Action of the third elimination of the winners finals at the 2013 PWa Catalunya World Cup in Costa Brava. Alberto Menegatti won the third elimination in front of Micah Buzianis and Julien Quentel.
Maynard and Menegatti steal the show with one elimination victory apiece
Day four of the PWA Catalunya World Cup saw the wind arrive much earlier than the opening three days of the competition, which enabled the conclusion of two more eliminations. The competitors endured a grueling day – spanning seven hours – after they began competing shortly after eleven o’clock. Finian Maynard (RRD / Avanti) claimed the first bullet of the day – his first of the season – before Alberto Menegatti reaffirmed his title winning credentials with his second victory of the season in elimination three after a thrilling finish with Micah Buzianis (JP / MauiSails).
Head over to the PWA website for there full report on Day 4 of the PWA Catalunya World Cup.
The Top 5 After Elimination Three
1st Antoine Albeau (RRD / NeilPryde)
2nd Julien Quentel (RRD / NeilPryde)
3rd Micah Buzianis (JP / MauiSails)
4th Matteo Iachino (F2 / Challenger Sails / AL360)
5th Cyril Moussilmani (Starboard / Severne)
The third day of the PWA Catalunya World Cup saw winds ranging from 7-20 knots as two wind directions hit the Golf-de-Roses over the course of a few hours. Costa Brava was transformed from a starboard tack slalom paradise into a port tack slalom heaven in the same afternoon. The sea breeze, which is synonymous with Costa Brava enabled a further six heats to be completed. Shortly after three o’clock it looked as though the racing was over for the day, before the local ‘Garbi’ wind kicked in from the Northeast. Unfortunately it only made a brief appearance, meaning that only a further three heats were completed before the end of the day.
Read the full report on Day 3 over at the PWA website. If you’re like us and missed day 2 here it is!
Antoine Albeau won the first elimination of the winners final in Costa Brava. Content Seven was unhand to capture the action.
First blood to Albeau as the reigning world champion claims the first victory of the week
The local thermal effect kicked in once again on day two of the PWA Catalunya World Cup as the remainder of the opening elimination was completed, under glorious sunny skies and winds ranging from 7-14 knots. Reigning world champion – Antoine Albeau (RRD / NeilPryde) – sailed a flawless elimination and was duly rewarded with the first bullet of the week, firmly stamping his name at the top of the event rankings, but it was truly a day to forget for Alberto Menegatti.
Get indepth coverage of day 2 at the PWA Catalunya World Cup at PWAWorldTour.com
Results After Elimination One
1st Antoine Albeau (RRD / NeilPryde)
2nd Matteo Iachino (F2 / Challenger Sails / AL360)
3rd Cyril Moussilmani (Starboard / Severne)
4th Pieter Bijl (Angulo / NeilPryde)
5th Micah Buzianis (JP / MauiSails)
Day 1: Tricky conditions make for a tense start in Costa Brava
The inaugural day of the PWA Catalunya World Cup saw the competitors registering for the upcoming competition between 10am and 11am. With a less than promising wind forecast, combined with a very quiet start to the day, not everybody was expecting to be competing come the afternoon. However, as the skippers’ meeting took place at one o’clock the wind gradually started to increase as the local thermal effect kicked in. Shortly after 14:45 the first heat of race one was underway in winds ranging from 7-10 knots. A stop-start afternoon was eventually concluded at around 17:30 with five heats being completed – there were however a number of casualties in the opening round as the marginal winds made for very tricky racing conditions.
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Maciek Rutkowski’s (part of the Black Team) brings us his PWA season preparations including hardcore water training and even harder off-water training, shot in Terife. By Globetrotter Entertainment.
Loft rider Jocelyn De Souza (Fra 873) takes you on board for a summer ride in La Rochelle on the South West coast of France.
Danish slalom windsurfer Kurosh Kiani put together a nice clip from the PWA Korea slalom event. Here’s what he had to say:
Its 2013 and the PWA world tour slalom season has commenced. This time we kick off this years world tour in Korea. In this episode of my series, I have expanded to a longer clip with some impressions of the competition, the equipment, the people and the place. My focus in this episode is set on the choice of boards for the season.
Being a bit tired of being at the same beach for 10 days, I this time ventured outside of our event location and checked out other locations in this amazing country.
Alberto Menegatti won the first stop of PWA slalom events this year in Ulsan, Korea. In this short you can see his preparation and hard training that paid off in El Medano, Tenerife.
A magic day for Menegatti and Jaggi as they claim the opening victories of 2013
A promising forecast never quite materialized on the final day of racing at the Ulsan PWA World Cup as hazy skies and cooler air temperatures inhibited the local thermal effect from kicking in. With winds blowing anywhere between 3-23 knots the competitors had to wait until 5:30pm before the racing began. However, after the completion of heat nine, a combination of premature starts and fluctuating winds prevented any further heats from being finished. The sailors were released for the final time this week at 6:30pm.
With the fourth race not being completed no discards came into play, which means this week will live long in the memory of Alberto Menegatti (Starboard / Point-7) as he claims his maiden event victory on the PWA World Tour. However, the Italian was made to sweat it out for almost an hour this evening having been disqualified from heat eleven, after being a little too eager to make a good start. This presented the opportunity for Antoine Albeau (RRD / NeilPryde) to swoop in and steal Menegatti’s thunder, but it wasn’t to be as the wind soon deteriorated, leaving a delighted – but relieved – Menegatti to revel in his success. Today is also a big day for his sail sponsors – Point-7 – who will be celebrating in Italy tonight having finished on the podium for the first time in their history.
Alberto Menegatti speaking after his first ever event victory:
“I thought I’d lost the event – even though Antoine (Albeau) would have still had to finish third or better in the winners’ final – so I’m still processing it. I’m super happy, I’d like to thank my fin sponsors – Z Fins – for their help throughout the whole winter as their fins allow me to be fast in both flat water and waves. I’d also like to thank my friend from South Africa Peter Langley after he helped me a lot when I was there this winter. At the start of the season if someone would’ve offered me 3rd, 4th or 5th place I’d have happily taken it. To have finished in first is just a dream. I also need to thank both my sail and board sponsors as the equipment couldn’t work better and I couldn’t have wished for a better start.”
In the women’s fleet Karin Jaggi (Patrik / Severne) reaffirmed her title winning credentials after a magnificent performance over the three eliminations which were completed. The multiple-time world champion reigned victorious in two of those races, whilst finishing second in the other to stamp her authority over the event. In doing so, the Swiss gem becomes the first woman to prevent Valerie Arrighetti (Tabou / Gaastra / Mystic) from claiming the Jinha Beach crown since 2010 – when the reigning world champion missed the event due to a shoulder injury.
Karin Jaggi speaking after winning the first event of the season:
“It’s always good to naturally start the season ahead. The best thing for me is that I I feel really comfortable on my equipment, I still made a few mistakes, but I have such good board speed and control in pretty much all conditions. I think it can be quite a good season for me. Now I’ll be traveling to Thailand for a bit for work, before going back to Australia, then heading back to train in Europe – I’ll probably head to Gran Canaria early to get used to the conditions. ”
Please note that there will be no racing tomorrow – the sailors will be treated to a city tour of Ulsan by the organizers, which will conclude another fantastic event at South Korea’s famed Jinha Beach. Thank you for tuning into the action this week and we hope you will join us again from June 11th as the men’s slalom fleet head to Costa Brava until 16th June.
The 2013 Ulsan PWA World Cup Overall Standings: Men’s Slalom
1st Alberto Menegatti (Starboard / Point-7)
2nd Antoine Albeau (RRD / NeilPryde_
3rd Ben Van Der Steen (Starboard / Gaastra / Mystic / Different)
4th Cyril Moussilmani (Starboard / Severne)
5th Julien Quentel (RRD / NeilPryde)
The 2013 Ulsan PWA World Cup Overall Standings: Women’s Slalom
1st Karin Jaggi (Patrik / Severne)
2nd Delphine Cousin (JP / NeilPryde)
3rd Valerie Arrighetti (Tabou / Gaastra / Mystic)
4th Ayako Suzuki (Starboard / Gaastra / Mystic)
5th Mio Anayama (Starboard / NeilPryde)
A day of teasing winds – despite an unfavorable forecast – on the fifth day of the Ulsan PWA World Cup saw the sailors experience a long day on hold, but ultimately the wind never quite materialized enough to allow the competition to resume. However, the glorious sunshine returned allowing the competitors and crowds to relax on the beach. The sailors were eventually released at 4:45pm and they will now prepare themselves to battle it out on the last day of racing tomorrow – which should see an action packed day of fully charged slalom.
While on hold the PWA caught up with Argentina’s sole representive Gonzalo Costa Hoevel (Starboard / Loft Sails).
PWA: This winter you travelled to Maui to test different combinations of equipment, why did you eventually decide on Starboard and Loft Sails?
GCH: “I chose Starboard because I thought they were the easiest and quickest boards out there. I also feel that they are the most consistent to sail across all of the sizes (small/medium/large). I basically felt the same about the sails too because all of the sails perform brilliantly and they have a great wind range. So overall I now feel a lot more confident about going on the water no matter the conditions.”
PWA: Which size of boards and sails have you registered for the season?
GCH: “For the boards I have the 127l, 107l and the 87l Starboard iSonics. With the sails I have registered 9.6m, 8.6m, 7.8m, 7.0m. 6.3m and 5.6m,”
PWA: Did you go anywhere else for training this winter, aside from Maui?
GCH: “In November I was in Maui to test all the equipment. Afterwards I travelled back home to Buenos Aires, before heading to Tarifa in early February until the first event here in South Korea. In Tarifa I was training with Ben Van Der Steen (Starboard / Gaastra / Mystic / Different) and Ludovic Jossin (Patrik / Loft Sails). This was actually the earliest that I’ve ever travelled to Europe as I usually spend the winter in Maui. However, with Loft being based in Tarifa it made more sense for me to be based their, so that I could test and tune all of my equipment. Also Benny and Ludo have been training here for the past couple of years and have had good results – so I thought it must be a good place to train.”
PWA: You’re currently sat in sixth place at the moment, are you happy with how the first event of the season is going?
GCH: “I’m happy, but I made a couple of mistakes in the first two semifinals. In the first semifinal I crashed with Josh Angulo (Angulo / Gun Sails), when we were both easily qualifying in second and third place. In the semi-final yesterday I was third on the outside gybe and on course to make the winners’ final, but when I was pumping to get back on the plane my front hand slipped off to boom – so that was game over.
“Every heat that I’ve sailed so far I’ve been consistently in the top two or three, so I’m a little disappointed that I wasn’t able to capitalize on the first two eliminations, but In the third elimination winners’ final I finished second, so I’m really happy and I’m currently tied on points with 4/5th, but it’s also very close with a couple of guys below me. I feel like last year when I made mistakes I was finishing in 30th, so from my point of view the equipment is better. Also I trained a lot harder – I’ve gained 5kg in the gym and the training in the Tarfia means that I’m a lot more prepared for this season.”
PWA: What’s your overall aim for the season?
GCH: “I’d love to finish in the top five – I know it is super difficult – but I’d also be very happy with top ten with this being my first year on the new equipment. it takes time to adjust and to learn the perfect settings for competition sailing no matter how good your equipment is.”
PWA: You did really well yesterday in the lighter winds, do you think there’s a particular reason for this?
GCH: “Not really – all I could say is that I have done a lot of formula windsurfing in the past, so maybe when it’s lighter winds and we’re on the bigger equipment I am more used to the wider boards and larger sails. There’s a lot of guys who train in very windy places so they almost never sail their bigger equipment, so maybe they are not so used to it. In yesterday’s second final it was me Arnon Dagan (RRD / NeilPryde) and Alberto Menegatti (Starboard / Point-7) first to the first mark on both attempts to run it and we are all used to big kit.”
PWA: Favorite slalom conditions?
GCH: “15-25 knots, when we’re on middle boards and 7.8s. I would say my worst is when the wind gets to 30 knots and above. Having said that, this winter I found myself matching Benny in 40-45 knots in Tarifa.”
PWA: Thanks Gonzalo and good luck in the racing tomorrow.
The forecast looks great for tomorrow with the gradient wind in the correct direction for the local thermal effect to kick in, in full effect. The skippers’ meeting has been called for 10:30am with the first possible start at 11am. Don’t miss a thing by tuning into the live stream, which is available via the PWA TV @ https://www.pwaworldtour.com/index.php?id=1622.
The decision to hold an earlier skippers’ meeting on day four of the Ulsan PWA World Cup was duly rewarded as Jinha beach was transformed into a port tack slalom sailors playground, which allowed an epic – but grueling – eight hours of racing to be completed. The usual thermal winds – which so often grace South Korea’s number one windsurfing beach – were replaced with a frontal cross shore wind from the left. By the end of the day, two eliminations for both the men and women were completed, whilst the first round of the men’s race four was also sailed. Today’s action saw four separate winners’, firstly the two reigning world champions Antoine Albeau (RRD / NeilPryde) and Valerie Arrighetti (Tabou / Gaastra / Mystic) both claimed their first race victories of the year, before Arnon Dagan (RRD / NeilPryde) claimed his first elimination victory in four years. Unfortunately for Arrighetti, Karin Jaggi (Patrik / Severne) soon reasserted her authority over the event with another bullet. Today the Sea of Japan truly showed exactly why South Korea is one of the most challenging stops on the tour.
Men
Elimination Two
Winners’ Final
Antoine Albeau immediately bounced back from his misfortune in elimination one – where he suffered a broken fin – to put himself right back in contention for the event title with his first bullet of the season. Alberto Menegatti (Starboard / Point-7) made the best start of the fleet and the Italian was able to hold his lead until just before the third mark, at this point Albeau showed his prowess as he pounced to brilliantly maneuver his way passed Menegatti. Once the big Frenchman was in the lead there was no way he was going to relinquish his winning position and Albeau held his nerve to claim victory ahead of Menegatti. Meanwhile, Julien Quentel (RRD / NeilPryde) displayed the form he showed last year to finish in an excellent third place, whilst Bjorn Dunkerbeck (Starboard / Severne / Dunkerbeck Eyewear / Chris Benz) and Ben Van Der Steen (Starboard / Gaastra / Mystic / Different) had to settle for fourth and fifth respectively.
The two semifinals in race two both started under dramatic circumstances as five sailors crossed the start line early across the two heats. Firstly in heat thirteen Josh Angulo (Angulo / Gun Sails) and Finian Maynard (RRD / Avanti) both jumped the gun, before Gonzalo Costa Hoevel (Starboard / Loft Sails), Micah Buzianis (JP / MauiSails) and Pascal Toselli (Tabou / Point-7) all mis-timed their starts.
Elimination Three
Winners’ Final
At the second time of asking the second winners’ final of the day was completed and it was Arnon Dagan who stole the limelight with an accomplished display. The Israeli timed his start to perfection as he claim the lead from the outset. From here Dagan took full advantage of the clean wind in front of him to maintain his lead, whilst Gonzalo Costa Hoevel turned on the after-burners to blitz his way passed Menegatti. At this stage the top four was completed by Albeau, but his arch nemesis Bjorn Dunkerbeck was enduring a torrid time at the back of the pack. As the third mark approached Dagan and Costa Hoevel had opened up a sizable gap between them and the rest of the fleet, and it wasn’t long before Dagan was celebrating his first elimination victory in quite some time, after excelling in the lighter airs. Meanwhile, Costa Hoevel claimed second, but the race wasn’t over there. Antoine Albeau seized the initiative to climb into third place, after taking advantage of a sloppy gybe from Menegatti, which left the Italian settling for fourth. Bjorn Dunkerbeck eventually fought his way back to fifth, having held off the challenge of Pierre Mortefon (Fanatic / North) down the final straight by the narrowest of margins. As the duo crossed the finish line there was a mere half a board length in it.
Alberto Menegatti was left ruing his luck that the first attempt to run the winners’ final resulted in a cancellation, as the current event leader held a healthy lead when the heat was abandoned. Elsewhere, Matteo Iachino (F2 / Challenger Sails / AL360) did brilliantly to qualify from the first round after the Italian suffered a broken mast just minutes before his heat, but he kept his cool magnificently to recover. The drama wasn’t over there either as several big names excited the fourth race at the quarterfinal stage. Last years event winner – Micah Buzianis – failed to advance from heat eleven, whilst Peter Volwater (Fanatic / Avanti), Pieter Bijl (Angulo / NeilPryde), Ludovic Jossin (Patrik / Loft Sails), Cedric Bordes (Tabou / Gaastra) and Steve Allen (Starboard / Severne) all took early exits.
Elimination Four
Before the day concluded the opening round of race four was also completed and there were no upsets, although Bjorn Dunkerbeck and Finian Maynard were both made to sweat to seal their place in the quarterfinals.
Women
Elimination Two
Winners’ Final
Valerie Arrighetti bounced back from her disappointing performance in the opening elimination in the perfect fashion as she claimed her first bullet of the season, but it was Turkey’s Lena Erdil (Patrik / Loft Sails / Mystic / AL360) who actually made the best start of the bunch in the winners’ final. However after a promising start things quickly went downhill for Erdil and by the first mark Arrighetti had moved into the lead. Once at the front of the pack the French lady showed her guile and expertise to open up an unattainable lead as she combined brilliant straight line speed with fluid gybes to claim victory. Karin Jaggi followed up her opening victory with a solid second place, whilst Marion Mortefon (Starboard / Severne) and Delphine Cousin (JP / NeilPryde) completed a heavily French dominated top four.
Marion Dusart (Loft Sails) needed to be escorted from the water after a nasty catapult just after the start line in the losers’ final. Thankfully her injuries weren’t serious and the twenty-two year old was able to resume her competition in race three.
Elimination Three
Winners’ Final
The multiple times world champion, Karin Jaggi, struck again in race three as she claimed her second victory of the event thus far. However, the Swiss gem didn’t have it all her own way as Fujiko Onishi (Starboard / Loft Sails) burst out of the starting blocks. Jaggi though – as always – kept her cool and by the second mark she had built a substantial lead over her closest challenger, Ayako Suzuki (Starboard / Gaastra / Mystic). With the top two wrapped up, it was all about the battle for fourth which involved Arrighetti and Cousin. Despite a poor gybe at the final mark Arrighetti was able to secure third, as her compatriot was forced to settle for fourth.
Lena Erdil felt the full force of the newly enforced rule – which means the heat is only cancelled if 6 or more sailors are off the plane for 10 seconds or the wind drops below seven knots – as she failed to qualify for the winners’ final. The Turkish maestro made another strong start and was still in great position by the second mark, but from here it all went to pieces as Jaggi, Onishi, Mio Anayama (Starboard / NeilPryde) and Sayaka Iwai (RRD / MauiSails) all bypassed her to compound her misery. The other shock in race three was the fact that Cagla Kubat (Starboard / Loft Sails) also failed to advance after dropping her gybe in heat two.
After a marathon day on the water, which saw four separate winners, the day eventually concluded shortly before five O’clock. Tomorrow we will be hoping that the thermal wind kicks in during the afternoon, so that the fourth eliminations can be completed. The skippers’ meeting for tomorrow has been called for 10:30am with the first possible start at 11am. You’ll be able to follow all the adrenaline fueled racing live by tuning into the live stream via the PWA TV @ https://www.pwaworldtour.com/index.php?id=1622.
Results After Four Eliminations – Men
1st Alberto Menegatti (Starboard / Point-7)
2nd Antoine Albeau (RRD / NeilPryde)
3rd Ben Van Der Steen (Starboard / Gaastra / Mystic / Different)
4th Cyril Moussilmani (Starboard / Severne)
5th Julien Quentel (RRD / NeilPryde)
Results After Four Eliminations – Women
1st Karin Jaggi (Patrik / Severne)
2nd Delphine Cousin (JP / NeilPryde)
3rd Valerie Arrighetti (Tabou / Gaastra / Mystic)
4th Ayako Suzuki (Starboard / Gaastra / Mystic)
5th Mio Anayama (Starboard / NeilPryde)
Point-7 are taking a revolutionary step in terms of the International Team concept. From Jan 15 to mid-April 2013 the entire Black Team came to the island of Tenerife to train together as a whole team. The team was training together off the water, racing together on the water, tuning their equipment together, working with the designers on new developments, motivating and helping each other, having fun and most importantly, taking real advantage of being a Team working towards a common goal…better results, better equipment and creating a true team spirit!
In this short video you can see how the Team enjoyed this time in El Medano, the place good for slalom, wave and freestyle! You can see Andrea Cucchi, Adam Lewis, Nicolas Akagazciyan, Martin Ten Hoeve, Maciek Rutkowski, Alberto Menegatti, Pascal Toselli, Greta Benvenuti and others!
The third day of the Ulsan PWA World Cup started with extremely light winds in the morning, however, over the course of the morning the wind swung cross-shore and the conditions started to look much more promising. The wind continued to tease the competitors over the duration of the day, but extremely gusty winds put a spanner in the works and no heats could be completed today. After a long day on hold the sailors were eventually released at 5pm.
With the sailors playing the waiting game we caught up with Josh Angulo (Angulo / Gun Sails) – who was involved in one of the most talked about incidents of day two.
PWA: What are your thoughts on the whole incident with Cedric Bordes (Tabou / Gaastra) yesterday?
JA: “From yesterday to today things are pretty different. It often happens in racing that in the heat of the moment you get pretty upset with whatever has been going on, but it’s no big deal. He (Bordes) Bordes hit me, it wasn’t malicious and he didn’t try to do it. It definitely cost me some places and at an event like this where we aren’t guaranteed lots of races every place matters. I let him know what I thought, so he knows and I know he didn’t mean to, so it’s all good.
PWA: In the close season you moved back to Gun Sails, are you feeling happy with your setup?
JA: “For sure I am, I’ve got really good gear as everybody obviously does. Every year it’s getting more and more competitive, but I feel that over the course of the year with the different conditions that I’ll be able to do well, as my gear works so well over a wide range of conditions, which I think is really important. I’m fired up and just having fun and definitely once again very blessed to be hanging here on the beach windsurfing.”
PWA: Which equipment were you on yesterday?
JA: “I rode my 9.5m and 8.7m with both my large and medium board combined with a few different fins. I was switching around quite a bit as the conditions were quite variable.”
PWA: Aims for the season?
JA: “My aims are always to win. I always believe that I can beat pretty much anyone in the world on a windsurf board because that’s what I’ve been doing all my life. I also understand that it takes a lot of dedication, so I try to allot more and more time for windsurfing, since I do have the support from my sponsors to do it and I still believe that I can win. I definitely wouldn’t be here if I thought I’m only gonna get tenth or twelfth or something you know. I aiming for the top.”
PWA: Are you still located in Boston? And do you get to windsurf much in Boston?
JA: “Yep I just flew here from there! I do, and right now it’s the time of year when it’s just starting to warm up. I also did a couple of training trips to Maui before this event, as I can do so much more specific testing, easily in Maui and crucially with the right people. So now I’ll be able to do maintenance windsurfing in Boston.”
PWA: Thanks Josh and good luck for the remainder of the event.
The forecast for tomorrow is predicting wind from the opposite direction in the morning, so with this in mind the skippers’ meeting has been called for 08:30am with the action commencing from 9am. Once again, you’ll be able to watch all the action unfold as it happens by tuning into the PWA TV, which can be found @ https://www.pwaworldtour.com/index.php?id=1622
Scope The Action
For information on all the entrants, and to keep up to date with every piece of the action, navigate to www.pwaworldtour.com
