With Tweets and Facebook posts bouncing around about a huge sandstorm and nuclear winds in the Sinai, riders prepared for the second day of competition at the Dahab Watersports Festival. Greeted by winds of 30-35 knots, the fleet assembled at Club Dahab for the skippers meeting. Not everyone from the first day of competition could attend, so a Super Session was planned to make the most of the howling winds.

Third Place goes to Loick Spicher

The plan was simple: 15 minutes, all the riders on the water and the best move takes the win. What followed was a quarter of an hour of non-stop action as the riders tried to best each other with the biggest moves possible. Judged by Colin ‘Whippy’ Dixon, World Champion Sarah-Quita Offringa and fellow PWA freestylers Laure Treboux and Arriane Aukes, the results were announced on the beach.

Adam Sims, Super Session Winner

Taking the win was Adam Sims with a clean One-Handed Burner, followed in joint second by Jamie Drummond (One-Handed Ponch) and Russian sailor Vova with an Air Funnell. It was the turn of the ladies and local sailors next. Right on the buzzer, Sarah-Quita Offringa nailed a super-clean Double Spock, backing it up with a super clean Switch Kono – guaranteeing the win straight away! Local sailor Mo threw a radical Burner to take second place and Swiss sailor Laure Treboux slid through a sick Shove-It Spock for Third place.

Sarah-Quita Offringa launches a Switch Kono to win the Super Session

The windsurf competition part of the Dahab Festival appears to have been a great success, here are the full results:

Overall Competition

1. Jamie Drummond

2. Vladimir Yakolev

3. Loick Spicher

4. Mohammed Eid

Jamie Drummond, overall event winner

Super Session

1. Adam Sims

2. Jamie Drummond

3. Vova

Ladies/Locals Super Session

1. Sarah-Quita Offringa

2. Mohammed Eid

3. Laure Treboux

Jamie Drummond has updated his blog with a report from the event, check it out HERE.

All photos are courtesy of Toby and Fi at DahabHolidays.com

Saturday night saw the launch of the Dahab Watersports Festival. Coinciding with a massive beach party, the windsurfers took to the water to provide a Tow-in exhibition for the huge crowd. Big names in attendance were World Freestyle Champion Sarah Quita-Offringa, Jamie Drummond, Maarten van Ochten, Arriane Aukes, Alex Seyss and lots of the local sailors.

World Champion Sarah-Quita Offringa launches a Funnell

Towed behind a ski boat, the riders disappeared into the darkness before being whipped into the spotlight to perform big moves. Lots of Funnell variations were landed, with Maarten van Ochten and Jamie Drummond launching big Burners to end the spectacle.

Gear lines the beach at the Dahab Festival launch party

Monday saw the start of the freestyle competition. With 20 riders registered, the fleet consisted of sailors from the UK, Holland, Russia, Egypt, Germany and Switzerland. Blessed with solid 4.7/4.2 weather all day, the competition managed to advance through a single and double elimination.

The Judges in Baby Bay

In the single, Jamie Drummond advanced to the final to meet RUS-99, Vladimir Yakolev. In an extremely close final, Drummond managed to pull out the win, nailing a high Kono and Burner 900 to top the Russian’s double jumping moves on both tacks.

Winner Jamie Drummond throws a Shaka

The Double Elimination saw young Swiss sailor Loick Spicher battle his way through 4 consecutive heats to finish in a great third place. Yakolev managed to take him down, resulting in a mirror image final against Drummond. The wind picked up towards the end allowing the Brit to take the win on Day One.

Competition is scheduled to resume on Thursday and the forecast looks excellent, so the action will no doubt be massive once again!

Loick Spicher, 3rd Place

Results after one Single and one Double elimination:

1. Jamie Drummond, K-787

2. Vladimir Yakolev, RUS-99

3. Loick Spicher, SUI-19

Thanks to Dahab Holidays for all the great photos, make sure you check out the full albums on their Facebook page HERE. If you are thinking of a holiday to Dahab, definitely have a look at DahabHolidays.com to see what they can do for you; tailor made windsurf, kite and dive packages, accomodation, transfers and more.

Additional pictures by Gala Liubytska.

Catering for windsurfers, kitesurfers, scuba divers and many more, the week-long event has something for everybody. With this year’s Dahab Festival fast approaching, we take a look at what’s in store for the windurfers.

Starting the festivities with a bang will be a tow-in windsurf competition on Saturday night. Launching from the Neilson centre from 8.30pm, competitors will be towed behind a ski boat before flying into some massive tricks in front of the crowd-lined beach. Last year saw World Champion Gollito Estredo grace the water as he launched into some awesome freestyle trickery. Gollito isn’t joining the proceedings this year, but word has it the local sailors have been putting in the practise and have some amazing moves up their sleeves. It’s a sure fire way to get the week off to a good start!

Night tow-in action at last year's event

Following on from the night tow-in, 5 days have been set aside for the Freestyle competition to allow the competitors to get the best from the conditions. Last year saw 18 competitors take to the water for everything from 4.2 to 5.3 weather. Phil Richards from GetWindsurfing.com won the single elimination and finished 2nd overall.

This year there are many of the top PWA freestylers training in Dahab, so the freestyle event should see a great turnout. Visitors such as Jamie Drummond from the UK, Maarten van Ochten, Laure Treboux, Alex Seyss and Loick Spicher, as well as many of the local sailors are all expected to compete next week, so the level should be very high.

Phil Richards in action

So, it is set to be a week full of action and the forecast is already looking good for the earlier part of next week. If you are heading out to Egypt be sure to check out all the goings on.

You can find out more info on the other events at the Dahab Festival by heading to the official website HERE.

Dahab Holidays have this to add:

“Don’t miss your opportunity to be part of the second Dahab festival of Culture and Water sports. Great windsurfing events, live music and big parties.  

Here is a sneak preview of what is happening:

Saturday 14th April – The opening party hosted by the Coralia hotel with the tow-in winsurfing spectacle. Plus Radio Sinai live and various DJ’s will get the beach rocking!  

Sunday 15th April – Start of the 5 day freestyle competition with local rippers and imported talent doing amazing stunts.

Friday 20th April – The biggest party and prize giving, with Radio Sinai live and special guests. Followed by a 48 hour desert dance party.

This year the festival will be even bigger than last year. Other events happening throughout the week include diving and free diving competitions, an underwater photo competition, a kite surfing long distance race and jumping competition plus free tasters. Free banana or inflatable rides, art workshops and live music from local and international bands to round off the day perfectly.
 
The festival is lovely for the whole family with the circus, face painting, baking and a kite making competition. There will be taster sessions in yoga, reki, zumba fitness, modern dance, belly dancing and massage. Plus  Bedouin dinners, culture exhibitions and a daily market.  The raft and camel race are great fun – not to be missed.  

Its not to late to book flights and accommodation.  E-mail: info@DahabHolidays.com for more details and quote ‘festival’ to receive 20% discount off your stay at the Lagoon Villa Apartments.
www.dahabholidays.com“

Colin 'Whippy' Dixon

Surfing against the tide in Egypt

Dogged by tourist-doubt following the 2011 Arab Spring, Egypt now needs to prove not only that visitors will be safe there, but to really showcase its assets. The far flung eastern coastal resort of Dahab didn’t immediately feel the after effects of the country’s revolution, but tourism numbers have begun to shrink at an alarming rate.

Based in Dahab with Club Vass for one half of the year (and Greece for the other), Colin ‘Whippy’ Dixon has become heavily involved with the community of windsurfers in the area. A freestyle and slalom champ, with a cluster of titles already under his belt, we caught up with Colin as he prepared to judge the freestyle windsurf competition for this year’s Dahab Festival.

The annual Dahab Festival of Culture and Water sports marks out the area, as it has long been known to divers and windsurfers, as a water sports and underwater pursuits hotspot. Taking place in April this year, as well as live music, diving and photography competitions and judging that competition will be UK and European freestyler and slalom champ Colin Dixon.

Adam Spawton-Rice catches up with Colin to find out why a windsurfing holiday to Dahab is where it’s at in 2012.

Interview with Colin:

Hi Colin, how are you?

Good cheers, excited for what’s to come!

How did you become involved with the Dahab Festival?

The head honchos in Dahab called everyone in the area up, then we all sat down and talked about how we could make it desirable for tourists. One solution we came up with was the festival, and then me and my friend James Hoare suggested a windsurfing competition – it got the thumbs up straight away.

So what exactly is the Festival all about?

It’s in its second year now, 1 year since the Egyptian revolution. Windsurfing is massive in Dahab, I would even say half the tourists are windsurfers or kite surfers, and the other half are divers. It definitely makes sense that it’s Culture and Water sports – although it’s all about the water sports for us.

The festival kicked off last year as a way of telling people that Egypt was still safe and that (especially in the Red Sea) everything is running as normal – it’s about showing people what Dahab has to offer.

Are you worried about the situation in Egypt at the moment, do you think it will interfere with the event?

I think [Egypt has] been through the worst of it now, it can only get better. And no, I don’t think the situation has much chance of interfering.

What else is going on during the day/night, throughout the event?

There will be all sorts; Diving and free diving, yoga (there’s lots of that sort of thing going on here), Bedouin culture events, Tow-in windsurfing, kite surfing… wild parties after dark and some live music too.

Camel Racing

How is the wind there, what are the waves like?

The wind is good and strong, and there are some wave spots but I would say Dahab is famous because of the crystal-clear, blue, flat water.

Tell us more about the windsurfing competition.

For the windsurfing part of the festival we’re having freestyle comp, and to make things interesting we’re also having a night tow-in competition. The competitions are open to anyone, but skills-wise you’re going to need to be at an advanced level.

What difference would you say there is between Dahab and other destinations (outside of Egypt)?

Dahab is a lot windier than most places in Egypt because it squeezes off of Saudi and gives us about 5 knots more wind than anywhere else. It gets pretty choppy if you sail downwind, but super flat if you sail just off the beach.

Ideal weather conditions/time of year (During festival)?

It’s windy for about 300 days a year, so any time is good in Dahab. My favourite time of year is just before the summer starts and just after good temperatures and strong winds. [laughs] We all wish for that 4.7 weather, for 5 days straight, the problem is you can never tell until closer to the time – welcome to windsurfing!…Always waiting for the good forecast.

Face painting at Dahab Fest

How long is Dahab fest on for?

The festival itself goes on for only a week, but it’s like a mini festival and there is always something to do on dry land.

Where can visitors/competitors stay?

We don’t recommend any hotels in particular. There are a full range of accommodations available in Dahab, from 5 Euro a night camps, all the way up to 5* Hotels like the Dahab Hilton.

Will you be competing in the windsurfing or any of the other events?

I’ll be judging the freestyle competition, but we’re all running around doing stuff for other events too. It’s gonna be amazing. See you there.

Phil Richards competing last year

For more information on the 2012 Dahab Festival, including other events check out www.dahabfestival.info

Colin is sponsored by Starboard, Severne, Clubvass, Boardwise, Dwarf8

Dahab Freestyle Festival single elimination winner Phil Richards

Danielle Lucas reports from the first ever Dahab Freestyle Festival on Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula…

10am Monday morning, in the flatwater area of baby bay, 18 competitors and many spectators arrived for the Dahab Festival Freestyle event. Competitors were mostly locals, with a large amount of the Egyptian and Bedouin windsurfers entering, as well as international staff from the many windsurf centres around the bay and some others out in Dahab training. 16 guys and 2 girls, the youngest in the event 10years old, everyone competed in the same competition as sailing levels were all really high.

The wind was good allowing most competitors to use sails 4.2-4.7′s during the single elimination, dropping to 5.3 weather for the first half of the double. By 2pm it had dropped a lot forcing the judges to postpone the last heats until tomorrow morning.

The sailing standard was very high, with many power moves such as kono’s, ponch’s and shakas being performed amongst the more basic manoeuvres with variations of spocks, grubbies, flakas and switch stance moves.

Heats saw close competition, judges Colin Dixon, Chris McCormik and Owain Petrie had a busy time with the judging and did a fantastic job, along with the help of Jana Svecova managing the flags and time keeping.

Final results of the Single Elimination are

1st Phil Richards (Getwindsurfing.com)

2nd Vladimir aka Vova (Five Squares)

3rd Issac Nabil (Neilson)

4th Salama Mohammed (Club Dahab)

The double elimination will be competed in the morning to see the overall winner of the event.