no. 27. July 2007
Maui, Hawaiian Islands
© PWA / Carter
July was a month of competing for Kev This was a super busy month for me. I went from Lanzarote to Pozo to Fuerteventura with little to no time in between events. This season I had some struggles at the start of most of the events, but pulled through on the final days when the pressure was on. In Lanzarote, I battled my way back from as low as eighth position to finish second. In Gran Canaria I had an amazing last day battle with my brother and Bjorn Dunkerbeck where I started the day in fourth, and finished up in second on the last race of the event. In Fuerte, the same scenario happened when Micah Buzianis had a great day before the end of the event, sending me back in the rankings to fourth. On the last day I powered my way back up into second once again.
Looking back over the last two months, it’s been fun, but also a lot of work and a lot of time on the road. This year I probably did the least amount of sightseeing with the most amount of beach time. The wind was howling every day. We had competitions back to back, which is nice because it makes them totally valid, but it’s pretty taxing on the body. I sailed in around one hundred thirty individual heat races this month. The bottom of my feet are worn through and all the calouses are pretty tender to say the least. Now I am back on Maui to start work on the TR-4’s as well as get some nice sleep in my own bed. I’ll be here for ten days before I have to leave again and head back to Turkey for ten days for another big slalom event. The race is still on for second place! See you on the water Kevin!
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Maui Monthly | Our Experience Your Reward no. 27. July 2007
Maui, Hawaiian Islands
© PWA / Carter
Taty - Slalom or Freestyle? So far I have done three PWA events in three diffrent location. My first event was in Lanzarote where I finished 15th in Slalom and 10th in Freestyle. My second event was in Pozo where I finished 9th in hard core slalom conditions I am really happy to finish 9th it’s was a week of 4.7 and 5.1 conditions and I had fun no presure just enjoying sailing slalom with all the other races. My Third event Fuerteventura, 5 days pure slalom conditions 5.9 and 6.6 conditions fully powered up I had some great start but made mistakes and played it to save if I had sailed like i had sailed like in pozo I would have done top 10 easy... I played save because all of the other riders where complaining about my jibing because i always jibe on the inside and that makes me win alot of places.. but I didn’t sail with any presure or so.. Freestyle in Fuerteventura was not a good event for me, I know I had gotten myself too involve in the slalom discipline and had sailed more Slalom in thruout the month and haven’t had time or energy to train freestyle after doing slalom. I am worry about my results in Freestyle I am now top 10th but I really hope tthat my results in slalom is making things up... I have had alot of people telling me TATY you are really good in slalom. But all what I have trained for the whole winter have just vanished and now I will have to just think what I have done in these last event and make things better for the next season. I know I can but... I want to give big congratulations to Kevin for sailing so consistent..
Well, I’ll be back home on the 4th of august so that I can compete in the pro kids event, 18 years and up divisions, Then of again to Festival THE MISSION in HOLLAND. Well that’s if for me. Taty.
Taty - Slalom or Freestyle? In the weekend of 25 & 26 August 2007 Project44 organises the fourth edition of The Mission, one of the biggest amateur windsurf events in the world, held at the Kabbelaarsbank, at Sail and Surf Centre Brouwersdam, the Netherlands. The event is open for all ages and will be held with the Olympic spirit in mind: participating is more important than winning. The course sailed is a downwind slalom format, the rules are easy: just go for it, jibe and get your way to the finish line! For non-participants the event will certainly also be interesting: during the whole weekend the brand new 2008 windsurf equipment of Fanatic, F2, MauiSails and ION will be available for testing and team riders will be on site to answer all questions about the new gear. The event will be attended by many professional windsurfers amongst whom world freestyle champion Jose ‘Gollito’ Estredo, vice world freestyle champion Taty Frans, his brother Tonky and possibly the current holder of the world speed record for sailing vessels Finian Maynard (48,70 knots or 90 km/h on a windsurf board!). Of course national top riders from Holland and Belgium will attend to. In the Battle of Giants the pro’s will show all the latest moves. New for this edition of The Mission is the jump competition, where the riders will use a ramp to make huge jumps. Who
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Maui Monthly | Our Experience Your Reward no. 27. July 2007
Maui, Hawaiian Islands
jumps the highest, who makes the best move, who crashes his entire windsurf kit? The first day of the event will be finished off in style with a barbecue and a big party. The next day it is back to business with another series of racing, battles and ramp action. Registration for The Mission is possible via www.windsurfers. nl, until the 20th of August there is a discount on registration fees, the whole weekend including, Tombola, BBQ and a bag full goodies, like t-shirts, DVD, stickers etc. will then cost only 30 euro, on site the fee is 40 euros. Registration for the event is also possible at Sail and Surf Centre Brouwersdam until the 22nd of August. The program of The Mission starts the 25th of August at 11.00, on site registration is possible from 9.00 until 10.30. More info about the event can be found at www.windsurfers.nl. See you at The Mission!
Martin. Efficiency is the key word. Efficiency is the key word to go faster in near future. This month we tried to find the boundaries of bigger gear. Denis Littel got up to the top of the formula ranking using an eleven metre TR-3. His top speed of 34 knots shows big boards can go fast when you’re able to ride the fin. Check it out on www.gps-speedsurfing.com. Apart from being a speed surfer I also perform tests for the Dutch Surf Magazine. In summertime lots of newcomers are entering the sport. The joy of planing is the true attraction to get hooked. Which board to buy after the first steps is a difficult and important decision. I was asked to test the Fanatic Shark 145. It’s a big board by any means: 75x250 with a wide tail to give enough support. After the first few metres on this board it felt as if it would be capable of pretty high speeds and I decided to give it a true test by fighting my training buddies on their dedicated slalom rockets. To my surprise I won the first light wind day on this board using a TR-3 7,6. It got pretty obvious to me modern day freeriders can be pretty fast. Since a lot of wind was predicted for the next day I told the others I wanted to race them the next day as well and try and get over 38 knots on this board using a stock freeride fin. In the end I succeeded and got up to 38,6 knots on this huge freerider using the TR-3 6,6. Needless to say the ride was pretty tiring on the legs, but it was a fulfilling day and it showed modern day gear can be used in a wide variety of circumstances and more important, can grow with you as your skills rise. Standing on such a monster makes you realize just how far we’ve come since the early nineties. It might even be possible to break 40 knots on a board like this if everything comes together. It’s developments like this that make surfing so much more fulfilling compared to a decade ago when you needed to have at least 3 sails rigged to still be able to control your gear when circumstances changed a little. The influence of Formula can clearly be felt and speeds and control on big boards have risen dramatically over the years. Check out my logs on www.gps-speedsurfing.com
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Maui Monthly | Our Experience Your Reward no. 27. July 2007
What a killer July for Barry. Rewards were everywhere. Big time racing at it’s best paid back all our hard work, and Kevin and Taty’s, with powerful placings that delivered the message that we have what it takes to win and still have a good time. Even though our work on Maui was focused on the recreational MS-2, Pursuit and Aloha, there has still been time to make some progress on TR-4 evolution as a result of feedback from the racing. Locally, there have been two more series at Kanaha where Phil, Mike Yasak, and Baker Grant have excelled, making it fun to watch and take notes on shape and trim. After twenty three years, the Maui Slalom Series still brings a good crowd and there is never a shortage of cheering families on the beach. Now there are parents who used to race rooting for their teen-age kids. Regarding all the racing, it is very exciting to see the success of the slalom format in the PWA. They have excellent TV coverage now, and the quality of the racing has been exceptional. This is the full action format I have always maintained would be a success, and now that the boards and sails can bring them to a competitive race level with lighter than normal wind, there is a good chance that we will see lots of development in the whole tour based on this. The biggest benefit will be to bring this level of sailing to anyone who owns that equipment. For good or bad, the choice to race on production gear, locked in for a year, will make better than average boards for the market and even out the racing so that it will be harder for big money to dominate. And we have seen the first real demonstration of how good this racing can be. Look for more races in good places that were marginal before this change, but now have a much better chance of delivering a full round of racing.
Maui, Hawaiian Islands
July for Phil. Slalom was the word for the month. We had three Maui Slalom series in July including the final event which is the Hawaii State Championships, sponsored by www. bikinithatwork.com. I had a successful season winning the county series in both the Pro division and 40-49 age group. In the State Championships completed last weekend it was a nail biting finish in the Pro division with myself and Matt Pritchard going head to head all the way down to the final race, with Matt getting away from me at the start, so I ended up second in the Pro division. In my age group I put the finishing touches to a dominating season by beating the ever present Mike Yasik and Alex Aguera. It’s also time for freeride development again so we have been working frantically on the MS2, Pursuit and Aloha. So far all the small changes are feeling good and we look forward to cleaning up the designs ready for a September production run.
And I get to count another year. Sixty-one will do this time around. Aloha Barry
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