New easy to use equipment makes learning even easier. Image courtesy of Tushingham.

But, there’s one small problem. The forecast wind has not come through. Typical. But what do you do? Sulk at home? Take out the SUP? Yes these are both options, but Boards would like to put forward the case for something we think will be even more fun, plus will help spread the windsurfing word.

Have you thought about taking a friend out on the water? Whilst we all have windsurfing friends, how about finally convincing your school, work or gym mates to step on a board? There’s a whole manner methods you can use to teach your friends and over the next couple of weeks Boards will share various ideas to inspire you and your mates.

First up, there’s a brilliant scheme run by Robin Hood Watersports that could be the answer if you personally want to head onto the water with a mate or two. 

If you are an existing customer of Robin Hood Watersports you can pop along and borrow two sets of beginner equipment, take it away, teach your friend and return it…all for FREE!

As we’ve said, there’s various ways a friend can learn to windsurf and they will probably want an official lesson at some point, but for a first taster if you are a confident windsurfer then what better way to give a mate a little taster to wet their appetite?

The idea came from the fact that the RoHo guys believe all windsurfers are truly passionate about the sport and full of enthusiasm, making us all ideally suited to getting friends and colleagues onto a board. The main problem though, is that we don’t generally have suitable equipment for teaching beginners.

So, Robin Hood Watersports decided to offer up two complete sets of beginner equipment, free of charge to any existing customer who would like to introduce a friend.

The boards are JP Funsters (sizes 160, 180 or 205) and the sails are the NeilPryde Experience; it’s quality, up to date equipment that makes the early stages of learning as quick and easy as possible, for you and your mate!

Robby Swift, teaching his wife Heidy with the NP Experience.

The equipment can be used at any venue, RoHo will help and advise you on a great local location if you’re unsure; you must collect from and return the equipment to Robin Hood Watersports. The only condition is that you must be an exhisting customer.

Contact RoHo: http://www.roho.co.uk/ 

Telephone: 01924 444888

Fax: 01924 474529

E-mail: sales@roho.co.uk

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Boards cannot think of a better way to spend a slightly calmer summer’s day than by guiding a mate through their first tentative steps on a board (and occasionally laughing at the inevitable dismounts.) If you’re not local to RoHo either make a weekend of it and try somewhere new, or why not contact your local shop and see if they maybe interested in running the same scheme?

Of course we would also recommend, once your friend has got a taste for windsurfing, that they learn all the correct techniques through an RYA course, but more details on that in the next part of this ‘Share the Love’ mini series.

NB. Boards cannot be held responsible for any family arguments, break ups, hissy fits or injuries inflicted if you decide to teach a family member or partner to windsurf.

All you need to do is answer the question below, check out the full article about the making of the movie here, look closely for some information that will help you with your entry…

Want to win a copy of Don't Let Go?

Who thought up the name for the movie and where were they?

Ts and Cs: Competition only open for UK residents. Entry will close on the 3rd May 2013. One entry per person. Winners chosen at random, once winners have been chosen Boards will contact you via email asking for postal address to send the DVD to. If a response is not received within one week a new winner will be chosen.

The PWA announce the winners of the PWA Islas Canarias Excellence Awards…

MEN

Winner: Jason Polakow
Runner up: Robby Swift

Robby Swift

Winner: Robby Swift
Runner up: Ricardo Campello

Winner: Alex Mussolini
Runner up: Victor Fernandez

Winner: Jacopo Testa
Runner up: Jose Gollito Estredo

Winner: Finn Mullen
Runner up: Bjorn Dunkerbeck

Winner: Ben Van Der Steen

Finn Mullen

WOMEN

Winner: Iballa Moreno
Runner up: Justyna Sniady

Winner: Daida Moreno
Runner up: Daida Moreno

Winner: Iballa Moreno
Runner up: Daida Moreno

Winner: Sarah-Quita Offringa
Runner up: Arrianne Aukes

Winner: Justyna Sniady
Runner up: Justyna Sniady

Philip Köster

Daida Moreno and Andre Paskowski

Winner: John Carter
Runner up: Eric Bellande

Winner: Andre Paskowski, Jose Gollito Estredo
Runner up: KSB Collective, Daida Moreno

Winner: Andre Paskowski for Minds wide open and 4 dimensions
Winner: Camille Juban, Robby Swift, Boujmaa Guilloul, Flo Jung for Don’t let go

DON’T LET GO -Trailer from DONT LET GO on Vimeo.

In general, it is good to have high expectations, but sometimes  even if you try your best, things just don’t work the way you want to. In theses situations it is a real challenge to make the best out of it.

When we decide to produce a film, we didn’t want to produce just another windsurf movie, but in order to make something special, we had to find a way to be different from the others. Our idea was to show various aspects from our life as pro windsurfer and make a documentary about it.

However, if somebody would have told me before, that this takes two years of time,  dedication  and fighting with injuries, I wouldn’t have done it . More over  windsurf movies like ” Minds wide open” or “the windsurfing movie” have set new standards in the last years. This makes it really hard to keep up  with this kind of quality, if you are working with tiny film budget. Anyway, we just gave it a try.

Robby Swift in Chile. Photo by Pablo Berrios.

While waiting for the wind during the Capo Verde worldcup in 2010, I was staying with Robby Swift, Camille Juban and Boujmaa in a hotel. There was nothing to do, than to wait for wind and waves. We were watching surf movies and talked about  various ideas to do a movie ourself.  Because the conditions didn’t show up for the rest of the contest we had a lot of time to start working on a new film project. None of us has been involved in a bigger film productions, and we wanted to create something that shows our own vision of windsurfing.  We scheduled to do a long term project in order to gather enough action footage during our trips around the globe.

With no real references  it was complicated find people that believed in our project. After a lot of emails, concepts and convincing phone calls, we recieved a tiny budget from our sponsors and finally managed to start filming during a big swell in Morocco.

We had great conditions  and got some decent footage at Boujmaa’s home spot.

Everything seemed to go our way. During the annual photo shooting season in Maui, we were lucky and shared some monster waves together, filmed by a helicopter at Jaws.

At one night, during a BBQ, Robby Swift came up with the idea to call the movie

“Don’t let go” – having ambiguous meanings in mind – like hold on to your gear, don’t give up trying new moves, or simply never give up.  We had no idea that this title would have such a strong effect on us. From now on “DON’T LET GO” seemed to be our daily attitude. A few days later Boujmaa almost died trying a triple forward. He crashed really hard on his gear, broke some bones, passed out and almost drowned.

Four months went by for his recovery and in the meantime we were trying to sort out more financial support from sponsors to organise the next trips.

When Boujmaa got back on track we had some productive months of filming during the PWA events on the Canaries, followed by an another amazing trip to Morocco with our main filmer Manuel Grafenauer. Again,we were happy and  stoked with our sailing and spent some long days with good action  in and off the water.

The next breakdown wasn’t far.  After returing from Morocco, I recieved bad news from Robby saying that he broken his ankle in Chile. Once more, all the organisation for the coming months changed immediately, as he was going to be out of order for six months. Things got even worse a few days later at the PWA worldcup in Klitmoller. After a hard landing I broke the crucial ligament in my knee and found myself as well on the long way to recovery. We finally started filming in spring 2012 on Maui.

Some people even made fun of us for being injured all the time. As it would have been enough, after the first few days of our trip, Boujmaa got stuck in the footstrap and broke his foot. We were getting worried if there was something wrong with our title and we should rather find a hospital as a main sponsor. The situations didn’t really improve when I also broke my leg, after a heavy wipe out a few weeks later.

Our mood hit rock bottom and I was just about to give up. Instead of being on the water I spend most of my time at the gym for rehabilitation. Everything we worked for seemed to go in the wrong direction.  Nevertheless it is a part of the game to be injured when you are a proffessional athlete. In this sense our dilemma was a way to integrate this aspect in the film.  We are playing with certain risks and sooner or later everybody has to go through tough times. If it takes more than a few months your salary from  Sponsor contract is getting reduced and there is always this uncertainty, if you will ever make it up there again.  On the other side you also realise, that this job is a real privilege to make a living by spending most of your time in the ocean.

After our recovery, we were more than motivated for our final film stop in Peru. In a little fishing village called Lobitos, we could find some endless waves with no-one around. Every turn felt like a huge relief. Riding these long waves till your legs were burning like fire was probably the best moments of the production. A few days after our arrival, we had more footage than we ever dreamed of. It was like somebody wrote a film script with happy end to a long journey with a lot of ups and downs.

We locked ourself in a film studio in Germany and basically stayed there for the next six weeks. Our hard drives were filled with  3 TB of footage  from the last two years. It took weeks just to do the selection of the best clips. Another important  fact that takes some time was to find the right music tracks in order to created a certain atmosphere.

Michael A. Goldberg, a german music producer, composed various tracks for us, to raise  emotion within the dramatic movie scenes. In the meantime  Manuel Grafenauer, Leon Jamaer and myself took care of the movie cut.

After the first movie premiers with sold out cinemas in Germany, Chile and Japan, we were more than happy to see all the efforts on screen. The feedback was amazing and it was a great reward for the whole team. Afterwards I realised that this was just another lesson of life. If you stick to your own goals, everything comes together in a ways- even though it invisible at first sight.

So, keep following your goals and “DONT LET GO”!

www.facebook.com/DLGWindsurf

Robby Swift. Image credit John Carter/Reb Bull Content Pool

Where were you when you found out the chase was on?

I was in San Francisco airport on my way back from Maui to Chile.

Did you immediately think it would actually happen this time, or were you still relaxed?

I had my doubts as so many had been cancelled before but I know we need to finish three missions before June so we would have to go sooner or later. It was a very good call in the end!

Robby Swift. Image credit John Carter/Reb Bull Content Pool

How was your journey over?

Awful! Santiago, Panama, Houston, San Francisco, Maui for eight hours, Denver, Frankfurt, Dublin.

What were conditions like when you first got there? 

Ridiculous. I didn’t think we would be able to sail at all. I could hardly walk down the beach.

Have you sailed Brandon much before? How did these conditions compare?

Yes many times for BWA (back in the day) and then the PWA events that happened there. It was actually pretty fun sailing in one heat, when it was only about 50knots. The heats where it was 60-70 knots were ridiculous. It was scary! I love Brandon Bay, there are so many options to sail there in all different wind directions.

What equipment were you using? 

I used a 75L single thruster and my 3.4 Combat. I also borrowed a 2.5 custom sail cut down from an old 3.2 Combat from Rob Jones for one heat. I could hardly even sail on that!

Robby Swift. Image credit John Carter/Reb Bull Content Pool

Please try and describe how insane it was to be sailing in 70 knots?

It was 50-70knots! It’s hard to describe how hard it was. I couldn’t walk down the beach with my gear. Rob had to help me every time. I didn’t think I would even be able to waterstart. It wasn’t that hard to waterstart in the end but sailing along, I felt like the sail would rip from my hands at any time. I was afraid to do even the smallest jump as I thought the wind would just whip the gear out of my hands. Sometimes you would be sailing along, completely out of control, and you would see a gust up ahead with water flying everywhere and just think: how am I going to survive that?

What was the best thing you pulled off do you think? and how did the judges score it?

I somehow managed to pull off the best push loop forward of my life. It was insane. I had a slight lull on that run out. It was probably only about 50 knots, and I had just landed a huge backloop. I had told everyone that I wanted to do a push forward and they all laughed at me, so when I saw that ramp I said to myself: you had better do it now! I launched into the air, much higher than usual with the insane wind, and did the push loop. I got scared after that and almost didn’t sheet in for the forward, but then I said just go for it, and threw all caution to the wind, so to speak. Anything could have happened. I don’t want to think about what would have happened if a gust would have hit me at that moment. I spun round surprisingly in control and spotted my landing from way up on the air. I knew it would be hard to hold on so I slipped my front thumb around from on top of the boom to underneath so I had the boom in a death grip. I almost over rotated but somehow had the presence of mind to sheet out completely to stop the rotation and just landed completely flat. It buckled my knees and snapped the board. It was probably the hardest landing of my life but it felt very good!

The judges all gave it an instant 10. They said there was no deliberation. It was the highest scoring move of the event so I was happy I got up the guts to do it!

THAT push loop forward – at 30secs!

How will you approach things differently for the next storm?

I am definitely taking a 3.0! Robert Stroj, the NeilPryde designer is making me one as we speak.

Who’s your bet on for the overall winner of the chase?

I still fancy my own chances. You have to don’t you, if you want to win! I beat everyone in the Ireland chase on jumping by quite a long way. I hardly did any wave rides though as I missed almost all of my second heat with the broken board, and the first and last heats I did were so windy that I simply couldn’t bottom turn.

Brawzinho would be another favorite, and Victor. If the wind is a little more manageable, I think those two have a lot more to offer than we saw in the first chase!

Wishing Robby and the other guys lots of luck for the next storm, whenever it may be. You can follow all the action here on Boards of course. 

How To Get Out Through Waves

Laure Treboux. Image credit Dani Miquel.

Laure Treboux

“Always have a good look at the place before heading out. Observe where and how the waves break.

To launch over the shorebreak: there are always gaps in between sets, so make sure you chose the right time to leave the beach. Wait for a set, once the set has come through you usually have a bit of a calmer moment when you can head out.

Once you are out, if it’s windy enough to get planing, make sure you have as much speed as possible, it makes it easier to go over the whitewater. As you are about to hit the white water, give a little pop to your board, so you lift it out of the water slightly. The board will go over the whitewater smoothly this way and you will avoid a catapult. Non-planing, the key is to have as much wind in your sail as possible, and just before the whitewater hits you, push down on your back leg so the nose goes up and over, push both your sail and board forward at the same time.”

Jamie Hancock. Image credit PWA/JC.

Jamie Hancock 

“Launching is really hit and miss, every spot has a different launch and even the best of us receive a fair bit of occasional humiliation. I have in the past been pinned under my sail praying nobody was watching. Getting out through waves becomes part and parcel of wave sailing. Every time you catch a wave to the inside you always have to go back to where you came from. Experience is key as it is all about reading the break, timing and always a fair proportion of luck!”

Robby Swift

“The main thing to remember is to have the nose of your board pointing at the wave. If you have it side on, the wave will flatten you with its power. If the nose is facing straight at the wave, you will penetrate easily.”

Ross Williams. Image credit PWA/JC.

Ross Williams 

“It’s always best to give yourself enough room, so my top tip would be to start far enough upwind that if things don’t go to plan you have enough space and time to get out of any trouble that you could be heading for.”

Ben Proffitt

“Take a bigger sail as it means you are more likely to plane, which means you spend less time in the impact zone and can pick and choose when to go out.”

Check out more technique here in the Boards technique section or head here to purchase the print magazine and read the Ultimate How To: Wave Edition in full.

Don't Let Go, hitting screens soon!

The next two videos that caught our eyes came out at the end of the week, firstly it’s amazing to see Zara Davis on the BBC here and if you fancy something totally different check out Brawzi and Levi shredding in Maui here. 

Coming up the Christmas there has of course been a lot of penny saving present ideas and competitions around too: Lagoon Watersports in Hove have some great voucher offers, Tech Trial are selling the Drift Camera at an insanely low price, the Baker Academy are running a competition to win 8 hours of coaching, Juice Boardsports have vouchers with 10% extra free, Tushingham are running a competition to win a Starboard fin bag,  Ocean Elements are running some early bookers deals for 2013, as are Club Vass (with holidays to both Vassilki and Dahab centres)! Now that’s a whole lot of offers!

Finally in this weeks news, our sister site Boardseeker are proud to announce that the shiny new site is now up and running, so if you haven’t checked it out already head on over there now for more of an international windsurfing fix.

Don’t Let Go a Windsurfing video by boards

You might also like to read:

Thomas Traversa beats Philip Koster in the super final in Klitmoller, becoming the first man to beat Koster in a long time. The conditions were very light, meaning just two wave rides counted in the result. Koster put in one incredible wave scoring him a 7.88, but he couldn’t back it up with another or the same standard, meaning Traversa took the win with two scores in the 6point range. 

Thomas Traversa wins in Klitmoller. Image credit PWA/JC.

Watch the action Live here!

French Flyweight beats German Giant in the battle of Cold Hawaii

Thomas Traversa sent shockwaves through the world windsurfing tour by beating the double world champion, Philip Köster, in the super final of the KIA Cold Hawaii PWA World Cup on Thursday afternoon.

In a re-run of David beating Goliath, Traversa, from La Ciotat, the small French town near Marseilles where the cinema was invented, rode the wave to stardom this week, causing the biggest upset in two years on the tour with his electric wave riding.

The light 15-knot westerly breeze favoured the 60kg Traversa. Köster is over 90kg. An extended heat of 25 minutes with only two waves being counted and no jumps also favoured the Frenchman, but Köster is such a competitor that it was not over until after the last wave, which he rode all the way to shore. Traversa held on to win by just 0.87 points, scoring 13.13 to Köster’s 12.26.

Köster, the German-rider born and bred in Gran Canaria, is best known for the spectacular jumping, which has brought him two consecutive world championships at the age of 18. He was unbeaten in two years and had won the last five world cups, including Cold Hawaii, in Klitmöller, Denmark, last year. But he showed on Wednesday, in clinching the second title, that he is formidable on the waves too and had the highest wave score in the super final.

Traversa, who had beaten Köster on Wednesday morning before losing to him that night in earlier heats, set the early pace. He had a big lead after ten minutes with two accomplished wave rides, but Köster is the king of the special moves, even on the waves, and at halfway in the heat a backside aerial 360, during a nice ride, brought him 7.88.

But Traversa improved his second score to 6.38 with a backside aerial and good run and Köster was becalmed as the clock ticked down. He gybed in no wind and seemed to be sinking not surfing but with his last wave, as the clock ran out, Köster found some pressure and ran a wave all the way to the beach. The 4.3 was not enough and Traversa took the title away from him.

A super session looks set to run in epic starboard conditions on Saturday, keep up to date with more information on the KIA Cold Hawaii website here. 

Check previous write ups below…

]]> http://boards.mpora.com/features/pwa-klitmoller-live.html/feed 0 http://boards.mpora.com/news/top-10-storm-chasers-chosen.html http://boards.mpora.com/news/top-10-storm-chasers-chosen.html#comments Mon, 16 Jul 2012 09:01:48 +0000 Amy Carter - Editor http://boards.mpora.com/?p=40364 After weeks of sailor registration and voting, the top 10 that will take on the storms have been chosen…

Red Bull Storm Chase top 10

The top 10 read like a who’s who of windsurfing, and we are delighted to see Robby Swift has made to cut! We are sure to hear more from the Storm Chasers in the near future, as the riders prepare for the insane conditions.

The competition officially starts on the 1st August, when all sailors will go on hold as they wait for a storm to hit one of the chosen destinations.

]]> http://boards.mpora.com/news/top-10-storm-chasers-chosen.html/feed 0 http://boards.mpora.com/features/pozo-success-for-swift.html http://boards.mpora.com/features/pozo-success-for-swift.html#comments Wed, 11 Jul 2012 09:26:54 +0000 Amy Carter - Editor http://boards.mpora.com/?p=40266 In the 60knot winds of Pozo one Brit stood out, on the final day of competition, flying through heat after heat in the double elimination to finish a highly credible fourth place, especially with a broken toe. We are of course talking about the competition master Robby Swift, who always turns it on when he needs to.

Boards caught up with Robby in Tenerife, chatting about Pozo, training, equipment, looking forward to the next competition, and of course the injury!

Robby Swift. Image PWA/JC.

Boards: First of all massive congratulations for a great result in Gran Canaria, did you have any aims/expectations of where you thought you could finish?

RS: I was hoping for top three and I thought that was a realistic expectation. Anything can happen in the contest but I felt like I was sailing well enough to come top five, and if you can come top five you can come top three! I was a bit gutted to sail worse in the heat against Dario than I had been sailing in the previous heats but sometimes you just don’t get the waves. I was happy with fourth and pleased that the effort and money I put in to go there a month early and train paid off.

Boards: You were out in Pozo for a while before the event, how long were you out for and what did you have to change most about your sailing for the conditions?

RS: I arrived there on the 4th June so had a month to get ready. I didn’t have to change much. I came fifth there the year before and sixt last year. This year I had to get over my foot operation and didn’t start sailing again till March but I went to Chile twice (March and May) and had plenty of port tack training there, I had new boards and sails this year, which  helped a lot.

One special thing that I did this year was to order the 3.4! In the month I was there before the comp I had 3.7 as my smallest sail and there were five days when it was too windy to use that. I emailed Robert Stroj, the NeilPryde designer to see if he could make me one in time and he did so that was a big advantage. I think we will put that sail into production next year too, as currently we only make a 3.2 and for my size that is a little small.

Robby Swift. Image PWA/JC.

Boards: You lost to Brawzinho in the first round, then faced him again in the double. Did you think you could beat him second time around?

RS: Yes, I thought I could. I knew it would be hard as his waveriding is amazing there. He is so good at the freestyle tricks. I knew I could jump as well as him and so I needed to get some solid waves. I did a good 360 and forward of the lip combination and another wave with a forward off the lip and a taka. He was unlucky to fall on a lot of waves in that heat, but he went on 3.7 while I was on 3.4 and the wind was extremely strong so that probably helped me in the end.

Boards: Did you have a specific plan for each heat, i.e. an order of jumps to do?

RS: Yes, I wanted to do a double and a push loop forward in every heat! That only worked out in two heats but I did a good double in every heat and a push table top and a back loop so that was solid. I also wanted to do two waves with at least a forward off the lip and a taka on them. I did that in every heat except he one against Dario where I simply couldn’t find the waves and that is why I lost.

Boards: What equipment were you using most of the time?

RS: 3.4 2013 Combat prototype and 75L JP Single Thruster prototype for 2014. That is pretty much the exact board that will go into production so it definitely works!

I had a Maui Ultra Fins X-Thruster set up with a 16.5cm fin in the back and 11.5cm fins in the sides.

Boards: And finally how is your toe? Do you think you’ll be fit for Tenerife?

RS: Toe is pretty sore still. I can walk now which is an improvement on the last couple of days but will be very hard to sail. I will compete though for sure and hope that I can make the podium here!

Find out more about Robby Swift on Boards here. 

Robby is entered into the Red Bull Storm Chase and definitely deserves your vote! Head to http://www.redbullstormchase.com/#voting where you have ten votes to send through who you would like to the final 10. 

]]> http://boards.mpora.com/features/pozo-success-for-swift.html/feed 0 http://boards.mpora.com/features/boards-gran-canaria-day.html http://boards.mpora.com/features/boards-gran-canaria-day.html#comments Fri, 06 Jul 2012 15:06:23 +0000 Amy Carter - Editor http://boards.mpora.com/?p=40087 Day five here in Pozo delivers some all time heats!

Koester wins ahead of Fernandez, and Ojeda keeps his third place safe in insane winds, Koester on 3.7, Fernandez on 3.4 and Ojeda on 3.7, doesn’t get much windier than that!

Koester wins

Stand out sailor of the day, putting together the perfect heat to beat Browne was the UK’s Robby Swift. Swift pulled a perfect double and excellent push forward right at the start of his heat to put the pressure on Browne, who couldn’t quite recover and struggled through the heat. Swift looked like he could go on to really push Koester, but unfortunately things did not go his way against Ojeda where he struggled to find the ramps and solid wave rides.

Iballa wins

In the women’s heats Daida came back with a solid heat in the first one up against Iballa, but in the resail Iballa seemed fully focussed, putting down the aerial of the day (better than the boys!) plus a clean backie to take the overall title. Stand out on the women’s side was Steffi Wahl who progressed through an incredible amount of heats, putting in solid wave riding and a good range of jumps to take her into fourth.

Top 4s:

Men – 1st Koester, 2nd Fernandez, 3rd Ojeda, 4th Swift.

Women – 1st Iballa Moreno, 2nd Daida Moreno, 3rd Jaggi, 4th Wahl.

Check more action from day five on the next page…

]]> http://boards.mpora.com/features/boards-gran-canaria-day.html/feed 1 http://boards.mpora.com/features/boards-gran-canaria-day-4.html http://boards.mpora.com/features/boards-gran-canaria-day-4.html#comments Thu, 05 Jul 2012 20:10:56 +0000 Amy Carter - Editor http://boards.mpora.com/?p=40049 Today Pozo delivered some of the windiest conditions the PWA tour has seen in a very, very long time!

Most pulled move all day must have been the floaty jump, making a comeback due to Proffitt training diaries – check them out here - every sailor pulled off a good few floaty jumps, insane crashes, catapults and massive unintentional vulcan, really showing how windy it was.

Koester 1st, Fernandez 2nd, Ojeda 3rd, Bruch 4th. Image PWA/JC.

Koester and Campello on 3.7, most other guys on 3.4 and those lucky enough to have 3.0s were on those, to say it is windy is an understatement and a half. Gusts well over 50knots came through the bay, making it tricky for all competitors.

This morning Koester stormed to victory in the final of the single, beating Fernandez in the final first thing. Fernandez’ style was incredible, seeming to have a lot of control in the conditions, but he didn’t land the moves we all know he is capable of.

Dario Ojeda took third place over Dany Bruch, both sailors getting some incredible wave rides, 360s and takas. Ojeda seemed to just have a better heat, getting more ramps and decent waves than Bruch.

As the double got going Adam Lewis made it through his heat with Levi Lenz with ease, but then there was controversy in his heat against local youngster Alessio Stillrich. Lewis pulled a one handed backie in the middle of the heat, seen by many on the beach but not the judges. Lewis protested, but as it was not seen by any judge there was no way back for him. Stillrich beat him by 0.5, so the jump would have taken him through, however Lewis will have to wait now until the PWA heads to his home beach in Tenerife to show what he is made of.

Skye then faced Stillrich in the heat after Lewis, and the young Canarian reigned supreme again taking down Skye too. Stillrich was finally stopped by Klass Voget in the following round.

Brawzinho. PWA/JC.

Phil Horrocks was sailing well today, making it through his heats convincingly, until coming up against an even more on form Mussolini. Mussolini is on a roll and had already taken out fellow Brit Jamie Hancock in an equally close heat the round before.

Phil Horrocks “In my last heat I lost out to Musso, I had a bit of a shocker! It was super windy and choppy, it didn’t go well, I just struggled for waves. I’m happy with 13th to start the year, could be worse, could be better!”

The man behind the mic, Ben Proffitt, took his 3.4 for the whole day saying he was insanely overpowered right from the start. Proffitt still managed to make it through a couple of heats, taking out Ceballos before meeting and narrowly missing out to Seadi.

Robby Swift. PWA/JC.

Ross Williams and Robby Swift were both massively on form today, going through heats with relative ease, until they met each other in heat 44. Swift took the victory, and now goes through to face Voget tomorrow.

There were injuries a plenty today, with Swifty getting a contest threatening injury:

Robby Swift from facebook “I dislocated my little toe but thanks to all the help from my friends I was able to sail the rest of my heats and I am still in the contest!”

Later in the day the ladies were sent onto the water, many being on the same sized sails as the guys as there isn’t an option for anything smaller! The crazy conditions saw another injury from Olya Raskina, who has damaged an old knee injury.

Olya Raskina. PWA/JC.

Olya Raskina from facebook “I’m in a cast now, all leg, the ligaments are damaged, but how seriously I will know tomorrow morning when I go to the specialist. Very sad and disappointed about the 60knots heat sailing conditions, I would never ever free sail in such wind. But anyway hoping it’s not too bad, gonna know exactly tomorrow, thanks everyone very much for all the help and support.”

On the mic on the Live stream, we have as ever had Ben Proffitt who has entertained the masses both on and off the water. While Ben was competing guest commentators have included Ricardo Campello, Laure Treboux, Dany Bruch, John Skye and Adam Lewis, who have been answering all of your questions on the message board.

Tomorrow the conditions looks incredible yet again, and with Voget, Swift, Browne and Mussolini advancing, to face Bruch, Ojeda, Fernandez and Koester it will of course be an action packed day.

Be sure to tune in tomorrow for all the live action – www.boards.co.uk/live – Skippers meeting 10:00, first possible start 10:30.

Check the next pages for the final’s score sheets plus much more.

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