PWA Aruba

Hello everybody

It’s been a very long time since I wrote on my blog although I already had 2 events since my last update which both went very well. In my last update you could read my reports from on continentseven where I was reporting for them out of Bonaire where I finished in a six place which is my second best result from this year after my 5th place in Vietnam at the beginning of this year.

Afterwards we had a 2 day break before our or next competition here in Aruba would get started for another flat water spot on the tour before we will go to the Canaries again next week. On the first 2 days of the event the wind was playing a bit with the wind direction making it impossible to start the competition although in the gust there was enough to do all the planning and power moves but if you would get 2 bad gusts which both had another direction you would end up already out of the competition area making it impossible to start.


JC/PWA

The forecast for the last 2 days looked really good but in the end the wind didn’t become as strong as they said but at least the wind wasn’t shifting anymore the whole time but was still very gusty making it long heats from 9 min to give everybody the chance to get enough gust to get there 3 out of 6 moves on each tack to get the competition started! In my first heat against Chico I had a pretty good heat taking my time to find the right gust and get my moves done putting me in the next round. Against Nicolas I didn’t have my best heat as I was waiting a bit too long for the gust and didn’t really get my moves that good as the heat before but a big burner on the way in saved me putting me into the next heat and already in the top 8 in the first single. In the next heat I was up against Golitto determined to put a much better heat together than before I was fully focused to give my best shot. I putted my best heat of the event together landing a sick airfunnel 900, a pretty good kabikuchi and burners on both sides seeing Golitto not sailing at his best I knew it would be a close call. In the end I lost with a 2-1 decision losing by half a point putting the first single elimination to an end.

JC/PWA

In the double the wind was a bit stronger the next day making me wait for my opponent who still had to work himself up in the double thinking to meet Davy in my heat Flo gave the surprise of the day sailing home Davy Scheffers with the heat of his life putting himself into a well deserved top 16 place. In the end I met Tilo Eber who worked himself up again in the double to a top 10 place in this double to battle it out against me. I knew I couldn’t make another weak heat in the double sailing very focused made me advance against Taty Frans who lost in the single against his older brother Tonky. I had a good heat but it wasn’t enough to win against Taty as I was too fast over my 6 moves on each tack making my shaka on the way in not count and in the end would have made a difference whether I landed my last Kabikuchi attempt making Taty win and leaving me in a 7th place for the event which is another top 8 place making my goals for this 2 events more than true!

JC/PWA

Now I’m packing for Lanzarote for the next event of the PWA, hope the internet is doing it better there than it did in Aruba so I can make faster more updates!

Cheers Dieter

PWA Bonaire

I am happy to do the reporting on the PWA Bonaire freestyle event for ContinentSeven.  Please check my daily updates :

- PWA Freestyle Bonaire 2011 - Preview by Dieter Van der Eyken
- PWA Freestyle Bonaire - Day 1
- PWA Freestyle Bonaire - Day 2
- PWA Freestyle Bonaire - Day 3
- PWA Freestyle Bonaire - Day 4
- PWA Freestyle Bonaire - Final report by Dieter

Cheers Dieter

EFPT with no wind but nice tow-in session

Hello everybody

Through the fact of some school work and some time issues I couldn’t update my blog before I left to Sardinia where I’m for the moment. In the weekend before we left we really had some sick sailing days but I will write over that in my next blog which will hopefully come out just before I leave Thursday to Bonaire, but I can’t promise anything as I have an exam on Wednesday so I will spent most of my time studying at home.

Today it is the last day here at the EFPT in Sardinia and the only chance for wind before the event is over. So far it doesn’t look windy enough but will see if we still can start an elimination or that we go home with no result.

The day before the event we had a really good day of sailing to with all the guys together but unfortunately enough the wind stopped as the event started. The first day there was still a little bit of wind but in the end it was not enough to get planning, leaving a standby period till 8 O’clock in the evening windless with only a few planning pumping moves through the day in the few gusts there where.

The next day we started with the qualification runs for the tow in contest for the next day which was sponsored by Samsung as the wind forecast didn’t look any promising at all. After a 2,5 hours warm up with 22 riders it was time to get serious and get the qualifications runs going. Everybody had 2 tries to show their best move. My first run I crashed my funnel oh attempt as I let the sail come way to close to my body before jumping of which ended up in just getting pushed of in the air. So everything was focused on the second run but as the level of the tow in was pretty high I decided to go for something else than the other guys and wanted to go for shaka. In the end it ended up in a nice OH Flaka with some really good lift which was just enough to qualify myself in the top 8.

The next day the finals got started with again a nice warm up for the 8 qualifiers for about an hour, I got more into it and started to get much more comfortable with the tow in and managed to almost land a nice double funnel but crashed it in the end as I didn’t have enough speed to make the second rotation. So I felt comfortable for the final and felt that I could improve my 7^th place from in the qualification to hopefully a top 3 place. Like in the qualification everybody had 2 runs to show their best. And of course I crashed my first attempt giving me much more pressure for my second but it went perfect. I landed a nice double funnel oh coming totally dry out putting me in first position leaving Julien Mas and Steven Van Broeckhoven under pressure to do better than my double funnel. Julien answered perfectly with making a nice airfunnel-funnel topping my double funnel so all pressure was on Steven as he was the last one to go out. He went for a nice clean burner leaving the judges with a very hard decision.

In the end of the evening it was price giving at 4 O’clock for the Samsung mobile tow in session on the stage. Everybody knew it was close between the top 3 but also between 4 and 5 it was close. Adam Sims who went for a burner which he landed in the end not totally dry or the full planning Funnel 540 from Kenny Janssen. In the end it was Kenny who made it putting him in 4^th place. For the 3th place it was Steven, putting myself in second and making the winner Julien Mas winning the Samsung Galaxy tablet! For the other 3 riders in the top 4 there was a nice smartphone and of course a nice trophy!

In the evening there was still another special price giving for best Italian, youngest Competitor, best wipe-out and rider with most fairplay  with nice prices from Samsung, Surf to live and a Go Pro camera. The price for best Italian went to Gigi Maddedu going home with a nice Galaxy tablet. Youngest Competitor was Nicolas Slijk going home with a camp from Ricardo Campello in El Yaque sponsored by Surf to live. Best Crash was for Rick Jendrusch. And the price for most fairplay went to myself for my help during the tow in warm up as I was going also on to the boat to give some advice how to go best for the tow in. I was totally surprised with the price but was super happy with the GoPro which I will for sure use a lot in my upcoming trips to make hopefully some more video out of more different angels!

If there would still come wind there will be another update about Sardinia but if not this was my event review. A great event, unlucky with the wind but that’s the thing with windsurfing events you can’t control wind yet but you can only make the best out of it, which they did here with a super organized event!!

Cheers Dieter