PWA Fuerteventura

Sorry! I know Fuerteventura finished well over 2 weeks ago and I definitely should of got round to writing this update a lot sooner. However after getting blown off the water the last few days in Fuerte before returning to a very hectic Club Vass I havnt found the time.

I had high expectations going into the event after finishing in 11^th the previous year. There was already some un doubt over the forecast when I arrived so I was expecting I to be not a classic Fuerte event. Fortunately it was windy enough for my heats and I sailed every one on my 4.7 North ID and Skate 89. I had just received the fit the day before I got there and I was a little bit anxious about only having 3 days to get used to it but funnily enough it must of taken all of about 2 seconds to feel instantly better on my new gear. The weight of the ID had an instant impact and I was feeling on the top of my game.

I was knocked out in the second round of the single by Yarden Meir from Israel who was sailing seriously good! Yarden is one of my favourite guys to watch sail on the tour and a great guy so I wasn’t to disappointed as I knew it would be all about the double elimination. As soon as I saw the draw I knew It was going to be a tough one! Tonky Frans had been knocked out early on in the single and I was already feeling sorry for whoever would have to face him in the double!! And guess what this time it was me!! I had to win two heats before I would face Tonky and first was Max Mattisek a very talented sailor from Austria. I had a really good heat and was feeling confident going into the next one against a good friend of mine Marco Wedele. Marco had taught me a lot of my moves over the years whilst I was out in Dahab and he is an awesome sailor so it was a bit nerve racking going up against him. Fortunately I sailed a good heat and I felt like I was going to make it into the top 16 until I remembered I had Tonky in the next round!!

As fellow commentator of mine Phil Soltysiak put it on the live streaming “ I could probably sail in now “ after watching Tonky pull off a forward loop into double flaka on his first run!! In good spirit I stayed out and put together a solid performance but It wasn’t quite enough to take down Tonky. Leaving me in 17^th place!

The forecast went a bit rubbish after the first few days and it became ever likely that there wouldn’t be enough time to run another elimination which was very disappointing. In the mean time I got stuck into the commentating for PWA live tv which was great fun and I hope anyone watching enjoyed it.

For me now its back to work at Club Vass in Vassiliki and the wind has been amazing!! Got fully planing on a 2.7 kids sails!! I’ve been doing some blogging about my time out here over on www.clubvass.com so check that out for more information.

Big thanks to Danielle Lucas from getwindsurfing.com for the pictures!

Out with the old in with the new! Video from Egypt

Cheers to Josh Wilmott from Blacklab for producing this epic clip from Egypt this Spring this year.

OUT WITH THE OLD IN WITH THE NEW from Josh Willmot on Vimeo.

Check back soon for my update on Fuerteventura..

PWA Aruba

Aruba

So the Caribbean leg of the tour is now over and I’m currently on my way back to Vassiliki, Greece via Amsterdam and London. After finishing in 13^th in Bonaire I was keen to hold on to my spot in the top 16 of the event but unfortunately it wasn’t to be!!! The conditions were completely different to Bonaire and it was a bit of a shock at first. To add to the tricky conditions lots of the shit hot local guys from Bonaire joined the fleet again in Aruba, these last two events have definitely been the highest level right the way through the fleet that I’ve ever experienced.

The island is also completely contrasting to Bonaire! Its like a tropical Brighton. The far end of the beach is lined with High rise hotels and Americanised shopping malls etc… Fortunately the event site is a lot nicer and thankfully theres no high rise hotels yet as the wind is bolt off shore!

Like in Bonaire we were hoping to complete two double eliminations but unfortunately the first two days in Aruba didn’t deliver good enough conditions for us to compete! It was windy just from a slightly different angle which made it incredibly gusty! We were all quite glad at the time but looking back it would have been a lot better for me to get the chance in a second double.

I really felt like my level was a lot lower than in Bonaire and I was struggling with a lot of my bigger moves in the choppier conditions so this led to me crashing out into 25^th place! Moving me from 12th into 15^th in the current overalls. The good news is that after 7 events we get to discard out two worst results, this would be a massive relief if I was attending the Lanzarote event next week but due to financial issues I’m giving it a miss. So that will be another discard used up which puts a lot of pressure on for the final two events in Fuerteventura and Sylt.

It was good fun again to be involved with the live streaming which is getting 30,000 views a day. My throat is suffering now and I’m not sure how Proffit does it! He was already loosing his voice and there was still 3 days of slalom left.

Now I’m spending the next three weeks working for www.clubvass.com before heading to Fuerte for two weeks. Cant wait to get back to Greece!!!

PWA Bonaire!

Just finished the 3rd stop of the PWA Bonaire event. Definitely the best location of any competition I've ever been to! The high level was definitely reflected by the amazing conditions. As soon as I arrived and saw the locals sailing here I knew there were going to be some upsets in the draw. I felt like I upped my game a lot doing Culos, bobs and double spocks in most of my heats. We had wind everyday so it was great to finish two double eliminations which would normally split the results evenly but as there were so many similar results it ended with about 8 of us in joint 13th!!!!


I am pretty stoked though as it moves me into 12th in the overall rankings so far for the year. There is still four more events remaining so its going to be hard work to stay in that place, by this number of events last year we would of already been heading into the final one! Unfortunately I'm going to be missing the first stop in the Canaries for financial reasons so will have to use that as my discard and pray that I dont get any bad results in the remaining events!

Its been good to be involved with the live streaming commentary during the event. I have found it stops me from getting nervous hanging around on the beach thinking about my heat too much!! More of the same in Aruba so be sure to check it out at www.pwaworldtour.com
Speaking of Aruba I have just arrived! We got on the smallest plane I've ever seen yesterday to make our way over. Unfortunately the kit took up an entire plane, as in they had to take the seats out to fit it in!!! So we got delayed 5 hours while they sorted that out dropped the kit off and then came back for us!!


Big thanks to https://www.facebook.com/JanWachtmeesterPhotography check out the page and like it! Some awesome shots on there!

the rest by JC/PWA

Bonaire!

Arrived all good in Bonaire. In the end it was actually a pretty easy journey, spending about 12 hours at my house was a bit of a manic rush. To make things a bit more hectic I decided it would be the perfect time to collect my 5.4 Duke from Nik Baker so I ended up going via Gatwick again on the way to Heathrow!!

Feeling a little bit under prepared for the event kit wise, with the KLM weight restrictions it was only possible to bring 1 board, 3 sails, 3 masts, 3 extensions and a boom. Oh and 4 pairs of boardies and a few t-shirts! Should be ok though as long as it doesnt get below 5m weather which hardly looks likely at the moment.

The first day I arrived I went on a tour of the Island with Paul Zeper. Check out the clip from Globalshots here-
I got a quick session in yesterday pumping around on 5.9 but the forecast looks like its improving for the coming week. The spot is absolutely amazing! by far the hottest water I've ever experienced. Its easy to see why the local guys are so good!


The place I'm staying in is perfect as well, just a 30 second walk from the beach and we can keep all out kit rigged out the front. Currently living with Bubble and Laure but when they move into the free accommodation I'll be living with Yarden Meir & Andraz Zan just next door.

EFPT Milos beach

I’ve been out in Greece for the last two weeks setting up the Club Vass centre ready for the first arrivals. We normally open the centre a month earlier but this year the hotel has undergone a bit of a makeover. None the less it was still a massive rush to get the centre ready in time!!! But it is looking really pimp now!

Milos beach is on the north side of Lefkada just an hour from Vassiliki. The event normally takes place a month later but because the pwa calendar is so full they had to push it earlier. To be honest I’ve never been a fan of the conditions at Milos beach as even when the forecast is good its rubbish pumping 5.9 weather!!! It made it even more painful to return to Vass each evening there had been no wind at milos to find out it had been amazing 4.7 weather all day…….

I was pretty confident going into the even knowing a lot of the top guys weren’t there! I was seeded against an unknown Italian in the second round and unfortunately he was sailing amazingly in the gusty 5.7 weather. I had a good heat but kept it too simple. I crashed my shaka and twisted my ankle a minute before the end of the heat leaving me no time to get another attempt in!! All my other moves were fully planning and had plusses on the sheets but the other guy had done a sick ponch and a shaka so it was game over for me! Somehow I still finished in 9^th leaving me with a bit of prize money to drown my sorrows with that night in the Zeus bar!!!!

I have one more week left in Vass before going to Bonnaire for the next PWA event.

Big thanks to Jay Haysey from Globalshots for the pictures….

9th place in Austria!

PWA Austria


My best result so far and I'm stoked. I had an epic road trip driving down to the event which took 25 hours in a two van convoy. The wind was forecast to be light for the weekend so we all made the most out of the big party scene in Podersdorf but I made sure I was rested and ready for the wind forecast at the end of the week.


The normal conditions that the tour has become a custom to in Austria are gusty 5.7 weather. So it was a bit of a shock when it kicked in with around 30 knots on the penultimate day. It was absolute carnage in the tent with everyone rigging their smallest gear. I was in the first heat so it was a mad rush to get my 4.0 ready, when I was sailing upwind it was possibly some of the hardest conditions I've ever sailed with the horizontal rain coming down so hard I couldn't even see let alone look upwind.


I kept to my normal plan for competition sailing and kept it consistent and didnt go for my biggest moves until I already had the set number of moves landed. My port tack moves were mainly Air Flakas, Ponch's, Shakas which the conditions were perfect for. And on Starboard tack I quickly discovered that by Burners weren't consistent enough in this much chop so I stuck with Punetas, E-sliders, Switch flakas and funnels. This got me through two heats in the single elimination beating Chris Kalk and Mattia Pedrani before getting defeated by Taty Frans!

Double elimination- The last morning of the event was definitely the most challenging, not just because we had to be on the water a 6-am. It was bloody freezing!! After sailing my heat against Rossmeir I had the worst fire hands I've ever experienced and when they told my I had won the heat I couldn't even bring myself to smile at the thought of getting back out on the water. Luckily the pain died off and I was next up against the Brazilian Edvan de Souza, whilst I was out waiting for the green flag I couldn't see him anywhere and it wasn't until 1 minute into the heat that he made an appearance. The pressure was on as I knew I had an advantage after landing 2 moves before he was there and I went on to sail my best heat of the contest scoring 23 points out of 30 on one judges score sheet. Next was Tonky Frans who finished in 5th overall last year and he has been sailing amazingly so never feel too bad loosing against him! So I finished the event in 9th, which is my best result so far, hopefully I can keep it up for the rest of the year. This leaves me in 13th position currently in the overall PWA freestyle rankings
Thanks to Jay Haysey from Globalshots for the pictures!