The October Bank holiday weekend saw over 40 windsurfers gather in the quaint village of Kinvara on the edge of the Burren for the last and final round of the 2012 Irish Slalom Series hosted by Rusheen Bay Windsurfing. Those who travelled on the Friday were rewarded with a warm reception, an open fire and live Jazz in Connellys pub. Saturday dawned without a breath of wind nor a cloud in the sky, regardless the crew got set up on Tracht Beach and started the day with the more experienced sailors passing on their knowledge with a series of rigging demos, Q&A’s and Intro to slalom clinic.

After a gourmet lunch kindly provided by Cully & Sully the breeze started to fill and both fleets made to the water for some practice starts and some fun races.

Saturday night and the standard flowery shirt attire was unleashed to enjoy the social side to kinvara, to keep everyone together a nautical table quiz was organised in Tullys Bar, for obvious reasons neither team names nor scores can be repeated! Lets just hope that the standard of knot identification improves for next year.

Sunday was quite the opposite of Saturday with overcast and drizzle but lots of wind. When the wind settled in strength and direction the racing got started under the watchful OD Danny Mulryan. Five countable downwind slalom races were held for the Gold fleet with Hannes Louet-Feisser, Robert Jones, Maurice Owens and Gareth Nihill taking the honours respectfully. The even larger silver fleet completed 4 races in the high winds and rolling seas making the racing challenging to say the least, standout performances included Steve Lawless, Keith Gorman, Gary Browne and Keith Ryan who finished top 4 respectfully.

Sunday evening saw a successful AGM with a big thanks going to the outgoing committee and a warm welcome to those who took up the new positions, all the Gang at Irish Slalom wish Hannes and his team the best of luck for the coming seasons. After the AGM it was onto the Pierhead Restaurant hotel for the now annual fabulous Prize giving dinner. Prizes were given for the weekends racing with generous sponsorship from RBW followed by the prize giving for the 2012 season.

The 2012 champions are:

Gold Fleet

• 1st Overall Maurice Owens
• 2nd Overall Hannes Louet-Feisser
• 3rd Overall Rob Jones
• 1st Men    Gareth Nihill
• 1st Master    Barry Whitelaw

Silver Fleet

• 1st Overall Stephen Lawless
• 2nd Overall Paul Green
• 3rd Overall Keith Ryan
• 1st Lady Johanne Murphy
• 1st Master  Robert Polak

Rounding The Mark At Kinvara

More pics here

Women’s elimination ladder.  Men’s elimination ladder.

Wipe out of the day!

The final report from the end of racing from Sean O’Brien:

The final day of racing here in Alacati. One last chance to mix the places up as only one slalom elimination was planned for today. That was unless you were Antoine Albeau or Ben Van Der Steen, who had already stitched up 1^st and 2^nd place respectively without even needing to sail their heats this morning.

Antoine Albeau takes the win. Image credit PWA/JC.

A later skippers meeting, 11am this time, as the forecast was for relatively sketchy for the morning and that proved to be the case as when it gets light here, the wind is VERY shifty and unstable, making you think you want to rig 9.5m but actually you could be ok on 7.0m!

Ben van der Steen joins Ben Proffitt in the commentary booth! PWA/JC.

Ben Van Der Steen was the first casualty when racing began, sailing underneath the startline fighting for the pin and realising he was going to be over-early. Next was Micah Buzianis, Taty Frans then Pieter Bijl all over-early in the next heat and sent back to the beach. The quarters and semi finals were relatively ‘usual business’ until the winner’s final came along and being ‘OCS’ was the name of the game once again. Ross Williams, Julien Quentel and Peter Volwater all hit the line early and left only five sailors in the winner’s final, including event leader Antoine Albeau and tour leader Bjorn Dunkerbeck.

Josh Angulo. Credit PWA/JC.

This time it was the man-in-black, Josh Angulo’s time to shine. Josh led out of the starting blocks, dominating to the first gybe mark and never looking back; taking the last final of the event ahead of Dunkerbeck and Cedric Bordes in 3^rd. Albeau finished 4^th but he didn’t even need to sail this final to win the event, with 6 wins from 9 starts he was nearly 10 points clear of Ben Van Der Steen in 2^nd overall.

With that race, the 2012 Pegasus Airlines PWA World Cup in Alacati, Turkey, drew to a close. Another amazing event – this time with plenty more wind than is usually expected here in Turkey, with a lot of races done on the small boards and even on 6.3m!! This win for Albeau, his first event win of the year after a less than exciting start on his new board sponsor RRD, has completely opened the door for the overall slalom World Title, as he is now only 33 points behind 2011 World Champion Bjorn Dunkerbeck; and 33 points is a VERY small margin when you consider you get 2,100 points for winning an event!

PWA Alacati winners. Image credit PWA/JC.

From the rumours floating around, it looks like the proposed slalom World Cup in Vietnam at the end of the year may be cancelled, which leaves the final event of the year in Sylt, Germany to decide who will be 2012 Slalom World Champion. Everything is up for grabs; and Sylt is one of those places you can never be sure what the conditions will be. 4 knots and warm sunshine all week like we had last year, or 30 knots offshore and 9 degree air-temps like we had the year before – who knows! All I know is, it’s going to be fun watching what happens up the front.

Tuning out from Turkey now. A bunch of us are hanging around in Alacati for a few more days, testing next year’s boards and taking part in the Redbull Downwind Dash-For-Cash tomorrow against the best of Turkey’s kitesurfers; should be fun!

Check out Sean’s previous reports below… 

Aberdovey, Wales is for me the furthest BSA destination from where I live on the south coast, so I always plan on travelling up the day before. With Nik away till late Friday, I was tasked with driving the ‘Black Mamba’ which is our technical and demo support vehicle. Inside the ‘Black Mamba’ are 25 of the latest Fanatic boards, geared up with 30 North windsurfing sails and that’s just in the back! Up the front we have a lounge/bed/meeting room where all our ideas are made, we take this vehicle to every comp and demo.

So, as I am such a push over, a fantastic husband and father, I let the wife (Natalie) come with me. We drove for over eight hours and eventually arrived to the beautiful town of Aberdovey, which is located on a water inlet on the west coast of Wales. Up to this date I have only ever been there when the weather has been perfect….. for sun baking and with the forecast looking good I was getting excited, so we checked into our little house that Boardwise has rented for us and went to sleep.

Slalom racing at Aberdovey. Image credit Dave White.

Saturday brought sun and wind, so great racing was going to be the order for the day. I rigged everything from 9.4 down to 7m, as the wind was supposed to build and because Dovey is on an inlet, the current is sometimes up to 10knots, so I imagined I was going to use the lot. Briefing done, suit on and gear at the ready we started full fleet, three bouy down wind slalom, for which I used the 7.8m North Warp12 and 113 Fanatic Falcon and C3 34cm fin. With beach starts I managed to win the first ahead races ahead of Fanatic/North team rider Simon Cofield, we had such a blast as the course it was nice and small so we had some awesome close racing. The following race was mental with All Action Jackson taking the win, he loves the strong choppy conditions!

After race three the tide changed and started to rush out, making it hard for the crew to lay the marks, so we had lunch where we all got to have a laugh about the racing we had had. Following the break I changed to a 8.6m and 140L Falcon and got back out on the course where things were heaps different, as it was now nice and flat. We started racing and the UK speed champ Kevin Greenslade who had a shocking morning took two bullets, just ahead of me but then in the last race he was over the line early ending he chances of winning this event. Against all my efforts Simon won the last race making my overall lead after two discards just one point!

I had an early night as there was a chance of wind the following day. This didn’t come to much, although we did get out on the water for some nervy light wind starts the wind never came and the sun stayed out. Lucky for me I did enough on Saturday to take the Boardwise/ NP / JP round four prize

With only one heat sailed yesterday of Round 6 and Bjorn still in a clear lead of the event over the RRD team of Julien Quentel and Antoine Albeau, it was going to be a long day at the beach as the PWA race crew were very keen to get this round completed.

Dunkerbeck takes the win. Image credit PWA/JC.

Against the forecast, the wind actually picked up enough to start some racing and by 2pm we were out on the water for a very fickle onshore day of racing! You can always tell the conditions are tricky by how many over-earlies there are in the racing. No less than 15 over-early general recalls took place today with on average 2-3 sailors getting bumped per heat! The race was all down to the start as in 10-12 knots there is not as big a speed difference between a lot of us sailors and with the flatter water it was unlikely that anyone of us would fall off a gybe! I spoke a bit too soon and in my Heat (which happened to be the French National Championships with Albeau, Montefon, Le Guen, Questel and De Souza all in my Heat!) I managed to hit the first mark with everyone at once and promptly spat my gybe and took waaaaay too long to get the sail back up and finished LAST. Not my finest moment but in a way I was glad to not have to sail so late in to the afternoon!

Micah and Bjorn. Image credit PWA/JC.

Somehow we managed to sneak in enough heats to sail the winner’s final but not the loser’s final, with Micah Buzianis dominating this final race taking the winner’s final ahead of Bjorn Dunkerbeck, Ross Williams and Steve Allen. This 2^nd for Bjorn was easily enough for him to win the event and just sneak ahead of Antoine Albeau in the 2012 PWA Rankings for Slalom with Antoine finishing 3^rd at this event and Julien Quentel 2^nd overall.

It was an extremely difficult week of racing here with winds very up and down each day of the event making sail-size critical and the starts even more so which can be seen by the amount of different final winner’s and BIG names well down the results list like Maynard (32^nd), Questel (29^th), Volwater (28^th) and Gonzalo in 25^th overall.

At least the temperatures were nice and we were blessed to be able to sail in boardshorts all week after a horrifically cold event in South Korea last month. We now have a full month’s break before the first of the Canary Island events kick off with Pozo (waves) and Fuerteventura (slalom) being the highlights. I’ll be on my way back to Lake Garda with the Italian team for a month of relaxing, training and work before we tune up the 5.5m’s and small boards for the typical 50 knots we usually race in on the Spanish islands.

A big congrats to Bjorn for winning another event and to Quentel who really dominated yesterday to finish 2^nd overall. It’s still early days in the season with 3 more slalom events to go so we’ll see whether Bjorn can take the title again this year or Albeau will be back and hungry as he’s typically the fastest guy in nuking conditions and won the Fuerteventura World Cup last year by a streak!

Check out all the week’s reports by clicking the numbers below…

What if there’s no wind?
Even if there’s no wind you can have a go at Stand Up Paddle Boarding there will be loads of boards to try out on the water. There’s loads to do around Aberdovey town and in the area there’s: amazing mountain biking, golf courses, climbing, walking, fishing etc. etc. So you won’t be short of something to do if it doesn’t blow!

Stay over for the party
On the Saturday night it’s party time with live bands, a bbq and usually far too much beer! Parking is right next to the beach and as long as the correct fees are paid, camping in vans overnight is allowed on Friday and Saturday nights. If your looking for somewhere to stay check out the Aberdovey website for a list of guest houses or cottage rentals in the area. There are also several campsites along the coast road with the nearest one being just 5 minutes up the coast road towards Tywyn.

BSA Slalom 4
Sponsored by Jp/Neilpryde the slalom event is always great fun with classes for all levels of sailors and a prize fund of £500 (courtesy of Aberdovey). More information or to enter see the UKWA website here.

Aberdovey is a beautiful town with loads to do so bring the whole family along for a great weekend.

The Awards have the following categories:

Awards for both male and female riders:

• Biggest Wave of the year
• Jump of the year
• Best single Wave riding move of the year
• Freestyle move of the year
• Wipe out of the year
• Racing move of the year

One Award per category:

• PWA sailor of the year
• Honorary Award
• Photographer of the year
• Short film of the year
• Outstanding achievement in Windsurfing Cinematography

Entrants do not have to come from professional sailors, or from competition, nominations can come from anyone all you have to do is send the image or video to the PWA, all the information is right here http://www.pwaworldtour.com/index.php?id=1642

In other PWA news, the slalom racing kicks off in Costa Brava tomorrow, and if previous events are anything to go by we will be treated to some high octane racing!

PWA Costa Brava. Image PWA/JC

James Dinsmore rigging at Reggio Calabria. Credit PWA/John Carter.

Name: James Dinsmore

Sail number: GBR659

DOB: 01/06/1975

Years windsurfing:  23

Disciplines: Slalom

Home town: Born in London

Current residence: Hayling Island

Sponsors: Starboard, Severne

Boards: What is your history in windsurfing? When and where did you learn and first compete?

Dinsmore: My first memories of windsurfing were as a kid on a gravel pit lake. My father had an original F2 Lightning and I vividly remember the excitement when he bought a clamp-on boom for the first time.

However, it was not until after I got a job and a car in my twenties that I really got hooked. Windsurfing started to dictate my movements and soon I took a job in Australia in search of wind and sun.

My first experience of racing was at the Lancelin Ocean Classic in Western Australia. At the time I only owned wave gear and whilst the front-runners disappeared over the horizon I slogged on and off the plane for 25 kilometres. It was a frustrating business, but gave me an appetite for more racing. Several years later it was a lot more enjoyable coming back and finishing in 8^th place just ahead of Scott McKercher.

Boards: Do you consider yourself a professional windsurfer? If not what is your profession?

Dinsmore: No. Windsurfing is a rather expensive passion for me and I have to work hard as a hospital anaesthetist to save money for the gear. I used to do a lot of night-shifts with the benefit that I could get out on the water in daylight when I wasn’t working.

James Dinsmore at Defi. Image credit Dave Strudwick.

Boards: What made you get into competition and what are your plans for this year?

Dinsmore:  When I moved back from Western Australia to England, I wanted to keep my windsurfing exciting. On the South Coast more often that not the winds are quite light and there are no waves. It would be easy to get lazy and bored sailing big gear out and back aimlessly.

Racing gives you a focus and pushes you to always be trying to get more out of you and your equipment. Even when I go out in a light 12 knots seabreeze I push myself to sail at the limit and stay on the plane through every gybe. I constantly ask myself ‘would I go faster if I put on more downhaul, put up my boom or if I try a different fin?’.

Every time I go out I aim to learn something new that will mean I am better prepared for the next race. When competing you go outside your comfort zone and in doing so become a better sailor. This year I am doing the BSA series, PWA events in Italy and Costa Brava and the Defi event in France. Unfortunately neither the PWA event in Italy nor the Defi wind had good wind. I have my fingers crossed that Costa Brava will be a better event in a couple of weeks.

James in front, racing at Weymouth. Image courtesy Dave White.

Boards: What is your best competition result to date?

Dinsmore: The highlight of my racing career was making one of the losers finals at the PWA slalom event in Aruba last year. I remember starting at the boat end of the semi-final next to Antoine Albeau and I am sure he was thinking ‘who the heck is he?’ I was PWA Sailor of the Day, which was pretty unbelievable as a career doctor from the South Coast.

More from James on page two…

On Saturday 2nd June, the combination of low tide, 14-18 knots easterly and sunshine even tempted Michael George to make the trip down from Milton Keynes. The perfect conditions enabled us to run 12 races of 3-buoy downwind slalom. We had a mixture of newcomers to racing and seasoned campaigners on sails from 6.5 to 8m. Apart from a brief problem with a wandering buoy it was a cracking afternoon and you could see the buzz in the eyes of the sailors returning to the beach after each race.

Rob Solley, Marti Gerrard and Duncan Pickup lead off the beach

The club is very inclusive, aiming to introduce people to racing, and to give them the chance to improve their windsurfing by having the opportunity to learn off others. In between races I was pleased to to hear discussions between sailors on topics like what is the best line to take round the gybe mark and how to choose the right sail size.

Happy faces

After race nine most sailors called it quits but a few of us continued so that latecomer Allan Cross could get a couple of races in.

Throughout the afternoon the racing was very competitive and everyone was sailing well. Relative newcomers to slalom racing Paul Shotbolt, Rob Solly and Marti Jerrard gave the BSA regulars a real run for their money.

The next slalom racing at Hayling took place shortly after, being held on the evening of Wednesday 6th June.

On Wednesday we were fortunate to have excellent conditions for the second time in a week. Turnout was again good and included previous HS organisers Dave Dobrijevic and Dan MacCaulay as well as newcomers Dave, Dan, Tom and Rich. As the forecast had predicted by the time evening came the rain had gone and we had 16-18knots and flat water in the lee of the sand bar. I was well powered on my 8.6 and 127 board whilst others went for sails as small as 6.5m. The first reach was long and broad and it was a great sight to see 14 sailors going neck and neck into the first mark. Racing was again highly competitive and we ran 7 or so rounds of downwind slalom.

With the handicap system almost everybody was leading at some point. First-timer Dan nearly won one race and was leading around the final mark but didn’t quite have the speed to press home his advantage. It was cool to see how stoked he was afterwards.

Charlie Stobart Hook who is injured kindly took some photos of this session, as did my wife Aneete Sinha on the first Saturday racing.

To find out more information about the Hayling Island Slalom scene and how to get involved simply comment at the bottom of this post…

The racers

A week of hard fought competition took place amongst the women, Karin Jaggi stood firm throughout the week, taking four out of seven race wins and not slipping below third in any race. Karin, was followed by Delphin Cousin in second and Cagla Kubat in third.

Within the men’s racing, four full rounds were managed with Matteo Iachino taking the win, with Arnon Dagan in second and Bora Kozanoglu in third. Though some of the top names were absent, this did not make the racing any easier, and Matteo put in an exceptional performance to win above Arnon.

Check out the video highlights below:

Full Results WOMEN

Full Results MEN

Hot off the press here in Korea, Micah Buzianis has topped the list after a solid fight back at the tail end of the event. It’s his first event win for a while and he looked over the moon.

The young French rider Antoine Questel made a horrible mistake, sailing to the wrong mark while leading his semi final handing Micah the opportunity to take the win. But that said, Questel is a name to watch out for as the PWA slalom season continues. He has shown, mistakes aside, that he’s got the speed and composure to top the rankings.

Micah Buzianis wins in PWA Korea. All images courtesy PWA/JC.

The best news for the UK is, that our very own Ross Williams jumped three spots in the last round and made it to third place on the podium. A great result for Ross who looked sharp all week and laid down a solid foundation to build an assault for the top of the slalom ranking this season.

Ross said: “It’s been a two year hiatus since I’ve been on the PWA slalom podium and it’s good to be back!”

PWA Korea: Ross Williams finishes third. All images courtesy PWA/JC.

Bjorn had a horrible last couple of rounds getting knocked out after hitting something yesterday and then slicing his foot open today, pushing him down to ninth place. Antoine Albeau also didn’t look his usual self and had to settle for fourth here.

The racing for myself got better and better, and by the last couple of rounds I started to at least feel in the fight. I would defiantly like to race with these guys a little more often, it’s so competitive out there on the course and I miss that. But, I have the Maui Race series to look forward to in a couple of weeks and this has been a great warm up for that. The only difference is then it will be back to racing in shorts in steady 25-35 knot trades!!

Thank you Dan for some great reporting all week. Good luck in Maui and we look forward to the next installment!

Reports from every day can be found by clicking through the numbers below…

Kev Greenslade runs us through the first windy BSA event of the year:

The waiting was over, after a windless Hayling competition, the forecast for Weymouth promised to deliver.

It was time for the questions would be answered, would Ant Baker’s dominance from last year continue? Who had been training hard? What difference would people’s new gear make? How would the sailors moving up into the pro and amateur fleets fair?

Can Ant Baker reign supreme in 2012?

The new and improved OTC, powered by Puravida Boardriders, were event sponsors with a free hog roast to all competitors, free party and the opportunity to settle any differences on the water, with a gladiator style pugle stick arena, this event was sure to be great fun for all both racing and spectating.

On Friday evening it was hard to imagine what the weekend would bring. Sitting outside the OTC enjoying a chinese, whilst the sun went down over Chesil beach, who knew this would be far from an option come the following morning.

71 competitors woke on Saturday morning, to driving rain and a solid north easterly 14-18 knots. Race officer Paul Sibley set a five buoy downwind slalom course, whilst Brian Tilbury got the master blast fleet underway, making the most of the conditions.

In the masterblaster fleet, with the Page Possie moving up to the race in the amateur fleet there was a new kid on the block in the form off pro kite surfer Dan Sweeny. Obviously having Ant Baker as a boss and windsurfing mentor is paying off for Dan, as he only started windsurfing last year and after a grueling day of 19 races, Dan came out on top in front of Charles Milner and Rob Duggan  (nice one Dan!).

I would also like to congratulate the local T15 team, with Joe Adams finishing fourth in his first ever event, Emma Stevenson first lady and second overall,  plus Scotty (the legend) Stalman finishing eighth overall at just ten years old, well done team, good work!

All images courtesy of Dave White

The amateur fleet is looking fiercely competitive this year, once everyone gets familiar with the heat system etc this is going to be a hard fleet to call, with several sailors capable of taking top honours.

Simon Langley started where he left off last year with a bullet in the first, only to be overhauled by Lee Marrs in the next two finals. Tony Attfield came good at the end to take third. Well done to Kate Strange, finishing fifth overall and first lady, as well as local Weymouth U17, Tom Wells (OTC/Puravida), both of these youngsters will be ones to watch for events in the future.

All images courtesy of Dave White

Lee Marrs’ two wins meant he took the top prize of the weekend, with one weeks free hire from the OTC in Tenerife, well done Lee!

There has been an obvious absence in the pro fleet so far this year, with Alan “all action” Jackson missing the events, for a good reason though, congratulations to Alan and Caroline on the birth of your son, Rory. Big love from everyone on the BSA circuit, we all look forward to seeing the Jackson family soon.

Close racing at the top of the Pro fleet

The pro fleet kicked off with a bang, with most of the usual suspects progressing through to first final.

Everyone was completely on it from the first start, unfortunately yours truly was out in front when the fleet got recalled. On the re run it was James Dinsmore, who would take the honours, with Si “the Hulk” Cofield hot on his heels.

In the second round, I again found myself out in front, but this time a sloppy gybe gave Ant and James the opportunity to slip past. Round three saw a RS:X star, Sam Sills smoking off the start line, managing to hold his nerve with James and Ant breathing down his neck the whole way round, this left James the overnight leader followed by Ant, then Sam in third.

On to the party, a massive thanks to “party Steve” Howlet who spent his whole Saturday getting the party zone ready for action. At 7pm the pig was ready and the beer began to flow, some chilled tunes were spun on the decks from party Steve, whilst everyone ate. Then the local rock band, The Cheap Shots, got the weary limbs of the racers moving and limbered up for some Gladiator action.

All images courtesy of Dave White

With Mark Steen (from Bustinskins) on the mic, myself and Mistral Simmer team mate Simon “Willie Wonka” Pettifer opened up, but wasn’t long before I found myself on the canvas walking off with my head held low. Si continued to dominate, until he came up against Dave White, who finally beat him in three rounds.

The random name generator then selected Reece White, which made for the Gladiator bout of the evening, with the younger of the mighty Whites coming off best. The band and party continued late into the night. Anyone heading off early for an early night was bitterly disappointed, as outside it blew 50 knot plus and chucked it down with rain, which made sleeping well in a van almost impossible.

Jim Crossly FB quote “Omg shit nights sleep in the van! Now got to rig in 40 odd knots and rain, and slip into a wet wetsuit. Here goes 3 2 1″ 

The next morning sure delivered wind, and lots of it, with the forecast to drop and swing, the race crew gave the pro fleet the choice of figure of eight in 40-50 knots or wait for the wind to swing and drop a little. The grim prospect of rigging lots of sails in these conditions meant that the majority voted to sit it out and wait.

All images courtesy of Dave White

At 11.00am the decision was made to race regardless, as the wind showed no sign of subsiding. But sure enough, just as the first race was about to start the wind swung and dropped, to nothing. Shortly after this the decision was made that there would be no more racing this weekend, what a way to end great weekend!

I would like to congratulate everyone that took part over the weekend and thank all those who were involved in making it all happen.

See you next time, Kev.

Kev Greensalde is sponsored by OTC, PURAVIDA, SIMMER, MISTRAL, SPARTAN and C3.

James Dinsmore’s view on the weekend and full results on page two…

With some solid winter training behind him, and a surprise goal for the 2012 season, Proffitt seems rather more relaxed than he should be and definitely earns his place as May Rider of the Month.

Proffitt riding high. Image courtesy www.windsurfaustralia.com

Name: Ben Proffitt

Nicknames: Errr..  maybe Proffittaroll

Sail number: K800

DOB: 20/01/1978

Years windsurfing: Oh god..  26 years!!

Disciplines: Wave

Home town: Shrewsbury

Current residence: England

Sponsors: Simmer Sails. Simmer Boards, Simmer wetsuits, O’shea Clothing and Funsport.

Boards: When did you first consider yourself professional?

Proffitt: I would say 2004 after a 5th place in Pozo waves, and a couple of good freestyle results. That was probably when I got to the stage where I was making enough money to be classed as a pro…  but don’t get me wrong it was proper bread and water living!

Before that, from 1997 to 2000 I was part of the Olympic squad and training full time on one design, so I suppose this could be classed as being a professional too!

Boards: As the winner of the BWA tour for the last two years, we all know you’re capable of taking the top spot, but when was your first big UK win?

Proffitt: Technically, the first win was probably 1992 on a raceboard! The first big event win was the Freestyle Nationals in 2004.

Taking the title in Cornwall

Boards: You’ve been posting some pretty successful results on the PWA for a few years now, what has your best result been?

Proffitt: Funnily enough it was my first ever wave event, again Pozo in 2004! I finished 5th in the single, and then made it back up to 5th in the double. I was set to take on Nik Baker but the waves disappeared and we never finished the competition, leaving four of us equal 5th.

Boards: How has your winter training been?  Where have you been and what have you been working on?

Proffitt: Winter was really good! For the first time, in a very long time I didn’t go to Cape Town. After six or seven years there, I went over to Western Australia. I got a lot of really great down the line sailing, maybe not as many full power jumping days as I would have liked, but from what I hear Cape Town didn’t have much of this either, so I don’t think I missed out too much!

I really wanted to work on my doubles and push loop forwards, but unfortunately as I said conditions didn’t exactly play ball, I am hoping to head out to Pozo pretty soon to make up for this though.

Training hard in Australia

Boards: Not all of us have been to Rhosneigr or Brandon Bay, what can each location be like and what sort of sailing can we expect to see at each?

Proffitt:  A typical forecast for Rhossy is a south/south westerly, so this means cross on shore, port tack conditions. It’s a pretty friendly wave, not really a mast snapper, but still super fun for jumping and tricks on the wave. It is like a cross between Pozo and El Medano, when it’s good you can score loads of jumps on the way out, then on a wave you’re not going to score down the line riding. It’s more about nailing your moves.. so back side/frontside 360’s, takas, forwards off the lip etc. A total stunt fest!

Brandon Bay is such a big bay, it works in pretty much every wind directions, and can throw up a whole host of conditions. A good forecast would be south westerly, cross off shore with down the line riding and that’s definitely what I have my fingers crossed for, as it’s what I’ve been sailing in all winter. In these conditions it’s more about the wave riding, and you’re likely to see aerials, goiters and just pure, slick wave riding.

Boards:  After such success last year, do you think you’ve got what it takes to win the tour again?

Proffitt: Well I feel I am riding as well as, if not better than I ever have been. My wave riding is feeling really good, I’m even more comfortable on my gear and I know how far I can push it now. So I don’t see why not! But there is some really stiff competition and as with everything in life you also need a certain amount of luck.

We will have a full report online very soon, from none other than slalom supremo and new centre manager Kev Greenslade, but in the mean time we caught up with the men in charge of the OTC and Puravida respectively, Tris Best and Jim Brooks-Dowsett, for their thoughts on the weekend.

“This was the fifth time we’ve hosted the BSA at OTC UK … and the fifth time we’ve had enough wind to get a result! The event keeps getting bigger and better and was a great way to celebrate our union with Puravida here in the UK.

Got to thank Steve “party man” Howlett for all his help in organising the evening’s activities and Kev Greenslade for instigating the pugil sticks ents – definitely going to be more of the same in the future. Exciting times ahead…and then there’s the Olympics!” Tris 

“Despite some challenging weather the number of competitors and guests was amazing!  It was a fantastic weekend with credit to all who helped, we were stoked to host the event and have three team riders in the to 10″ Jim

 Full results will be available soon, but here are the top three from each fleet:

Pros

1st James Dinsmore

2nd Ant Baker

3rd Sam Sills

Amateurs

1st Lee Marrs

2nd Simon Langley

3rd Tony Attfield

Masterblaster

1st Dan Sweeney

2nd Charles Milner

3rd Rob Duggan

Want to improve your slalom skills?

Check out the Boards technique section, in particular:

Sam Latham sharing his slalom secrets  and Ant Baker guiding you through the perfect carve gybe

Images courtesy of Dave White, click here for a full gallery.

Karin Jaggi

DAY 4 – ANOTHER WINDLESS DAY IN PARADISE LEAVES BUZIAINS AND ARRIGHETTI SITTING PRETTY AT THE TOP WHILST THEIR RIVALS EAGERLY AWAIT THE RETURN OF THE MELTEMI.

With a similar forecast to the previous day, there was little hope of the Meltemi returning with enough force to allow the competitors to head out into Alacati’s beautiful bay and recommence battle today.

Those sailors that did leave the comfort of their air-conditioned rooms were met with soaring temperatures and a gentle southerly breeze to cool them down. The free keg of Foster’s beer helped to raise both the sailors and spectators spirits, but what they really want is to get back on the water and race.

With plenty of time spent on standby, we took the opportunity to talk to former world champion and current tour leader, Karin Jaggi (Patrik, Severne) about her battle with 2009 world champion, Valerie Arrighetti (Tabou, Loft, Mystic), and the announcement of the women’s slalom final in Almanarre, France.

PWA: How do you feel about your racing so far this week?

KJ: “It started off really well with a win in the very first race. Unfortunately, I got run over in the second one, and in the two following races my starts were simply not good enough. My speed is great but with just a very short leg to the first gybe mark there’s no way to make up ground, not even with an average or ok start. With this course, starting equates to well over 50% of the whole race. Then there’s another 25% for the first gybe, after which you can only really advance or drop one position over the rest of the course.”

PWA: Were you hoping to tie up the 2010 world title here?

KJ: “I knew it would be hard for me to win here in Alacati. Naturally I’m trying to give it my best though. But, with the flat water and light wind conditions there’s really no room for error.”

PWA: Is the pressure mounting now that Alamanarre (and therefore a discard) has been announced?

KJ: “Maybe a bit for the world title, but I’m just simply so happy that this event will take place. It’ll be great fun to have a women’s only event once again, and to return to France is simply the best thing for windsurfing in Europe. Apart from that Almanarre is actually my ‘local’ beach – where I learnt to water start, gybe, and joined the world tour for my very first event! Albeit a very long time ago… So, all in all, I’m just stoked that this event is happening!”

PWA: What are your thoughts on an all female end of season finale?

KJ: “It’ll be great. The place is just perfect – easy to reach by car from all over Europe, and the conditions can be anything from light to strong winds, onshore and offshore. Plus, there are heaps of local windsurfers in the area which will guarantee a good crowd on the beach. The only real downside to the event is that it was announced at such short notice. But, all of the women I’ve spoken to are giving it their best shot to join us in Almanarre.”

PWA: So what’s your game plan for the rest of the event here in Alacati?

KJ: “Just to do my best, I can’t do anything more than that, and I can’t control anyone else. I know that my equipment works extremely well this year, so speed and control are definitely not even an issue. But, I do have to sail with a bit more of a tactical mind – stay away from possible crashes, and improve my starts to be successful in the end.”

Micah Buzianis

Results After Four Races

Men

1st Micah Buzianis (JP, NeilPryde)

2nd Antoine Albeau (JP, NeilPryde)

3rd Finian Maynard (RRD, Gaastra)

4th Cyril Moussilmani (Starboard, North)

5th Julien Quentel (RRD, NeilPryde)

6th Bora Kozanoglu (JP, NeilPryde)

7th Alberto Menegatti (Starboard, Simmer)

8th Sylvain Moussilmani (Starboard, Simmer)

9th Bjorn Dunkerbeck (Starboard, Severne, Mystic)

10th Enes Yilmazer (JP, NeilPryde)

Women

1st Valerie Arrighetti (Tabou, Loft, Mystic)

2nd Karin Jaggi (Patrik, Severne)

3rd Sarah Hebert (Naish, Naish)

4th Sarah-Quita Offringa (Starboard, Gaastra)

5th Fanny Aubet (JP, NeilPryde)

Alacati Sunset

Eye On The Horizon

The forecast looks much more promising for the final two days of competition here in Turkey, so with any luck the racers will get their chance to hit the crystal clear waters once again.

Keep in the groove

For more information on all the entrants, and to keep up to date with every piece of the action, click on www.pwaworldtour.com

Here you can use our:

• Live ticker service for heat-by-heat bulletins

• Check live elimination ladders

• View results

• Read daily news summaries

• Browse awesome action photo galleries

There’s also a dedicated event website which can be found at www.surfnsound.org

Or for more information, please contact the PWA office via info@pwaworldtour.com