After the winter training slalom sailor Antoine Questel (Loft Sails) is ready to start the PWA World Tour Windsurfing season. Check it out in this short clip, as he hits up St Barth, France, Tarifa, and Maui!
Now it´s official, Gollito Estredo is the winner of the 2013 PWA Freestyle World Cup in Podersdorf. With no wind today, no contest was run, so the results from the previous days stood. Well done Gollito!
I’m super happy to have won the event again this year! The conditions in Podersdorf are always really tough for me as I´m not used to the cold water. But I have trained a lot during the last months and my efforts paid off one more time. I´m really really happy to start the season with this first victory. Thanx a lot to my sponsors Fanatic, NorthSails and ION! – Gollito Estredo
Steven Van Broeckhoven finished in second and Kiri Thode in third.
There was little to no wind on Monday, until the wind picked up around lunch time. Canadian Philip Soltysiak was the first to hit the water. After 2 hours of attempting to start competition the winds did not cooperate, and a postmen was set once again, until the wind dropped off, and there was no opportunity to run the second single elimination, and competitors were dismissed for the evening. In the evening the 3rd and final qualifying round of the European tow-in stared at 8pm. Last years champion Steven Van Broeckhoven (JP / NeilPryde / Different) stole the show again as he landed an incredible air funnel into air burner 540, which earns him the highest score of the qualifying rounds. In second was Max Matissek, followed by Adrien Bosson in third. The final is set to run latter this evening.
For a full recap of yesterdays events and an interview with Davy Scheffers (Fanatic/Gaastra) head over here on the PWA Website.
The best action from the Double Elimination at the PWA Surf Worldcup Podersdorf 2013. Thanks to Content Seven who has been there capturing all the action. Gollio Estredo won the double elimination, followed by Steven Van Broekhoven in second and Kiri Thode in third.
The fourth day in the PWA Surf World Cup, in Austria has begun. A strong wind kicked in this morning, and the second single elimination began. But let us give you a bit of a run down on what’s happened so far.
Friday featured hot temperatures, and light winds, eventually a light breeze picked up so a few sailors hit the water but it never materialized so no competition was held. The PWA caught up with Max Rowe and Gollito Estredo who had recently been on Maui, check out PWA’s day 1 report here.
Saturday had everyone pumped as the forecast was looking strong, with a plan to run the whole double elimination. The action was intense but the 5x World Champion Gollito Estredo won, followed by Steven Van Broekhoven in second and Kiri Thode in third, no big surprises there! You can check out the PWA’s full press release on Day 2 for more details.
Sunday had light winds, and saw little action, except for the tow-in qualification rounds. Two intense heats were held with the top three from each heat advancing to the Final, which is scheduled for tomorrow. From the first heat, Tonky Frans, Julien Mas, and Bjorn Saragoza advanced respectively. In heat two, Gollito Estredo, Taty Frans, and Dieter van der Eyken will advance. Feel free to check out the PWA report from day 3, with the men behind the Trictionary windsurf bible.
Today has started with finicky winds, and heats being postponed. It’s now close to 4PM in Austria, with no wind. For an up to the minute of action in Podersdorf check out the PWA Live Ticker.
Sean O’Brien the 6x Australian Formula Champion and Luke Baillie the 2012 RSX Australian Champion has joined forces to attack the 2013 PWA World Tour. We expecting some great updates from these guys throughout the season as the Cameras follow them as they travel and compete.
You can follow them on there website at Team-Aus.com.
And the winners of the first PWA Islas Canarias Excellence Awards are…
The first ever PWA Excellence Awards have finally come and after much deliberation from the panel of judges. Action was seen from all over the World with crashes, crazy moves, huge waves and an amazing collection of short videos being submitted by both amateurs and the pros. Al this action one thing is for sure, windsurfing is very much alive and a global sport, from a massive wall of water at Jaws to an inland lake in the middle of nowhere. Keep reading for all the winners.
A short video from Ricardo Campello of his Night Session at the 2012 PWA Sylt event back in October. He won the night session and wowed huge crowds that watched on from the beach and on the PWA Live stream. Those doubles, push loops and more are impressive in the day time, but in pitch black, its a whole different game!
News passes around the windsurfing community of another tragic death this month. Andy ‘Buzz’ Buchanan lost his battle with cancer on Tuesday 29th January. Andy Buchanan served as the PWA Press Officer from 2008 through till 2009 when he was first diagnosed with cancer at the age of 27. Andy remained very much one of the team and paid frequent visits to the crew at events over the following years.
Andy brought passion to windsurfing and his life as a whole which was obvious in his work. Never one to back away from a
challenge – never mind how ridiculous and never mind how small the chance of success – Andy brought entertainment to many through his writing and his own activities. – PWAWordlTour.com
Rest in Peach Andy Buchanan.
With 12 tour stops, 6 wave events, 6 slalom events, and 4 or 5 freestyle events, the PWA Tour is increasing. The biggest additions are Chile and South Africa where we could very well see some awesome down the line sailing. According to Robby Swift active PWA sailor and organizer of the PWA Chile event there is a three year contract set, so we should be seeing a stop in Chile for at least the next few year!
Freestylers should get more chances to compete this year with Holland set to host a freestyle and slalom event in September. Fingers are also crossed for a PWA Vietnam stop for the freestylers, which would bring them the much wanted 5th stop.
With the growth of the PWA and several other professional tours happening around the World, the sport is looking strong!
Arnon Dagon (ISR-1) Is leaving Gaastra Sails after 4 years riding for them, to go back to Neil Pryde. Arnon is also leaving the Tabou board brand, but that deal is not finalized, saying “Yes, it’s not a done deal yet, but it will be for sure a super top company.” Arnon had some ups and downs on the PWA season this year, but had some highlights in other competitions, including athird place at the Storm Rider Wave event in Israel, the second place at the Formula Europeans at Sylt and the second place at the IFCA Slalom Europeans at Rosas, Catalunya, Spain.
Josh Angulo and Point-7 recently departed ways so Point-7 could open sponsorship money up to younger team members. Point-7’s International team consitintley generated top 10 results over the last season in all disiciplines of the PWA tour. Windsurfing is very much an individual sport with Point-7 goal to change the training dynamic, and have welcomed 5 new riders aboard who will join the team in Tenerife from mid January until the end of April, to work together in improving their skills, tuning their gear, and develop new ideas.
The five new riders welcomed are:
Maciek Rutkowski – POL 23 – Maciek was first seen on the Formula race fields at a very young age. He is the youngest slalom sailor doing the whole PWA tour and is currently ranked on the 27th place overall.
Alberto Menegatti – ITA 4 – Logistically Alberto is based in the same area as the Point-7 HQ in Italy. Alberto Menegatti “I tried the sails, and I was immediately impressed with their performance. The idea of working together with all the Point-7 team, and directly day after day with Andrea in Garda made me sure that this was the right path!”
Bora Kazanoglu – TUR 11 – is multiple Turkish Champion and at times he takes part in PWA events, and currently leads the IFCA Slalom ranking. Bora also own and run an extremely well organized windsurfing school in Alacati.
Enrico Marotti – CRO 401 – Poiont-7 says, “Enrico had impressed with his speed during his first PWA tour race in Turkey in 2012, and we were happy to take him in the Black Team and give him the team support that is needed get him the experience.”
Bruno Martini – ITA 160 -Seriously dedicated, Bruno is another young Italian Slalom sailor, who is very motivated to improve his skills on the race course.
Young Gun Omar Sanchez will ride for Loft Sails in 2013 and 1014. Omar Shanchez is just 21 and debut on the PWA world tour in 2007, at his home spot of Pozo. In 2012 he posted two 17th place finishes at Pwa Pozo Izquierdo and the Pwa Tenerife events.
Omar Sanchez (E-33) will compete in every PWA wave events and target top 10 overall. We wish him luck, and look forward to seeing him in action more often.
Hugo who is only 15 years old is probably one of the most talented freestyle windsurfer in the world. The goal of this movie is to show his talents to the world and to bring people to make a donation. Like this we want to try to make Hugo able to start his career as a professional windsurfer by competing for the first time at the PWA 2013 at Fuerteventura.
Donate here: indiegogo.com/HugoPWA2013?a=1619542
All of you Donators Name will be displayed on Hugo’s Homepage here: hugosouzacamocim.jimdo.com/donators-list/
More on: hugosouzacamocim.jimdo.com/
Thank you for your support
Team France Windsurf always puts awesome videos together from the PWA events. Check out this one from the Sylt PWA World tour Finals, and the north sea delivered for the final event. The freestylers ran a double elimination in challenging conditions, and the waveriders who enjoyed the nice waves that hit Sylt for this year’s event.
