? So, actually that felt less impressive!WINDSURF MAGAZINE: You had moves like the push forward and double loop on tap. Same as the big guns. That suddenly puts you in the frame, doesnt it?LENNART NEUBAUER: I mean, the thing is, I had two heats where I just did 17 points with jumps. To find a four- or five-point ride in ten minutes is not so hard.Im missing all the 360s, obviously and the wave tricks. I did none of that, so this is definitely something I need to work on. But I think its a bit like Moritz with his riding, I have it with my jumping. So, I feel like were a bit opposites there.I think if I put some time into riding, I could do quite well!WINDSURF MAGAZINE: Does your freestyle help you in the waves at all?LENNART NEUBAUER: One hundred percent. I really think I have good spatial awareness because of it. I know where I am in the air and I feel like I know where I am on the wave.Some things feel like they happen a bit in slow motion as well, especially in jumping. I feel like I have such an advantage there over pure wave sailors learning to push forward, for example, because Im just in the air all the time. Its really nothing too special or too crazy to do the jumping.Its the riding where Im missing pure experience, contact with the wave and timing.I was just asking Ben Proffitt, OK, Ben, what do you think I need to improve? If you were me, what would you do? He hasnt answered yet! But I think the 360. I need the 360I need it as a freestyle thing anyway.I think the problem for me is I need to spend some time in Maui, Chile, these kinds of locations where its pure down-the-line: reading the wave, being on the right wave. I just havent spent any time doing that.Ive spent a lot of time in the Canaries, so Im kind of starting to get the hang of that. It involves jumping, but pure riding, I think I need a lot of improvement!WINDSURF MAGAZINE: So, have you now got an ambition in the waves?LENNART NEUBAUER: I want to be a Wave World Champion. One hundred percent.I know I can do it. Its just time management from my side. My plan is maybe, in the next few years, to go 50/50 freestyle and wavemaybe even 60% wave, 40% freestyle.I think with 40% freestyle I can still maintain being on top, depending obviously on what Yentel and Jacopo do and how much they push. But at the same time, I can improve year by year in waves. Its not going to happen overnight.Even though it might seem like it with this event, I think in the next five years I would like to maybe win the title.Yeah, its a goal!WINDSURF MAGAZINE: And what about the huge push forward you landed in the morning when you were training?LENNART NEUBAUER: Yeah! You did some shots of it. I was like, Whoa! Maybe I peaked to early!WINDSURF MAGAZINE: Is it nice to open up a heat with something like that?LENNART NEUBAUER: Yeah, I mean that was actually in the warm-up, that one. But I had a heat, for example, where I opened up with an eight-point double.You need to think, there are four things you need to do to score: two waves and two jumps. So you just need four ticks in total, lets say.If you open up in 15 seconds and you already tick a box, you have a whole heat and you only need to do three. The rest still need to do four.Its a 25% advantage if you think about it. An eight is great for me. Then I had another 8.5 with a push forward, and that was it. My jumping was done.I had ten minutes to improve my riding and I feel like thats ten waves easily. One of them, goddammit, is going to be good! I hope one of them is going to be right.WINDSURF MAGAZINE: What was it like heading out on the first run of the final with those big guns?LENNART NEUBAUER: Horrible! Horrible. It was terrible. Really, really terrible.I felt like I was being ganged up on.I had Philip Koester, Marino Gil and Marc Pare and Im like, And me? I was asking myselfWhat am I doing here? Why am I in this final? But heading out at the beginning of the heat with those guys felt crazy but also a bit intimidating as I had not been in a position like that before in waves!Im still trying to understand what I felt, but it all went wrong. I think I lost all the pressure when I made the final and I work with pressure. I had no pressure, so I felt like I was free-sailing on a bad day, lets say.I didnt really care anymore either. Once it started going wrong, I was like, Shit, this is really not going well.I was aware of it, so I was like, Lennart, its not done. You have ten more minutes.But I couldnt do a push forward, couldnt do my doubles. I didnt believe I could anymore somehow. It was literally a mental thing.WINDSURF MAGAZINE: You were just happy to be there?LENNART NEUBAUER: I was just happy to be there.At some point, I had about four minutes gone. I had done basically nothing yet, and I was just heading back. I was looking at the beach, which was full of people, and I was thinking, Damn. Im there, but Im one of the people watching, you know?I was like, Oh well, thats crazy.Then I started riding a wave on the inside and broke my mast. I was secretly kind of happy it was over, to be honest, because it went so terribly up to that point.I was like, OK, well, I broke my mast. Its done.Then the current was pushing me out, so I couldnt even really make it in. With two minutes to go I got a new sail and went back out, but it was over. I was kind of relieved when it was doneLooking back I could of done better but it is what it is!For me, I didnt take anything away from it other than to learn, OK, what happened there?But otherwise, Im just over the moon to have made it to the final. Im super, super happy!The post WHAT AM I DOING HERE?LENNART NEUBAUER CRASHES THE TENERIFE WAVE FINAL appeared first on Windsurf Magazine Online.