PWA Fuerteventura 2013, 5th place!

Hello everybody

The second PWA contest of the year has just passed and saw 2 full double eliminations completed during 6 days of competition with not the strongest Fuerteventura wind yet but still 4.4 weather every day almost!

It’s the 4th time that I can remember we did 2 double eliminations on the PWA after 3 years of competing but it’s the first time ever I saw so many amazing heats with super high level starting from round 1 up(I had from of the start a close heat against Yarden Meir which made me realise I was sailing too save)!  For me the contest went super good, I felt prepared and on the new Severne Freek I felt super comfortable! I could show a much higher level in my heats than in Podersdorf and felt I was getting closer to the top riders and sailed some of the best heats so far which could get me even higher in the future.

To make the 6days competition a bit shorter I’ll just pick out the best moments.

2nd heat in the first single against Amado Vrieswijk:

After the close heat against Yarden I was straight up against one of my best friends and teammate Amado Vrieswijk from Bonaire. Knowing he is one of the young guys to watch out for this year and was making a lot of big upsets in Podersdorf I knew I had to sail one of my best heats to win. I had my best heat so far in the competition landing, spock culo’s , culo spock, burner 900° etc. And big switch moves on the way out to make sure I could win this heat to make in the top 8! I was super stocked when I won but I would have preferred to meet Amado later so we both had a good result, which he still got in the end with an amazing 7^th place!

Heat for the top 5 in the first Double against Antony Ruenes:

Me and Antony had already a lot of close heats the past years as we usually end up against eachother in the single (besides this event finally!) and I always have to sail my absolute best to win and I did sail at a level where I could have gotten further than 5th. I landed a massive skopu on the way out, big shaka flaka and a lot of good moves on the way in making me score 53 points on the judging sheets. I wish I could have done this over again many more times but sadly enough I peaked a bit to early to get even further in the double elimination (lost with a 2-1 decision against Kiri the heat after that), being a bit tiered of sailing so many heats after eachother could also explain a lot.

2nd heat of the second single against Adrien Bosson

Adrien Bosson was for me one of the most impressive guys this event who really showed a great level. So again not an easy second heat which forced me to sail really good again as I didn’t want to lose my 5th place from the first Double! I sailed again a 50+ scoring heat and got the feeling I could win my next heat if I sailed like this again against Steven Van Broeckhoven, I did on the way out but on the way in I missed my big moves from the heat before which made a repetition from last year not possible to score a top 4 position in a single elimination

In the end I finished 2 times 5th in the double elimination and had the feeling I could even do better but I will bring all this positive energy in to my training for the next event at Brouwersdam as I would like to keep my 4th place on the world ranking which will be hard but not impossible!!

Cheers Dieter

June, Island tripping!

Hello everybody

chilling in front of my house

Last month has been pretty hectic with lots of travelling and sailing. After Russia I was home for about 5 days before I started my trip up to Corsica for the Bonifacio event. My dad and me built a bed in my car to get a house on wheels to save some money later on the trip.

On the way up to Corsica I picked up Julien Mas from Le Brusc before taking the boat in Nice which we almost missed as I slept a bit too long.. After a nice sleep in the boat we arrived in Ajaccio and still had to drive for 2 hours through the mountains of Corsica to make it to the villa in Bonifacio. The event took 5 days where we had wind, tow-in a lot of sun but most of all a lot of good moments! I finished 4th overall after winning all the elimination in the windsurfing category in front of Steven which made me super stoked but lost a LOT of points on all the rest (tow-in 2x and light wind freestyle). Nevertheless I got a really great time and want to thank the organisers of this event again for the great organisation! Can’t wait to go back next year!!

 After Corsica I took the boat to Sardinia to start the second part of the trip. All good and well started I was happy to be back on this great Island but I got fast less happy as after being 1 hour on the island my car broke down and didn’t really want to move anymore. Lucky for me my girlfriend could rent a car at the airport (who I was supposed to go and pick up) to make her holiday start perfectly with no stress especially as in the dark I was easy to find without GPS.. The day after the Italian crew came to pick up all my gear to bring it to Porto Pollo so I could sail the next day when the forecast was predicting nice west wind. These 2 days the wind was super, with the first day a bit lighter than expected making 4.8 fully powered up and the second day proper 30-35knts to score some great sailing on the 4.0 prototype of next year which absolutely make you fly!

 After my car got fixed (after 6 days and a nice bill) I finally could tour around again with my own car and sleep where I wanted. My girlfriend left by this time and my sister came over for a short weekend. Instead of writing every day down I sailed I will write down the top moments. I sailed 3 days in Murta Maria with strong east winds before the wind turned to west again and I mostly sailed at Coluccia (a spot a bit upwind of Porto Pollo with free parking) together with Stefanino and scored some amazing days on 4.4 and 4.0. which was good for training!

One day the wind was really strong and there should be some good waves around. Well both where there especially the waves but sadly enough the wind was too onshore which made going out impossible on most spots, the once who went also went out after 10 min as it was too risky and not much fun at all! I tried to find a break that worked and ended up at Platamone, wind was more side shore here but also a lot lighter. After sailing for 2 hours in not the best conditions I decided to go back to Porto Pollo and do an evening session there on 4.0 and the wave board just to get some jumps and have some fun with the instructors of the club. The day after I had my last session at Coluccia again and took the boat back home for the Next Generation Project at Brouwersdam which was a good success and a lot of fun!

Now I’m in Fuerte to prepare for the next world cup, wind is light for the moment but forecast for later in the week is looking good, ready to sail in 4.0 conditions again!

Cheers Dieter