Nico Prien of Germany explains how he turned pro windsurfer from a humble beginner!
“Storytime of how I progressed from a 13 year old, soccer playing kid to become a professional Windsurfer. 15min of straight talking, so consider well before you watch!”
via Nico Prien
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Plenty of races in the books on Day two of the the iQFOiL International Games at Univela Sailing in Campione, Lake Garda, consolidating its reputation of an ideal spot for sailing. The morning began as planned with the women starting at 9:30 for the Marathon race, one of the three formats of the new Olympic sail board; the men followed in right after at 9:40. The wind was very light when everybody arrived to the club before racing, but it picked up as the sun came up from behind the tall mountains that surround the beautiful Italian lake, burning away the morning fog.
A fascinating ‘rabbit start’ for both men and women, racing separately, who were for the first time experimenting with the long distance format in a very big fleet. The course consisted of a six nautical mile long upwind to Capo Reamol, then a downwind towards the beautiful castle in Malcesine, sitting on the opposite side from Univela Sailing in Campione. 8 to 10 knots on the racecourse from the North with the typical ‘Peler’, known and appreciated by all the sailors who are familiar with these shores. It was a classic situation where the rich got richer, and the ones who started well kept the lead all the way down to the finish.
Kiran Badloe (NED), Rytis Jasunias (LTU) and Alexander Cousin (FRA) were the top three in the men, with Belgian Steven van Broeckhoven in fourth – all coming from different backgrounds: a RS:X sailor, two from the PWA and a world champion in freestyle. In the women the best one was Israeli Noy Drihan, followed by two Polish riders, Maja Dziarnowska and Karolina Lipinska; with last night overall leader Helene Noesmoen finishing in fourth.
“I had a really bad start, but I managed to make up on the upwind – commented Steven Van Broeckhoven – I was pumping a lot because I was afraid I would be last, and this brought me among the top ten at the upwind mark, then had no idea in which position I would be downwind, I was just working hard to be as fast as possible, and I was very please to find myself in fourth position!
“I am actually a freestyler, I’ve been competing for more than 10 years in the PWA freestyle, I am the 2011 World Champion and I have won five times the European title in that discipline. The foiling, in the beginning, represented for me just the alternative for fun in light winds, but now I actually got more into the racing, and especially now that it is an Olympic class I focus a lot more on the foiling.”
“It was a pretty exciting first Marathon in iQFOiL – said Rytis Jasiunas, a young, promising and big Lithuanian rider – and I wasn’t sure how it would go, I waited on the beach until the very last second to see the wind conditions and pick the right gear, when I saw that the wind was on the light side I got the right set up for that. I had a good start and I was on leading pack from the first tack.
“We are still discovering the pros and cons of each body type in this class. One of the pro is certainly that being more than 2 mt tall I can put a lot of power in the foil from the side: you can see that Kiran (Badloe) and I – both over 1,95 mt – are first and second, so I don’t know if it is only for that, but I can put a lot of power even though I am on the heavier side, being above 90 kg, I can power the gear to do well in the light conditions as it happened today”
“I enjoyed the Marathon very much – commented the female winner of the Marathon Noy Drihan – the wind conditions were the ones I like, not too strong and not too light, perfect for foiling and it was super fun. Coming from the RS:X I find it very nice to foil, I love the feeling of flying over the water. I had already tried the Marathon in Silvaplana in the Open Championship, and that experience probably helped me here today to win this race.”
With the ‘Ora’ building up as the air warmed in the afternoon, the women were the first to hit the water with the slalom race format, so as to catch up to the races completed by the men from yesterday. The French PWA rider Delphine Cousin got the first bullet while the second went to fellow countrywoman Helene Noesmoen, thus consolidating her overall leadership.
Sebastian Koerdel (GER) proved to be the best of the men in the Slalom, winning again in today’s race, with the Italian PWA windsurfer, Matteo Iachino finishing third.
“It was a good day today – says Italian rider Matteo Iachino – with the Marathon in the morning with light wind dying on us, a very tricky downwind, but I can’t complain as I finished ninth after recovering from a bad start, in the middle of the fleet. Slalom in the afternoon was fun, a good third for me so I am still there fighting with the best; I am enjoying the new iQFOiL class, the gear is great and they’re managing everything well.”
Day two wraps up in Campione Univela, while we are already looking at tomorrow’s conditions, that look similar to today’s. Some windward-leeward races are planned in the morning and a couple of slalom races in the afternoon, were confirmed in the evening skippers’ briefing, held online to avoid assemblies in these critical times we are facing. This is just one of the many strategies put in place by Univela Sailing, and the co–organising club Società Canottieri Garda Salò, in order to keep the international event on the calendar and run it safely both ashore and on the water.
Results will be updated at the link below
http://iqscore-live.s3-website.eu-west-3.amazonaws.com/results
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Fierce competition on Day one of the iQFoil International Games in Campione, Lake Garda, for the almost 200 riders coming from 29 nations, at what it was supposed to be the first IQFoil World Championship for the Paris 2024 Olympic sail board. A revolution for Olympic windsurfing, now foiling over the waves instead of surfing them, faster and with a new format: not just the windward-leeward racecourse, still run when the wind is above 10 knots, but a Sprint Slalom – very familiar to athletes coming from the PWA and foiling generation – and even a Marathon. Two worlds are converging here in the IQFoil; the very tactical, technical and light weighted RS:Xers and the powerful, strong and skilled riders from the PWA circuit. The level of energy is sky-high, with everyone thrilled to see who, from both worlds, will better perform in a big fleet, and with everyone just excited to be back racing.
Four Course races finished for both men and women – with the men divided into two 59 board fleets – in the morning with a nice 15-20 knots ‘Peler’, the local AM wind from the North, and choppy water state. Four bullets for Nicholas Goyard (FRA), third at the Europeans in August in Engadin, in the men blue fleet, closely followed by Sebastian Koerdel always second, and second at the European Championship. Whilst the yellow fleet is more open, with Pierre Le Coq (FRA), European champion Kiran Badloe (NED) and Nicolas’s brother, Thomas Goyard (FRA) alternating in the lead. In the provisional men overall the top three are Nicholas Goyard, Sebastian Koerdel and Pierre Le Coq.
The Women European champion Helen Noesmoen (FRA) won three out of today’s four races and is leading at the end of the day, but fellow countrywoman Delphine Cousin isn’t far behind in second overall, and the very young and talented Islay Watson (GBR), who was the runner-up at the Europeans, in third.
After a short wait ashore for the ‘Ora’ to fill in from the South, the 184 athletes headed back on the water for an afternoon session of Sprint Slalom with 6-8 knots. One round of qualifications and one of finals, with Sebastian Koerdel (GER) winning in the blue fleet and Bruno Martini (ITA) in the yellow.
“I am really happy of my first day here in Lake Garda – comments Nicholas Goyard (FRA) – I did better in the Race Course than the Slalom, even though coming from PWA I am more accustomed to Slalom, even though I do like the Course; it’s got different tactics and a different way of sailing, they are complementary and I don’t prefer one or the other.
“I have been sailing against my brother for about a year as he has joined some of the PWA events, and we will be preparing together for the qualification to the Paris Olympic Games.”
“Long day today, it was wavy and hard, both morning and afternoon – says Sebastian Koerdel (GER) – but it’s great we could get in so many races and we had lots of fun. I am happy about my speed in the slalom, more than my gybes, I’ve had a good fight with Matteo (Iachino) and looking forward to tomorrow.”
Tomorrow, Day two of the IQFoil International Games organised by the iQFoil Class and Univela Campione, the first signal is scheduled to blow at 9am with the long distance race planned for the 184 competitors who will race on Lake Garda until Saturday October 24th when the Medal Series among the best 12 boarders of the week will take place.
More info here:
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WERET SMARTWATCH FOR SURFERS
Check out the Weret Smartwatch as featured in the September issue of Windsurf Magazine.
In life as you grow older you have to take on the mantle of responsibility, so while sitting in a boardroom or similar setting of importance, wouldn’t it be good if there was a watch out there that offers the ability to surreptitiously check the forecasted wind or surf by looking at your wrist, and then leave rapidly when it looks good? Well the good old Swedes, masters of design, have come up with exactly that with the ‘Weret’ range of analog smartwatches, using data from UK surf boffins, magicseaweed.com. And knowing that we at the Windsurf office need to be aware exactly when to make poor excuses to skive off to the beach, the ‘Weret’ team sent us the “world’s first connected smartwatch for surfers” to fight over while trying to duck out of all things work related. Straight out of the box it looks like the sort of watch submarine commanders wear to blow things up at the right time, with lots of dials, numbers and hands. Digging deeper into the box and things start getting very James Bond with an inductive charging pad and USB cable. Setup is simple, you just ask a 7 year old to do it while you have a cup of tea, well that’s what we would normally do, but seeing as the boss was watching we had to do it ourselves in the name of science. Actually it only took a few minutes to download the ‘Weret’ app to our smartphone and pair the watch via Bluetooth, but we still put it down on our timesheets as a full day’s work.
The watch is a chunky 89 g case without straps and is built with Swiss technology in 316L pure surgical stainless steel construction with anti-reflective, anti-scratch coated sapphire crystal glass, and a claimed water resistance of up to 100 metres, so no need to take it off when waterstarting thank goodness.
A charging time of 2-3 hours will get you 3 months in normal use say ‘Weret’, so you can go on holiday between charges, maybe even two holidays if you’re really posh. The hands of the watch act as the Bluetooth antenna and once connected to your smartphone, and provided you have an internet connection, the time is automatically set and you get to choose what forecast data set you want displayed – ‘Wave’, ‘Wind’ or ‘Weather’, and from what beach you wish to be kept informed of. At the push of a button, the hands and dials will then toggle between displaying time or forecast, with the ‘Wind’ theme for instance displaying wind speed in Beaufort force, m/s or mph, as well as wind direction, tidal state, pressure and temperature. Other buttons on the watch can be configured for ‘Media control’, so press to play/pause and hold to skip a track on your smartphone, and a useful “Find my phone” feature which triggers a vibration or sound alert.
The watch itself is available in a range of 3 designs (scale available in Celsius (C°) / mBar or Fahrenheit (F°) / inHg) with various interchangeable strap options and comes with a 2-year warranty. At $795, it’s not cheap, and doesn’t come with any guarantee you will get wind and sun at the same time in the UK, but it’s a limited edition and if you like your windsurf gadgets you probably had already clicked ‘add to cart’ when we first mentioned ‘data’. To buy or get more information, see www.weret.com.
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Fanatic’s new new Falcon Slalom TE & Falcon Lightwind boards are on line as from today! The choice o
Our World Title winning Falcon TE´s are designed for total control in every situation you’re facing on a race course. Your focus stays 100% on your speed and your line, rather than your equipment.
For the days when everyone else is stuck on the beach, the Falcon Lightwind will get you – and keep you – flying in the most marginal breeze.
Full Details here: https://www.fanatic.com/windsurf/boards/freerace/falcon-te
Full details here: https://www.fanatic.com/windsurf/boards/freerace/falcon-lightwind
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Lucas Meldrum has dropped a new video highlighting his summer experiences in Tenerife.
“This year has been a strange year for windsurfing with no PWA wave events for men or women. In this video we give you some insights into this legendary PWA spot and some of the action going down this summer”
Via Lucas Meldrum
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Windsurf Magazine https://ift.tt/3kdVnjOCheck out this emotional Y26 brand video from RRD featuring riders from all of their watersports!
“South Africa has always been an ideal destination for watersports. We have crossed the Africa over for many years to do our photoshoots in this playground. Last winter, we were able to find great weather conditions and worked on the shoot of the new products with our new team of young riders. In this video Roberto Ricci tells us about his unstoppable enthusiasm for the ocean and introduces the team. RRD-Roberto Ricci Designs is the result of a path which started 26 years ago. What drives us is the unwavering passion for what we do, combined with the desire to always improve so that we can bring more people to discover watersports . However, it’s not about the destination. It’s about the journey”
Via RRD
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Windsurf Magazine https://ift.tt/3nZqO3BIt is a double Naish matinee today, with the Robby Naish Hookipa session video, followed by an epic day at La Perouse in Maui where the whole Naish team team scored this south side session! Both clips are well worth a watch!
Great windsurfing conditions don’t happen often at La Perouse, but when they do, it’s perfection. Check out this epic south side session from early spring when the waves were pumping and the stoke was high.
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Robby Naish invites us for a ride at Hookipa as he scores the first swell north of the Hawaii, season. As he says ‘Less talk more action!’
Via Robby Naish
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After an epic windy days slalom on the AFF Funboard Tour at Marignane in France, the riders decided to go out with a bang with an impromptu jump session in crazy winds! Check out the likes of Pierre Mortefon and Tristan Algret going nuts on their slalom equipment in 50 knots!
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Windsurf Magazine https://ift.tt/2SS1HBxLeon Jaemer chases a storm forecast to Klitmøller with cameraman Stefan Lehmann! “The title woanders (elsewhere) refers to people guessing spot locations on social media. I didn’t want to give away all the precious information just like that so I often replied “woanders“. As Robby Naish said on the Windsurfing Podcast… as much as it makes life easier the unlimited information available on the Internet also takes away anything difficult and mostly what is exciting about realizing a windsurf trip. I hope this clip inspires people to get in the car and explore their local and foreign coasts”!
Via Leon Jaemer
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