The IFWA 2018 season started in Nazare, Portugal, new format, new director in CarolAnn Giustina, and a new team, Carve Composites. Riders Dan Foy and Luis Sparkes rolled into town totaly unaware of what the weekend would bring. Pre Qual on the on the Friday saw changing conditions making wave choice difficult, By the end of both sessions Dan finished 3rd and Luis a credible 12th climbing 5 places from the morning session. Saturday held a few mechanical problems for Luis that put him out, but not untill after a superb ride saw him get through to the 1/8ths, Dan as usual, smashed his way to the quaterfinals.Then came Super Sunday, with the waves changing between chop and 10ft plus, bread and butter for our Dan, he pushed on to the semi finals against current champion Mark Gomez, putting in the ride of his life, and a never before seen trick by the judges, some kind of no hand launch/land barrel roll propelled him to the final against a resurgent Mick Anthony.The whole of the UK freeride community held its collective breath as Dan went bigger and bigger with flex flips, rolls and big wave surf riding that gave him the top spot on the podium, a first for a UK rider. The records kept tumbling as Dan then went on and won the first round of the European ChampionshipsAndy, owner at Carve Composites said “its a huge acheivement, beyond what everyone was expecting, its actually dificult to absorb whats happened! we’ve fought and srapped to get the guys over, begged and borrowed so to speak and the payoff has been spectacular to say the least,” he then went on to thank Lynne Roberson from Tommos Dream Foundation, “i met Lynne a couple of month back, we went over a few ideas for the year ahead, Lynne then stummped up the sponsorship from the foundation to get the boys over, it took a huge ammount of pressure off all of us at Carve, just made it so much more of a comfortable trip, if im honest we would have struggled if she hadn't”The next stop, France, No pressure !Like, Tag & Share!