Hello
everybody
After
Podersdorf I spent almost 10 days at home before I left to Russia for the first
EFPT stop of the year. I scored some really sick sessions at home but will post
an update about this later when I find some time to sort out the pictures and
have good internet.
The EFPT in
Russia is the longest contest of the year we got so far with 6 days to give
enough chance to get wind during the event as it’s pretty early in the season
for there, but we were treated like kings which made the week fly by like it
was nothing! So here is a really fast recap from the event.
On the
first 4 days the wind didn’t show up strong enough to sail but instead there
was something to do every day.
On the
first day we did a wall climbing competition which got won by the Ginger Ninja
(Adam Sims), it was really cool to see but also very surprising how fast
everybody climbed up the wall without
practice before! For myself I think I won’t mention my time as it wasn’t really
the best… Let’s say I’m much better in windsurfing than in climbing…
On the
second day of the event the organisers arranged a jetski and a boat for us to
do some amazing tow in with using the wave of the boat to go super high in zero
wind which was just amazing to see especially at night! Everybody went full for
it which resulted in some sick moves/crashes where a 540° rotation in the air
was totally normal! It took tow in freestyle to another level which was great
to see!
On the 3rd
day the wind showed up for the first time, well at least some wind showed up
for the first time but sadly enough it wasn’t enough to start competition which
left us the whole day on standby before we got a trampoline show from the
Olympic team of Russia which was pretty impressive!
On the 4th
day we did the tow in competition as the next days looked windy on the
forecast, this time without boat, as the boat was used to shoot pictures by the
media so it was a normal tow-in without ramp. For me the tow-in didn’t go super
but I wanted to try the Burner 900° instead of a double or triple funnel sadly
enough I ‘crashed’ both attempts and finished on the 7th place. Big surprise in
this tow-in was Severne teammate Rick Jendrush who scored a second place with
an amazing triple funnel! Congratz!
After 4
days of waiting we finally got wind, well at least enough to sail a
competition. On Friday everybody found out what rain can do to wind, out of
nowhere there came wind up to 30 – 35 knts making everybody fully powered up on
their smaller sails. I was pretty happy I took my 4.4 to Russia which I actually
only brought for the tow-in but could use full power in my first heat! The heat
went really well and I could land some of the sickest moves I did during the
event like a super fast burner 900° and a big airfunnel 900°. After the first
round the wind dropped as fast as it came and I was doomed to be in the first
heat of the second round which eventually meant I had to sail my heat 3 or 4
times before it counted. In the end I won from Adam Sims and could land my
first SS shaka in a heat. After this final heat the wind really dropped and
competition ended for the day.
On the last
day Saturday we had a super early skippers meeting at 6.30 to catch the wind
predicted in the morning but sadly enough the storm already had past and the
wind already dropped away by the time we could start, making us go back to
sleep to start the waiting game from of
9 a.m. . In the end the wind showed up around 3 p.m. and we could finish
the single elimination. The wind was really light and only the gust where good
enough to plane on my 5.2 which made it really hard to sail competition but
with 10 min. heats and only 3 moves counting each side it was still possible to
sail the competition. In the semi final I had to sail against Adrian Beholz who
got 3rd overall last year. I sailed a really good heat and made it to the final
against Steven Van Broeckhoven. In the final I knew I had to do really good
moves to win against Steven which made me take some risks. It resulted in the
worst heat of the event so far from me which made me end up in second place
behind a really good sailing Steven! The double continued afterwards in the
same or even lighter conditions than in the single which were already on the
limit of fair competition. By the time I had to sail again the wind dropped so much
that doing any power moves got almost impossible, but I had to defend my second
place against Phil Soltysiak who made an amazing comeback in the single. Again
I sailed a good heat and managed to get in the final again against Steven. The
wind was really light and I barely could do a Culo, Steven still pumped himself
into a culo, burner and ponch making him win the heat and the event in Russia!
All in all
it was an amazing week with really a lot of fun! My competition sailing got
more up again and I start to feel more confident in sailing heats again
compared to Podersdorf which is really positive for Fuerteventura. Besides that I really want to thank the
organisation again as this was one if not the best organised event I’ve ever
been to, so big thanks to them!
Now I’m
home again for a couple of days before I start my trip to the Bonifacio event
in Corsica where I will compete from the 3rd till the 8th of June before going
to Sardinia afterwards for 2 weeks to travel around and train hard for the upcoming
event in Fuerteventura! I’ll try to do some updates from there.
Cheers
Dieter
