Point 7 Black mag 6 zero18

BLACK MAG POINT-7 WINDSURFING DARKSIDE MAGAZINE-issue tfo zero18_

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Ri RICARDO CAMPELLO| #p7blackteam | SPY Ph FISHBOWLDIARIES

FREERIDE SAIL CHOICE !

WHY COMPETING?

TIP OF THE MONTH: MAST FOOT POSITIONING ITW: FULYA UNLU& TOOMAS PERTEL

DEVELOPMENT Where it starts

INFO@POINT-7.COM

SERVICE WE GET BACK TO YOU IN NO TIME WITH ALL ANSWERS YOU NEED

ASK US: • ANY ADVICE • ANY TECH INFO • ANY SPARE PART • ANYTHING TO MAKE SURE THAT NO OTHER BRAND WILL EXIST FOR YOU!

Andrea Cucchi ITA-1

Season is on and our Black Team is super busy travelling, developing, trimming sails to our clients, competing and windsurfing as much as possible!

I’m very happy that our Black Team went strong in the PWA World Tour. Lena Erdil came second in the PWA slalom final ranking with our racing AC-One sail. Bruno Martini has successfully managed to show that he can be between the top riders if he focuses on the racing.

I personally won my 14° Italian title, so I’m away from 13!

Remember to come and join us at Walchensee. You don’t have a Black Sail, well come anyway to have fun…but don’t tell anyone I have invited you personally ;).

Enjoy summer as much as we are doing!

DON’T WORRY, WE WILL NOT CHANGE OU

UR NAME!

POINT-7 4 EVER!

DON’T GET IN

HIS WAY

ACONEzero18

19 sides Avarage speed over 50kmh

First weekend of July, the famous legendary race on Lake Garda took place once again: THE ONE HOUR CLASSIC.

It’s about having to slalom sail from one side of the lake to the other for 2.6km, jibe and back, for one hour.

120 people took part at the event. Full fleet rabbit start drag racing. Bruno Martini took his big gap to the rest of the fleet and won without leaving any doubts on who is the new King of the Lake. Leaving behind in second position Malte Reuscher and Matteo Iachino.

Bruno Martini on his Point-7 AC-1 8.6 has broken the record! Averaging a speed of 50km/h with 19 sides of the lake run, and 19 jibes. Just think about your top speed, and think that Bruno held that kind of average, if he went straight from mark to mark, and on top of that, including the jibing!

Another top 5 results from our Team, came from our boss, with a 4th place.

Andrea Cucchi was holding second position for over 40minutes, but later started losing speed. He was on a smaller size gear than the top 3, and the wind had dropped a bit, or he was either getting tired!

Andrea Cucchi: ‘We are proud of Bruno. After the event of PWA second amazing result in an international event. Another young talen our Point-7 Black Team through our AC-One racing program. Seeing B One dominating on our home territory grounds, in such an import strong emotions. We hope that it’s the start of the next step for Bruno Windsurfer, and that this important result will push up his confidence to There can’t be many doubts now on which sail cruises the fastest fro other! Isn’t this w

The record was not broken for many years from the 90’s, till Alberto Menegatti on his Point-7, took the record away from Alessandro Comerlati. The record was later beaten by Matteo Iachino also on Point-7, and this year Bruno Martini smashed it with 19 laps. The race was in Memorial of our beloved ‘Alberto Menegatti’, where his family had honoured the event with a very special Trophy, which will have the name of the winner from each year.

This edition, thanks to the work done from the Circolo Surf Torbole and the local wind, was one of the most epic editions.

no one was expecting. I chose my medium board and the 8.6 AC-One from Point-7. Thanks to this perfect combo, I was able to shoot out from the pack and lead the race for the whole hour. It has been amazing to share the finish line with my friends’

…in the momeory of Alberto Menegatti, ITA

LENA ERDIL TUR 33

SLALOM VICE WORLD CHAMPION 2018

EFPT FUERTEVENTURA

WINNER 2018 YENTEL CAERS BEL 16

ANDREACUCCHI

ITALIAN SLALOM CHaMPION! 2018

LET’S

WE WANT TO MAKE IT BIGGER THAN WHAT IT IS AND HAS BEEN TILL NOW! WE NEED YOU!

Join us!!!

Join us!!!

Join us!!!

Saturaday Night FULL POWER OR NOTHING!

#

dareto

STANDOUT

MONTHLY NEWS

POINT-7 Fin Stash

Purpose built using the best quality materials to keep your slalom or freeride fins safe and sound whilst not sailing. Utilizing 10 compartments which can fit up to 15 individual fins, the padded bag features a conveniently located top handle for easy transport and a top compartment zipper allowing full view of the fin heads to make fin selection easier.

•One top zipper for easy size reading on the fin bases.

•1 padded carry handle.

•10 compartments fitting up to 15 fins.

•Optimized shape needing less space for fin

POINT-7 Back Pack

A great companion to support your summer needs where ever you go!

Click on the image to get it now!

• • • • • •

Size: 33 x 20 x 49cm – 0,8kg Laptop and tablet pockets.

Multi accessory pockets.

Large central compartment.

Cold drink pocket.

Lateral multi purpose pockets.

POINT-7 Uphaul • • •

Soft comfortable grip One Size for all sails Stylish & Elegant

LAST CHECK BEFORE PRODUCTION……

Our chief developer makes recent trips to our production facilities to stay up to date with production processes and the natural evolution of our sails.

Here are a few words from his recent trip.

By Andrea Cucchi

As every year, I need to go to check the production of the new sails which will be in your hands after few months. The sails are already tested, and all the details are put the way they are wanted. Still before you start producing hundreds of sails from the same size, it’s good to have a last double check, and to do it with factory who will produce them.

This May, like every year I flew to Sri Lanka, and this is when you hear everyone telling you, ‘oh you are so lucky’. Well, after 10 years of going there, I have seen only the airport, the Eskimo villa where I stay, the 500m road to drive to the factory and the factory! So, no surfing, windsurfing, trekking, tourism, relaxing in a nice hotel beach front…no… nothing of this.

It’s more like 80 sails waiting for you, to be rigged more times in kind of hot and humid climate and setting around each sail at least 20 to 30 minutes. You could say easy 3-4 days work non-stop. A check list on your hand with all the details to check. From simply the graphics, the technical details to print on the sails, meaning the boom and mast settings. Of course, cam rotation, cam spacing, opening of the leach, profile, battens, and all the feedback of points clients have asked to have inserted in the product, and many other points. It’s another job where the focus is important, and at the end of the day you are pretty much tired. It takes a small distraction to forget to check on detail. Rigging so many sails without going windsurfing, can be frustrating for a windsurfer, and therefore the focus can be lost. Plus, while you rig the sail, you start dreaming of new visions for the product, so you need to revert your thought to what must be done in that moment for the production, including packaging, moulds, and all which goes around the product.

LAST CHECK BEFORE PRODUCTION……

LAST CHECK BEFORE PRODUCTION……

Going to the factory is also a time that you can open your mind to new ideas while talking to the different production department, as in the meanwhile they could have integrated new technology or new production standards which could allow new construction or new details, which were not possible the year before.

There are than the commercial sides of the visit, which are like fighting to keep the cost of the equipment low! It’s a tough one and we are not always winners on this!

It’s always a pleasant visit when visiting our suppliers as you really build up a team relationship where we all work for the same goal. We don’t like to feel like being clients for our suppliers, but we like to feel partners working together on the same mission, which is to have our clients enjoy the products we develop and produce.

Making sure they have the best fun on the water with no other thought.

THIS IS FREERIDE AT POINT-7!

We have often discussed the differences between Slalom sails. How about freeride sails?

Freeride sails are sails which are not taken into competition, and freeriding is what most windsurfers do. It’s not about being a beginner but going for the pleasure of pure free windsurfing.

The real feeling of hearing the water hitting against the board in smooth way, in total control and in fast easy feeling. Inserting some quick chop hop, fast planning basic manoeuvres as jibing, duck-jibing and for those who like a bit of competition, also a little blast to overtake the friend.

...what does The real holiday feel windsurfing can give, that you almost forget when you are a tester, a pro windsurfer in the dedicated disciplines as wave, freestyle or slalom. When our team test the freeride gear, they come back to the beach almost happier than when they win a competition. They have big smiles, and say, ‘this was fun!’ It’s relaxing and taking our all the stress you might accumulate in a working week!

freeride mean?

Freeride is very general as a word in our sport. As said before it means, mainly to cruise. You can although decide to cruise super-fast, cruise along the chop or cruise around the waves, or play with basic manoeuvres.

When we look at the sail range, we often see lots of new words to describe the freeride world in windsurfing. Starting from the very basic freeride, then free-move, free-wave, free-slalom, crossover, ‘bump and jump’.

What are the difference between these words? What exactly do they mean? In our sail range you can find different types of freeride sails to fit the fun of everyone. You can decide to free-slalom in light wind, you can decide to ‘bump and jump’ in medium wind, or free-wave in stronger wind, or do one of those in all type of winds.

In our range we have the Spy which is a free-wave sail. It’s generally a wave sail with the extra power and stability. They are mainly designed with a 5-batten set up.

These sails are also a best choice if our wave level is not very high, (wave level very high, means not doing 360° or new school moves on the lip of a big wave). The Spy is loved also from heavy sailors, or if we use a wave sail for strong wind cruising and going for big fast long jumps, this is still the one. The classical bump and jump sail.

These sails can be used on smaller free ride board as well. In our case, the Spy is given to be one of the fastest wave sails on the market, with the purpose to hit hard any ramp and go high. It’s mainly a freeride sail, with blended bit of slalom influence for having the extra speed, with the outline and batten displacement as wave sail.

A freeride sail, often, along its range, can change its character according to the size. Take for example our AC-F. The 3 smaller sizes have a 5-batten set up and a wave outline and can be more called as Free-Move. As these are freeride sails, they have more power than wave sails, and they can plane in very light wind and even push a bigger volume board. This is due to different batten set up and longer booms. It’s great for cruising fully in a comfortable situation and at a same time, if you find a wave, it will welcome you to the experience. The 2 bigger sizes are having a more slalom outline with 6-batten set up, and they are more under the name of Free-Slalom. Made to fully close the gap but keeping the real freeride fast experience. Therefore, our AC-F is called crossover, more than simply freeride

Free-Slalom before, has now taken a new name due to their higher performance.

Mainly called nowadays, Slalom no Cams, like our AC-X! These are free ride sail with an extra batten, and a more slalom outline. If you want to get that extra speed to challenge anyone, without having the hassle of having a too technical slalom sail.

The profile and mast sleeve curve allow to have a very friendly use while sailing. The sail has a lot of power, and you do not need a bigger sail size to get planning as a real slalom sail requires, but you will still require a little more wind against a pure free-slalom or crossover sail explained before. These are a good on slalom, free slalom and free ride boards.

These 3 types of sails mentioned till now, can have the same size and be used on the same boards. It can be still a hard choice to choose between them, but not if you considered this:

Free-wave VS Free-move: Free-wave has a shorter boom, and therefore fits better on a smaller board. This allows to have more control in stronger wind and be more radical. They are normally also more reinforced. The free-move has a longer boom, to push bigger boards. If you have the same size from both sails, the Free-move will have more power to get planning, and due to the batten displacement, it will gain in a light fast feeling against the more hardcore Free-wave, but will be slower for quick moves, bulkier for riding waves.

Free-Slalom VS Slalom No cam. It’s mainly about wind range and speed. If you use the Free-slalom in the same size of a No cam, it will plane a little easier in the same wind, but it will feel more comfortable when the wind is not so powerful inside, while a no cam will be still seeking for the extra gust to express it’s potential. It will be more automatic and a more forgiving feeling against a pure no cam slalom sail. As the wind increases, a free-slalom will get not get to the same max speed as the No cam and will be needed to go to a smaller size also earlier.

SALT PRO 2018

PATRICK VIGOUROUX 1 Spot: marseille PH: Jean-William EVEREST

NO CAM V

It’s often thought that rigging a sail with cams can be a big hassle.

Well, without the right technique it’s not a big hassle, but it’s hell! With the right technique, a sail without cams can be the nightmare against a cam sail.

What you lose in time to insert the cams in a cam sail, you get it back in the time you take to insert the mast. Same when de-rigging.

When you never wanted to buy a sail with cams, because it might have taken too long to rig, well… check the video and decide for yourself.

CLICK ON IMAGE

RIGG

VS

CAM

ING

MAST FOOT POSITIONING Lots of top riders can almost see the correct positioning of the mast foot by looking at the board from the side. Still the best to get the sweet spot for the positioning of your mast foot comes from jumping on the water and testing it out.

FRONT | LESS POWER Going straight to the point, there are 2 aspects. •

If you are overpowered and you have problems in control, move the mast foot forward.

•

If you need more power more acceleration, move your mast foot backwards.

From where do we need to adjust more forward or more backwards?

Simple! From where you have your mast foot at that moment! There is not one perfect position for the mast foot, but this varies according to the conditions there are, your weight, how the sail pushes on the board, and many other aspects. The positioning will be more or less always the same, but by changing even 1cm its place, you will be surprised how much extra comfort or power you will get!

BACK | MORE POWER

So how does it work if we have a new board? NO! Dont copy from your friend who has your same board! He could be stronger, 20KG more heavy, have a different sail and fin, so you need to test it out yourself! Its quite simple to find the correct position. Put the mast track in the middle of the mast box, and jump on the water and start testing!

Once you are planning and you feel the following: •

the nose of the board lifts up

•

it`s difficult to close the sail on the deck of the board

•

the front foot is going out from the front foot strap

•

you do a lot of spin outs

•

the fin goes too much side ways

This means that your mast foot is too further back, you have too much power, and therefore you need to move it forward. How much forward? Does half a cm change our life? Yes it does! If it is the first time you try the board you might move the mast track 1cm so that you feel more the difference in extra comfort to eliminate the points we mentioned above. If the problem are not yet solved, move the mast track again another 1cm, and keep on advancing it till you completelly don`t feel anymore the above points. Once you feel comfortable you have reached the right position for the mast track, and if you like, move it half a cm more back.... this way you go to the perfect position if you feel like it`s that touch better!

In case you feel that: •

the board does not accelarate and feels heavy on the water

•

does not go upwind

•

you don`t get enough power on the fin

•

you feel slow

•

you feel like you are not doing any sports as everything is too easy

..the solution is simple, move the mast track back again by 1cm at the time, till you feel that you get more power, performance and speed for that condition, without getting to the point where you start losing control!

It`s important not to confuse that strong wind needs the mast track forward, light wind needs the mast track backwards. It can be strong wind, but if the water is flat compared to a wavy condition in lighter wind, you might find out that you can actually use the mast track further back even if it is easier. So go on the water, and don`t be lazy to test out new position till you don`t reach the point where you have the most power and control compromise.

The result of finding the perfect spot for the mast foot, should be to get to a point where the board is flying over the chop and waves, without touching, a nice constant pressure on the fin, with a bit of power on the back leg, but still a nice comfortable stance. The nose of the board should not get lifted but stay easy over the water and from hitting the waves. In case you feel that from time to time the nose of the board gets lifted move that half a cm of the mast track a little forward.

Same sail, fin, person on a flat water service could you use the mast track even 5cm more backwards against a conditions where you have chop and 2/3m swell and strong wind.

This is why you should not focus in a having only one position for your mast foot, but to open your mind to have at least 3 places to position it according to the conditions.

When you find them, mark them with a felt tape directly on the board, so that you wont lose time each time. Maybe you might need to adjust it again more times, but at least you will go more or less to the right place at first shot.

Remember that the mast track position is also working with the boom height. As we explained in the article in the last issue, lowering the boom gives more control, highering the boom more power. Mast track positioning and boom height are very connected for the adjustaments. So these are to things that you can play about to find the right compromise for max power and control of your gear.

SALT PRO 2018

PATRICK VIGOUROUX 2 Spot: marseille PH: Jean-William EVEREST

WHY CO

Did you ever ask your self why you would like to go to a windsurfing competition event, or why people do? We do a free sport surrounded by nature, but some people ike to lock themselves between some marks, stress out on timing whether it’s for a start in slalom or if it’s a heat in wave.

he answer is being competitive and for sure to prove yourself against others, just ike in any other sport, business, or challenge in life.

MPETING…

Events are what competitive athletes live for. They are the highlights of our season and what we prepare for mentally and physically while we are not competing. Events are the moment where we get to show what we got and measure ourselves against the best riders of the world! I love racing, but at PWA events you know you need to perform and that the female racing level is so high that no sail mistakes will be forgiven. The added adrenaline and pressure at events is a special feeling that can’t be compared to anything else. My expectations to myself is to perform the best I can and show what I got no matter what the conditions. Another priority for me is to enjoy it! Whenever I get stressed I remind myself how much I love racing and to really enjoy the process of racing and all that comes with it!

A big part from going to events is seeing all your friends there, and that makes you motivated and ready! I like to compete for the rush and adrenaline to keep pushing yourself to the next level and battling for that only 1 highest spot number one! From events I expect, or maybe hope, is that I want WIND!... ‌but also, to be well organized for riders. It can be really stressy if there are some useless issues which make riders lose focus. For the rest I usually have a lot of fun at events.

I go to event for to do my best and discover myself until I will win. I don't aspect anything from the event, I just expect something from myself.

I just love the challenge of pushing myself against others. I´ve no always handled getting beaten or overtaken very well, but its a part of competition and it teaches you a lot about being upfront with yourself and strengthening your weaknesses.

The competition aspect along with traveling, I believe, has given me lots of tools to handle different situations in life very well along with teaching me to work more structured towards goals.

I´ve learned to use my hands to build, repair, screw and so on. In the end, windsurfing and competing is a part of my life, and has been for a while. I enjoy it, and even in times where I´m not succesful, I look ahead at the next challenge.

I always think I’m not competitive, but in the end, I am. Therefore, I like going to events. I was thinking that I started competing because it was a natural step, a way to earn money, but main reason was that it gave me the chance to windsurf as much as possible. This was most important as I love windsurfing. I don’t feel like I need to win to enjoy the event, but I need to do my best and I hate when I do mistakes or do bad.

I don’t hate losing, but I hate not trying hard during them. The feeling to do good is addictive.

The friends you create on tour and around the world are unique. It gives a chance to travel the world without being a proper tourist and visit places with a goal. I think in everything I do I feel like a need an exam at the end. This is the event.

Goals and fun. I start not liking events when I see that things are not run professionally. At that point, after many years, I don’t mind pulling out if I’m not having fun, and already start thinking at the next.

The main thing for me regarding going to an event is to achieve my personal goals if these events have a counting result. I like the competitive feeling. I enjoy a lot. The preparation before the races and giving my best out there, is a very good feeling when everything goes well. If the event is more promotional for the brand I'm sponsored I also like it, because I can show people the products I'm sponsored, talk about them and help other people. See them than happy using my same equipment. I expect to do my best in each way, for me and for the brand. It's satisfying!!

I like to go to the event because I can fight with people who have my same goal: 1st place. Windsurfing is a really nice sport with good spirit. Even in higher level championships, we are all having fun, and this is the most important thing. I expect to do my best and learn on every mistake and try not to repeat them again!

SALT PRO 2018

PATRICK VIGOUROUX 3 Spot: Marseille PH: Jean-William EVEREST

NEW RDM HEAd

140 CARBON+

CLICK ON IMAGE

HOW DOES OUR DEVELOPMENT WoRK

It’s often that sails which are presented on magazines are existing only as a graphical drawing. The real sail does not yet exist. Just as new car designs are presented.

From seeing the image only, the beach talk is a spreading news: ‘Have you seen the new sail, it looks like it’s more powerful, it has a longer boom, ...yes I like it, I heard it’s very light. Just like when unrolling a new sail on the beach, everyone gathers around to comment, specially in no wind days. ‘The sail has good reinforcements’… a lot of comments which are very interesting, but the only thing that could eventually be really commented are printed sizes on the tack and structure. Sometimes the sail could also look the same, but there is so much work behind each millimetre, that it will make the sail different on the water. Yes, millimetres can make a sail feel good or bad! Till the sail does not hit the water, it’s hard to understand how it really performs.

A brand-new sail which is being un rolled in front of the buyer’s feet, has actually been rigged and tested a lot of times from the sail brand test team. Which process has the proto been through, to actually become the final production sail? the beach talk of the day, the product that will bring extreme fun to our windsurfing?

Generally, the development mainly starts from the client requests or rider request depending on the sail model. That is why different sail lines exist for 1 single discipline, giving different choices, according to the technical level of the windsurfer, power, spot where he will mainly use the sail, and board he will use with it. On top of this routine development, there are some longer time projects, which are made to bring innovation to windsurfing and a new challenge for the clients.

The development is continuous. The only enemy which blocks it is the date that the sail will need to enter the production. Once they are in production, the next day the development team, is already testing and designing the sail for the year after. Practically when the new sails are available, the ones for the year after are almost ready. Generally, the sails are developed in different periods of the year according to the type of sail.

Generally, the test team would never feel like putting in production a sail, as there are always new things to try and improve. It’s a good motivation which bring the windsurfing industry to have a non-stop research and development business, to guarantee always new products and performance each year.

The main testing period for the race sails is late summer. You wait to receive feedback from the riders racing, and results. Once the sail has been on the race course the picture is clear on what might need to be improved. From there the deadline is the middle of December. For the wave sails the main testing time is the winter. The windiest period. Starting in November till April.

As the race sails are finished, the freeride, free-race are starting their development till May. Having development breaks between the different sail lines is very useful. This allows to lose the feeling of a sail line, so when you get back after a while you really feel what is there to be changed, or not to be changed!

Starting with the new year development.

The first step is to sit down between the marketing\sales director, sail designer, testers, riders and comments received from the clients. A real brain storm is brought out underlining what to change, what not to change, and what could be missing in the line. Therefore, the highlights are mainly on whether to make extra sizes, where to change the performance of the sails, boom lengths, materials, colours, tensions, battens…. It’s a very important phase for the sail designer to understand more where to start putting his hands on his software and start his modifies. Before that there were of course lots of hours with the products on the water.

To choose the name of a sail line could be already a difficult choice. Till the sail is not seen on the water it’s hard to find its name. Often the ideas come when you see them on the water.

Getting Ready!

For each size and line, the first detail to choose is which mast will need the sail to be cut on. That’s why it’s having the right mast is an important feature to receive a 100% integrated rig efficiency.

According to the feedback all details are available for the sail designer to start making the first changes.

Once the outline has been developed by the sail designer, the graphic designer starts putting down the new look of the sails choosing different colours and materials.

The choice of the material is extremely important.

They can give the top performance and dynamics to the sail. They need to be light, durable, anti-uv, beautiful and need to be placed in the right spots to secure the sail structure. It’s important

that the sail designer keeps track of the graphics scheme to advise the graphic designer what is possible to do and better to avoid having the sail built as close as bomb proof. The graphics need to adapt on each sail line as it’s not just into scale the changes to be made, as clew and boom opening are fixed points. Therefore, the test team need to test each size in it’s range and the sail designer change the sail characteristic according to the intensity of wind it will be used in.

Once the sails have been designed on the computer files, the sail is ready to be cut by the plotters. Some brands are cutting the protos in their development centre, but other, like in our case, are getting the protos cut by the same company which will build the production sails. This second case is excellent to check if there would be any problems in the production product and to make sure that the prototype tested will result to be exactly the same as the production. A great check procedure to make sure that the sail is well reinforced, the production has no problem to integrate any innovation on the product, the colour combinations and prints are the desired ones... A real medical check up!

Once the files are sent to the production company mainly in China or Srilanka, it will be 2 weeks the time to receive the prototypes. If a sail designer would need to cut a sail himself, it would take at least 3-5 days per size. During the 2-week period the production company is able to supply over 30 prototypes and with the possibility to have the quality checked as explained above.

Before all this, the management is organizing the material to be used in the production sails. It’s hard work as the exclusive material, colours… all need to be ordered some months in advance and a great planning needs to be done. Is not always simple to make all this fit into good timing. The material samples are tested on the different prototypes to check the durability and dynamic effect on the performance of the sail. Most of the sail material is made in Japan and US.

Coloured monofilm can be 5 times more expensive then the transparent monofilm but allows to resist much better to UV-Rays. This is why on our sails we do use only this material everywhere allowing the sail to last longer in the sun.

Every brand has their trade mark regarding on water performance. So once the sails arrive, the testers need to get on the water and remember to make those trade marks fit to each line. In our case we try to offer powerful sails which do release a lot of power when the wind picks up. This to offer a great wind range to the sails, and therefore the chance to invest in less sizes on the quiver. To help this the sails need to be very balanced, light while sailing and slightly soft for the extra comfort. In each sail line different characteristics are thereafter implemented to be able to hit the target of what the client is looking for in that sail typology.

The arrival of the prototypes.

In Point-7 we are always lucky. As the sails arrive the right wind is there for getting on the water and testing them. As we open the boxes with the new sails inside the excitement is big! Everyone is quite as if it would be a kid opening a gift on Christmas. It’s always strong to see the result of a lot of team work put together. The graphics designer tries to pick up what could look better seen in real, and the sail designer can’t wait to see the sail rigged…. the tester can’t wait to take the sail out from their hands and feel them in the wind, but in our company everyone is windsurfing actively, so everyone just want to get on the water with them!! On the first test day it’s always a bit of panic happening as everyone feels that all the sail need to get on the water. It’s like a big rush which needs to be cooled down!

After un packing the sails, the first step is anyhow to rig each size to check if everything is done as to project. The mast, boom lengths are taken, and the graphics designer takes pictures to compare to his software art work.

Testing on water.

Our sail loft is 100m from water and wind. Sails and boards are brought to the beach, and each testing day is a long day in the wetsuit. New sail against old sail. That is the rule to go ahead. After 200m it’s already clear at what level the new sail is. After few runs on the new sails, new trims are tested till the correct one is found. Once this is done, the testers switch sails and repeat the comparison. The masts are switched on the sails to make sure that all outside factors which could give differences are deleted. While testing the testers do not share their opinion. It’s all written down on paper, in order that the feelings on the equipment are not being biased. In our case, our sail designer, Andrea Cucchi, is on the water even more than our riders for the testing of gear and is therefore testing personally. He can push the products to extreme, and his racing results confirm this. It’s a pretty good advantage to have this opportunity. This way the riders the clients can speak a very easy language for Andrea to understand their needs and their wishes.

Everything tested gets written down. Visual changes, positive and negative comments and all possible feedback. Normally when comparing the feedback of each tester, they all come to the same conclusion. From there Andrea writes down what needs to be modified, and the sails are immediately washed and dried out from salty water and sand. As testing day is over, and over 20 rigs have been rigged in a day, even 8-10 hours in the wetsuits, Andrea and his team starts modifying the sails even till early in the morning from late evening. Specially if the forecast for the next day is good.

Once all the sails are modified to work as desired, then they enter a second phase of testing. They start to be tested out of their wind range, and board target. We bring cambered sails into big waves to get washed, wave sails on flat water to feel them on freeride boards. The sail from the different lines are tested against each other to understand better also for us the differences, and if we can learn new things which can be implemented from the different sail lines. We do test our sails with different masts and mast carbon % content. It’s very important work for us to do, also to then be able to advise at best our clients, their best sail choice through our customer care service. So once the client is interested in a sail size and model, according to the explanation on where he is sailing, the board he is using, weight, and other information he will give us, we can advice him at best what would fit him. It’s very appreciated till now by our clients.

As a lot of chances are made to one sail size, then the sail designer decides to make a new file and send it to the sail producer, in order to have a new sail done with all implemented changes. This procedure is done also to all the sizes for double checking before entering production. Once the production time gets closer, the final check up is done to the entire range, the final sizes of the boom and mast are taken.

All the little details are taken under examination to be sure that the work is perfect.

While all this work is done on the sail, on the other hand also the mast producer tries to bring in innovation to the mast which would fit the request of the testers, in order to bring a higher end performance integrated rig.

Production!

As the tests are ended, a trip to the sail manufacturer is a must. This is to bring a better-quality check, make sure that there are no problems during the production.

Once the production is done, the sail designer and its team are already taking back new prototypes Ï‌.and it’s just a real non-stop development!

Some sail testing can even take one year. Some sails are shipped out to the different team riders to be tested in very different conditions and different windsurfing styles.

This to give a good chance to the product to express itself in every condition, in every style. A chance to hammer the product to check its durability and correct any weak points. A real chance to get to know what you offer to the market: a real development, a real tested quality product.

The worse enemy to the development? The deadlines to get the photo-shooting done for catalogues and websites, the costs for the price lists, and be ready for the presentation at the first exhibitions. Therefore, organization in development is very important. In Point-7, if it does not get tested and proved by our squad, and the deadline is around the corner, it does not enter production. Therefore, any of our products available are guaranteed tested product and we will be happy with our team to advice the best choice.

SALT PRO 2018

PATRICK VIGOUROUX 4 Spot: Marseille PH: Jean-William EVEREST

The Point-7

Girls corner

Fulya Unlu, is one of the Turkish girls from our Black Team. Why we say one?

Because Point-7 is also having Lena Erdil, and Cagla Kubat in their racing team. In Turkey there are a lot of slalom riders and good riders as the spots they have are windy, warm and fun for slalom sailing. They have amazing structures, and lots of windsurfers.

FULYA UNLU

How did you get into windsurfing?

In 2007, I started windsurf in Alacati. We bought a summer house at there and my father wanted to visit the surf paradise and we went there. Then I saw this unique sport first time in my life and I was very impressed. Then we talked a windsurf club and I began.

Where are you training normally, and do you live there?

In winter, I live in Izmir and I'm training in Urla my club (Goztepe Sport Club) in there and we have very good courses for training and different conditions' can improve myself in there. Sometimes I go to the Alacati especially in winter times. Strong south wind comes and it’s a lot of fun.

Your best Result till now?

My best results are; I won 4 times Youth World Champion title and in 2015 I managed to take 3rd place in PWA Korea.

Do you also work or study, or are you just windsurfing full time? No:( Unfortunately I can’t train full time because of school. I'm an university student and now I passed the 3rd class so next year the last year of school. l’m training at the weekend and some holidays in winter the other days I go to the school.

How many days a week do you train, and what other activities do you do for that?

It changes in winter I'm training 2-3 days in a week ( lf there is windy) in summer all windy days. Also I do other activities for supporting and improving my sport. Such as fitness, running, biking, swimming..

What are your favourite conditions? l like to sail at strong wind conditions:) What is the relationship with the other girls from the black team? Do you train with them? l like all of them. We can talk and communicate easily and very well. We share too much things during the racing or training times. Yes we are training together. Sometimes I'm training with Cagla. We can’t meet with Lena in Turkey just in Turkish League we can sail together because we live in different places.

You have been now in the first 2 PWA events. How did it go for you? Which event did you prefer and why? First event was okay. I feel very good and fast. In Japan I could show my power and managed to race well. But in Korea I couldn’t race good because I didn’t train at this condition so I couldn’t prepare and select my equipment correctly. The condition was like Tenerife. There was a lot of advantage for who was training in Tenerife. But it is okay we have one more race and stay focus for it.

How was it to be 2 weeks on tour. You had in the end 4 days of wind out of 20 your were there. What do you do in non-windy days. Did you manage to do any other activity or a bit of tourism in between? Yes it typically Far East situation. We raced only 4 days and other days I went around, visited historical places and tested some traditional foods:) What do you see different between the Korean and Japanese culture? For me Japanese culture I think a little bit near the Turkish culture. I could find foods easily.

Their foods are okay for me. But yeah, Korean meals made me a little bit force and I lost weight in there. But anyway I like both of the countries people and their good hospitality.

After these 2 events you will have the third event in Portugal. What will be your plan before the event? Your goal for this year? The last days for going to Portugal and last event of Pwa for the girls in 2018.I want to do and achieve my best and have good races. So I'm focus for the event.

The OUTLET Looking for spares, for a good deal? Jump on our outlet store to find out more! Do not forget that we are always available for technical advice your windsurfing needs!

info@point-7.com

If you think you have passion, well meet Mr Passion! Toomas Pertel is our Point-7 distributor from Estonia. It’s wavy? He will be out wavesailing, it’s not wavy? He will be out slalom sailing. It’s cold…meaning freezing cold?

If it’s windy he will crash the ice to go on the water!

TOOMAS PERTEL Distribution

‘To me Point-7 is windsurfing. And it’s all about windsurfing. It’s the passion or obsession for windsurfing if you will.

I feel like we are part of it instead of being a business tool. We have grown together and the connections has become tighter and tighter. I try to share the same feeling to all the Point-7 friends in Estonia as well. We are a Team, the Black Team!.’’

Hi Toomas, you are one of those distributors who are not giving up any minute to windsurfing if it’s windy. How did you get into windsurfing, and why you decided to become involved in the industry?

I got the very first taste of windsurfing back in 2005, when my high school classmate Margus came to Hiiumaa during his Summer vacation and he had his beginners windsurfing kit with him. Obviously I wanted to try it and after long time of just uphauling the sail I got to windsurf for 200-300m or so. I was hooked. And even though I didn’t windsurf any more that year, in 2006 I bought a second hand kit and it escalated from there. I made quite quick progress during the next couple of years, mostly due to my stubbornness. I always used boards too small for my skill level so i always had to learn a new skill quickly to be able to enjoy it. I was using 103L board by the end of the 2006 and switched it to 94L next year. It was fun to bump and jump, but at some point it all became stagnant. My main hobby at that time was actually music and I played guitar in couple of bands. Windsurfing was somewhat in the background. I still windsurfed 20-30 sessions a year, but it was kind of superficial. In 2013 I was a part of the organizing team of Estonian wave competition and some kind of switch went on. It was so inspiring that suddenly I wanted to become a better windsurfer and start wave sailing at some point. At that time I was making 10% of jibes on starboard tack only, port tack jibes were something of science fiction. So I decided to search for some winter destinations where to participate in some kind of clinic. I found some info about Tenerife online and decided to go there for a couple of weeks. My buddy Peeter joined me and so we went. We were fortunate to meet with Musso and even get a couple of lessons from him and it was a major boost to our motivation. The whole Black Team was training in Tenerife at the same time and Jordy was actually working at TWS centre. So we got to know the brand a bit more and after coming back home we decided that why not take this adventure a step further. The most impressive factor was the Team based mentality and that’s what got us.

You sail in every condition and in every time it’s windy. Looks like Estonia is a windy place. How are the spots there, and how many people like you also sail in the cold winter you have in your area?

Last year I had about 150 sessions in Estonia so i guess you could say it’s a windy country, especially if you have the slalom gear. I’m living on the island called Hiiumaa. We have plenty of spots here for all the disciplines, but the most magical spot is obviously Ristna. Most probably it’s the best wave spot in Baltic Sea. It works with so many wind directions and with S-SSW winds it’s perfect port tack side-off shore. When it’s firing, people from Finland, Latvia, Lithuania etc. come here to ride the waves. I guess conditions wise you can compare it to Klitmöller. Regarding waves, there’s another very good spot called Vääna on North shore of mainland Estonia. But it works only in side-on direction. For slalom and bump’n jump conditions we have a ton of different excellent spots all around the country, i just wish there were much much more windsurfers to take advantage of all the goodies nature is providing us.

Most seasons we can windsurf for about 8-10 months a year but it includes Nov/Dec and Mar/Apr when the temperatures are way below 10 degrees, very often just 2-3 degrees. Add a bit of windchill and it’s freezing. And this is actually too cold for most people. It’s a huge challenge to go and battle in waves in 2-3 degrees. We wear thick wetsuits, thick boots, gloves, hoods etc. and it demands quite a lot physically. And the brain freeze hurts like hell when you get washed not to mention how fast you lose the energy when you’re swimming. As i said, it’s a huge challenge but when you hit that lip at the most critical time and ride out of it, makes it all worth it.

You are also organize events in Estonia. How are you involved and how many people turn up?

I think that the event we are most proud of is the Ristna Wave Classic. It’s a wave competition for Estonian Championships and Fun Wave which is for “Pro’s” and “Amateurs” respectively.

I think the best turnout was back in 2015 when we had 15 competitors in Championships and 8 in Fun Wave. But we do a few other events as well such as FUN Race series Hiiumaa stage where the average attendance is about 30 people, the season opener together with one hour race with about 10 people. During 20082014 we did the Hiiusurf windsurfing camp. It was a super nice event and the latest years over 400 people were there attending It started out as a small event between our own club and a group of friends and grew into the huge event. That was actually the main reason we stopped, it became more like work and less like having fun with friends. For us windsurfing is all about fun.

In addition we are trying to do as much as possible to developed the windsurfing in our country. We are proud sponsors of Estonian Slalom series.

And we are sponsoring and supporting a few young and very talented riders and trying to help them to reach the PWA level. From this year I'm the responsible board member for slalom in Estonian Windsurfing Association board. So I guess you could say I have quite a bit of windsurfing related stuff on my plate You travel a lot also for windsurfing and you also always take a group of friends with you. Which are the places you run away too?

To be honest, I don’t travel that much for windsurfing as i get to windsurf at home for almost 10 months. But ever since the first Tenerife trip back in 2014 it has become kind of an annual tradition to go there for about 2 weeks. The first year there was just two of us. The second year it was already 6 people and the year after 13. So more and more friends wanted to join the trip and it actually makes it much more fun. El Medano has kind of become our winter home, you know every corner and every locale. Lately I have been thinking about other destinations as well but it’s the most South destination where we have a direct flight (to avoid all the hustle with the gear baggage) from Estonia to and the Winter weather in Medano is exactly the same as Summer in Estonia. So it’s all very convenient and familiar. And the spots are great, for all the different levels and disciplines with quite consistent winds, so I'm afraid I'll be going there for many years to come.

Also, this year i managed to escape to Lake Garda for a week due to Point-7 distributor meeting and i was actually really amazed. The small towns are pretty much the same as home and the windsurfing possibilities for freeride and slalom are just amazing. I managed to go windsurfing 6 days out of 7. I definitely want to make this trip as an annual tradition as well. Other than that, if you live in a paradise you don’t really have a need to travel for windsurfing a lot.

How important is it to spend time on the beach windsurfing and not only in the office when working with windsurfing? How do you see the mix.

Actually, I’m fortunate to call everything regarding windsurfing a hobby, even the business side of it. I’m running a wood processing factory as a day job, we produce the products such as floorings and wall paneling's. And since my children are already grown up I can consider the windsurfing as my mid life crisis. I really enjoy everything about it. To be part of the brand such as Point-7 is a true pleasure, it’s like being a member of the family. And it allows me to get really deep into the industry. I’ve always liked to get into deep in everything I do, especially if it’s something i really enjoy. I want to know and learn all the smallest details about everything. Sometimes it feels more like an obsession instead of the passion but that’s who i am and that’s how I do things. I really take every opportunity to go windsurfing and fortunately, the main slalom spot is just 3 minutes away from my factory, so in most cases i don’t even have take the time off from work. Ristna is a bit further, but still only 45 minutes from home. The only time we take time off from work is in Autumn, when it gets dark early and the conditions are sick.

As you are doing all disciplines in windsurfing, have you thought of foiling as well? What a nice question. I’m doing waves and slalom these days. Regarding the foiling, it’s really not my cup of tea. I like to be in contact with the water, feel the waves and the chop. But you never know. 3 years ago I was all about waves and slalom seemed like too much work to me and look at me know. Training hard during winter to be able to take the full advantage of the season and to be as fit as possible.

Tell us the story of when you found your sail you had lost at sea, after months.

Yeah, the Christmas day 25.12.2015 was a dark day. Wave and wind conditions were epic. I made a mistake during a top turn and the white water just ripped the gear out of my hands. I tried to swim after it but the current was so strong and the cold water drained my out of energy so fast that I couldn’t catch it. At one point I had to decide to stop swimming after the gear and swim to the beach before I would be in trouble.

I had a little rest, took my bigger board, rigged a 3,6 as the wind had increased and went in again. I landed a jump on the rock, catapulted and broke my ankle as the front foot was stuck in the foot strap, broke fins, the fin boxes and the foot strap inserts. And the worse part was that our annual Tenerife trip was only 8 weeks away. I had a cast on my leg for 6 weeks and after it was removed, I worked really hard on the rehab during the remaining 2 weeks before the trip, doing 5-6 rehab sessions a day to rebuild the muscle. My only goal was to be able to windsurf on that trip. And believe it or not, I windsurfed for 6 days out of 8 windy days during our stay in Tenerife. Of course I tried to be as safe as possible, using the ankle support all the time, not using the foot straps during the first session etc. but by the end of the trip I was planning around in foot straps, jibing and even riding waves, obviously backside, but still. It was a hell of an effort and it shows that nothing is impossible.

And then, exactly 3 months later, hikers that do an annual around-the-island hike in Hiiumaa, found my gear lying on the shore, 26km downwind from the spot it went away, completely in tact and in super good condition. In retrospect a lot of things went right that day. The wind direction changed, the sea level dropped after it was washed on shore, and in a week the snow came so there wasn’t even any sun damage on it. The bigger board got repaired, the ankle healed so the bottom line was actually that there are happy endings after all.

The clip about finding the gear is here:

Windsurfing Blacksheep The Point-7 Community

https://www.facebook.com/groups/227994750582874/

LET’S

Saturaday Night FULL POWER OR NOTHING!

From the

th 14

to the

th 15

of July,

there will be another:

POINT-7 WINDSURFING

BLACKSHEEP Meeting!

WE WANT TO MAKE IT BIGGER THAN WHAT IT IS AND HAS BEEN TILL NOW! WE NEED YOU!

More than 150people have already confirmed their presence at the event! If you have the best sails in the world, which can only be the BLACK ONES, what are you waiting for, come and have fun on a totally different location than usual: WALCHENSEE! The location is a beautiful lake in the mountains with thermal winds and you don’t need to bring small equipment, but just your light wind equipment and the wind will be there to have an amazing windsurfing weekend.

• • • • • • • •

Lots of friendship and good local food.

Wind but most of all the chance to get your sails tuned, discover all the new development behind the scenes, advices to enjoy more your windsurfing needs Gps racing with prices, ROCK CONCERT 200%! Boorida Rolls. and if you don’t come, don’t complain you have missed out!

For more info contact Tobi Ullrich: tobiullrich@gmx.de

HERE THE MAY Winner!

Walter Tofalvi| GERMANY

Waist Harness | Point-7

Last week of June it was time for the next EFPTevent in Fuerteventura. Exactly at the windsurfing centre of Matas Bay in Costa Calma. We have been proud to give our support to a first freestyle event in from the start of our brand.

28 riders were present from which 5 Point-7 armed with their Slash freestyle sail, including our super pro Yentel Caers, Bel 16, the local riders Maksimilian Lesniewski, Robyn Van Linden (4th under 18), and winner of the rookie Class Ancor Sosa.

Yentel showed amazing skills and went off winning both finals in the double elimination, the tow-in and the overall event.

EFPT Fuerteventura Matas bay.

The season is on, and we are proud from our Freestyle Point-7 Black Team and would like to thank Victor from the Windsurfing Centre of Matas Bay, and our Canarian Distributor Davide Zilli, who have worked hard to bring on a new event for the EFPT tour.a

Yentel Caers ‘I’m stocked to have won the event. It was from Sylt last year PWA that I was not competing. The spot is very nice here in Matas Bay. It’s super flat water and it was fun to sail. The competition was organized very well.

There were lots of youngsters taking part, and they were sailing by expressing moves I was not expecting to see from 14years olds. Now we go to Lanzarote, where the condition will be totally different due to big swells, and later PWA back to Fuerte.’

COSTA brAVA PWA Costa Brava was the first event in Europe this year.

Mainly raced on foil, where the Black Team used the event to test the first foil sails, and actually learn to race in foil. As we are having a young team, this year is for them a new experience to get used to upwind racing. Here some photos from them on the foil.

Fujiko Onishi &Fulya Unlu.

PORTuGAL

Straight after PWA in Costa Brava, it was time for some more real slalom action in high wind at the PWA in Portugal. A new location with amazing thermal wind reaching over 35knots.

Exaclty in the town of Viana do Castello, the Black Team managed to stand out with amazing result.

Lena Erdil, Tur 33, managed to become

PWA Slalom Vice World Champion after the 3 events of Japan, Korea and this last one. The women slalom tour for 2018 is already completed.

Bruno Martini, ITA-160, after 2years of showing amazing speed, has finally put something together at this latest event and closed in 11th position, just outside the top 10.

Read more from Lena’s and Bruno’s interviews about their success:

BRUNO MARTINI ATUONO Ita 160 11° PWA PORTUGAL 2018

What happened, I don't really know!

I just realize that I must put all in. 100% in each detail.

You must be always hungry for more, I feel I can always be faster and I need to push more than what anyone can think.

You must find your "mind set" like if you would trim your gear in perfect balance. When you find it, you don’t care about the rest, and you don’t need to give a s*** about anything else.

It’s hard to be focused for the whole week and I think that only those who do this can understand it.

The person that makes less mistakes wins.

You cannot relax until the end of the event, because everything can happen, you have to be solid as a rock and focus on yourself only, this is the only thing that

Lena Erdil Tur 33

PWA SLALOM VICE WORLD CHAMPION 2018

Ciao Lena, in 2 months, 3 events! 3 shots to go get to the final ranking of the year.

Are you happy to be Vice World Champion in Slalom? Was this your best result so far in slalom? Yes, the 2018 racing season has been short and sweet! Great windy events, of course when the goal is to be first 2nd place is never that satisfying, and I have been Vice Champion already.

You had a good winter with lots of wave sailing till you joined the team in Lanzarote in February to train slalom. Did the winter preparation plan worked out well to achieve this result? Personally, I felled that I made a lot of mistakes this season, I could really feel that having trained less slalom this winter partly due to my foot injury in New Caledonia and partly because I spend more times preparing for wave competition was maybe not enough.

When I went back to slalom training in February my foot injury turned out to still bother me a lot, especially jibing, during the wave sailing I hadn’t really felled it, so it kind of came as a surprise and meant I pretty much did as little jibing as possible to give my foot more rest and prevent reinjuring it in the same place. So, considering this I guess second place is a solid result.

Looking back at the PWA women few years ago, we saw a lot more girls in the fleet, and a higher level. We have seen lots of girl handling well also strong wind. Is this the right feeling we are having? What is the reason? Yes, it’s true it’s been amazing to see how well all the girls fleet did with the hardcore conditions we had in Both Korea and Portugal! Mistakes are not forgiven, and we saw some new girls claiming bullets and top 3 places during the events! So that’s a good indicator of what’s in store for the upcoming seasons I’m excited about the girl’s fleet growing in numbers and level each year!

You had 2 events with very strong wind. You girls had almost the same size of the guys. 5.0 against a 5.6. Did you feel the need to have a smaller sail? Any plan on that? Yes 5.0 was big at times! So, for next year I am planning to register a no cam or 2 cam sails around 4.5 :)! Hope we will get this kind of strong wind conditions more often!

What are your favourite conditions for slalom? 87l and 5.6 fully powered I think! I think that’s around 25-30 knots in terms of winds.

As the slalom season is over for the women PWA, this year we have seen you competing in Morocco at the wave event. You took part also at the freestyle in Portugal, but you are normally knowing to be a pure slalom sailor. What is the plan as there is still many events for the women in waves, but also the last event of freestyle in Fuerteventura? Haha yes, I made my freestyle debut in Portugal, but I don’t think I’m quite ready to participate in more events! But yes, I am super excited to be doing the full wave tour this year!! I have never been in Pozo and jumping is my wave sailing weakness now, so the plan is to go quite soon and see if I can learn some new tricks to pull off in competition! Pozo with its super strong winds always scarred me a bit, but with the slalom season officially over I am looking forwards to push my limits in this discipline!

How do you see foiling at the PWA? Do you know which direction it will take? Would you want it the same direction the men division is taking it too?

Yes, the girls will be ready to compete in Foiling next year. I will be training from now on as well and am really looking forwards to compete in yet another discipline! I believe Foiling is here to stay and think we are in the process of developing not only the equipment more and more, but also the racing format so that it will be exciting to watch for a wider audience Which was your favourite event till now? Will Portugal be confirmed for next year as well? Yes, Portugal was great, the Hotel FEEL VIANA really did an amazing job at hosting us! It is a sport hotel with a focus on outdoor sports like mountain biking, surfing, windsurfing and kiting. It also has a great SPA with Yoga rooms saunas and a gym fully equipped with functional training equipment! Right on the beach next to a forest it really is incredibly beautiful. So not only was the event super windy but this is also a place I would come on a Holliday to!! So yeah, I really hope we’ll be back again next year!

2018

ITALIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS

OUR BOSS…

If you are close to 43 years old, and rock up to wind your 14th national championship title, with 8 times 0.7 points out of 9 slalom eliminations, well than you are our Point-7 Boss!

That is what has happened this week on the Island of Sardinia.

Exactly in Calasetta, Sant’Antioco, a smaller Sardinian Island, surrounded by amazing small bay with turquoise waters, the Italian Slalom Championship has offered amazing windy days.

ANDREA CUCCHI Ita 1c 14° national title!

The riders were lucky enough to finish the 9 eliminations in 3 days out of 4 planned and using sails from 6.2 up to 8.6. Probably the windiest slalom and with the most racing from many years!

It was Andrea Cucchi who has won this title after many years of not taking part at the national championships, and he did it well!

THE CHAMP...

It was Andrea Cucchi who has won this title after many years of not taking part at the national championships, and he did it well!

We cannot stop being happy only from Andrea’s result, as Vice Italian Champion is still from the Black Team!

Francesco Scagliola with only 17 years old has managed to close the championships right behind Andrea, allowing 2 of our Point-7 AC-One to be on the top 2 places on the podium.

Did we dress up one legend from the Italian windsurfing of the past? Yes, we did!

Alessandro Comerlati managed a good 7th place overall, after many years of no racing. Alessandro for those who don’t know, has been the idol from Andrea when he was just beginning of windsurfing.

Alessandro has been more than 5 times Italian champion in the 90’s.

ALESSANDRO COMERLATI Ita 130

ANDREA CUCCHI Ita 1

FRANCESCO SCAGLIOLA Ita 353

Andrea Cucchi’ It was some years I did not take part at our nationals. I’ve been following the Black Team at the PWA World tour as we really wanted to prove that our AC-One was able to be the world’s champion sail. We were successful, and now I thought it was about time to go back to some national events around Europe to give support, and advice technically, our national riders to improve. I really enjoyed racing in this edition as we had great racing in different and beautiful conditions. It was the best championship I remember so far. No complaints, no mistakes from the organizers, no protests and some rules in racing which I actually did not mind having, as it made racing feel safer than the no rule system used in PWA. I was never a big fan of rules, but after seeing some accidents in racing I actually appreciated them…maybe my age!’

GERMAN CUP

2018

It's Maxi Rauch who wins the under 17 Ranking at the Slalom German Championships in Gromitz last Weekend. Here is how it went directly from our young Point-7 Black team champ!

‘Luckily I was a few days before the Multivan Windsurf Cup started at Fehmarn and Grömitz and could train in the conditions of the Baltic Sea. I was mainly out with my 7,8 and 8,6 AC-one.

First day of the Race we started the discipline Racing – I never did it before – a little bit nervously I took the huge Slalom Board from my Dad, put the foil inside and went out with my 7,8qm AC-one.

Till this event I was only for 2 times out for foiling at Lake Garda…… I was lucky, I finished as second U17. The discipline Racing with foiling is getting more and more important – I have to train a lot with the foil.

I was so happy that in the afternoon the slalom was started.

With about 15 knots the eliminations began. I was in heat 3 and went out with my 7,8qm AC-one. We could finish all the eliminations but then the wind dropped and did not come back till the end of the event.

I finished the Race in 1st position U17 and was the best Rookie.’

Maxi Rauch Ger 2018

MAUI RACE SERIES: It’s on

June 16th. The famous beach Kanaha Beach Park on Maui- Hi, received the 1st stop, from the total of four, the IWT Maui Race Series.

The event still going on after many years because big names from PWA and the Windsurf industry were part of the MRC bringing notorious to the event.

The event is a great opportunity to place together the locals sailors and few foreigners that comes to the island to compete at MRC, helping to be alive the slalom discipline on Maui The wind, around 15 to 20kts, did show up at 11:30am, as usual, right after the beach marshal declared the beach was opened.

Registration was done and skippers meeting as well so, few sailors went out to the water to set up the course.

Amateurs, juniors, women, adult 40-50 and up as the pro and semi pro divisions were there to compete at the MRC. Four races for each division were completed with an outstanding job done by race committee and boat crew.

The prize giving ceremony came together with a great atmosphere of friendship, amazing conversation and barbecue.

In the end I managed to win the 40's-50's age division and Pro division.

The sail that I used for the whole event was a 2018 Point-7 ACOne 7.8 and the board was a 2018 116 Proton slalom board.

Even in tight races till the end I felt my equipment working great with speed and control.

The first MRC stop was sponsored by IWT International Windsurfing Tour.

Now I'm looking forward to the next Saturday when will happen the 2nd event of the MRC. Pictures: Jimmie Hepp Photography

RUSSELL GROVES new site. Is all Jump on

about online learning. It can never replace live teaching or coaching which he would never do, but his aim is to place down a structured way to learn. You can just use the online service if you wish, it’s main role is to give reference notes. After his coaching sessions, people often asked him for notes or where they can study. So, he started his archive site where they could read up on things. It’s still an ongoing project as it is not just about a beginner program. He will spend the rest of my life building it, it is like writing an autobiography about his windsurfing life. So keep following!

www.russelgroves.pro

CAMPELLO Vision Series

First Episode | Cape Town This is the first episode of "CampelloVision" series. The story of all experiences behind the professional career from Ricardo Campello. A career that have been surrounded by beautiful cultures, places and real connections with many intangible things through his passion: Windsurfing.

He visited Cape Town and found a rich culture builded by their people and their ways of understanding life his simple perspectives. Where for him, Cape Town has the most honest smile i've ever seen.

Ph Jimmy Hepp

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Date

Type

Country Point-7 Black Team Lanzarote

Spot

1 Feb- 7 March

Team slalom Training

7-10 March

Costa Teguise PRO AM SLALOM CUPLanzarote

Costa Teguise

24 Feb-3 March 1-3 April

Black sheep Meeting Black Team training

Lanzarote Lake Garda

Costa Teguise Circolo Surf Torbole-Lake Garda

7-8 April

No Rules Slalom Stage REVII | U22 Lake Garda

Circolo Surf Torbole-Lake Garda

11 April-14 April

Distributor Meeting

Lake Garda

Lake Garda

28 June- 1 July

EFTP Point-7

Matas Blanca

12-13 May 19 May

Point-7 Test day Point-7 Test day

Fuerteventura AUSTRIA Neusiedel Achensee ESTONIA

Jun-Oct

Hiiusurf Ristna Wave Classic

Estonia

Ristna

Jun-Oct

Vääna Wave Classic

Estonia

Vääna

May-Oct

Estonian Slalom Championships

Estonia

4-5 different events in different spots

End of July

FUN Race series Hiiumaa stage

Estonia

Kärdla

May-Sep

FUN Race series

Estonia

4 different events

Apr-Oct

Slalom training

Estonia

Kärdla

Sometime in July

Costa Teguise

Estonian Surfcamp (over 2000 participants) Estonia FRANCE 10-13 May Defi Wind France GERMANY 20-28 January Boot Dusseldorf Boot Dusseldorf-Exhibition Germany 10-13 May Surf Festival Fehmarn Germany

TBD

7-8 July

Black sheep meeting

Walchensee

end of sept

Sylt

25 April

Black sheep meeting: follow the BLKGermany TM at the PWA ITALY Point-7 Test day Italy

28-29 April 30 April 1 May 5 May 6 May

Point-7 Point-7 Point-7 Point-7 Point-7

Italy Italy Italy Italy Italy

Vindicio Lago Di Bracciano Campo Di mare Numana Igea Marina

23-24 June

One Hour Classic | Team dinner

Italy

Circolo Surf Torbole-Lake Garda

end of oct

Black Sheep Meeting: Tune and TrimItaly zero19 sails JAPAN

Malcesine -Lake Garda

Dec 2nd-3rd, 2017

Kakegawa Surf Slalom 2017, 2017 JWA JAPAN Tour

Omaezaki, Shizuoka

Dec 9th-10th, 2017

Japan Amature Championship slalom,JAPAN 2017 JWA Tour

Miura, Kanagawa

Mid January, 2018

Amamioshima Slalom, 2018 JWA Tour JAPAN

Amami Oshima, Okinawa

Mid Feburary, 2018

Team Training

JAPAN

Okinawa

Late in March, 2018

Oita Slalom, 2018 JWA Tour

JAPAN

Oita

Early in April, 2018

Japan Maters Slalom

JAPAN

Miura, Kanagawa

Late in April, 2018

Demo/Promotion Event

JAPAN

Miho, Shizuoka

Mid May, 2018

Motosuko Champiionship Slalom, 2018 JAPAN JWA Tour

Motosuko, Yamanashi

Late in May, 2018

Black Sun Photo/Video

JAPAN

TBA

Mid June, 2018

Miyako Classic Slalom

JAPAN

Miyako, Okinawa

Late in July, 2018

Kemigawa Slalom, 2018 JWA Tour

JAPAN

Kemigawa, Chiba

Early in August, 2018

Miho Cup Slalom

JAPAN

Miho, Shizuoka

Early in September, 2018 Mid October, 2018

Demo/Promotion Event Demo/Promotion Event

Test day Test day Test day Test day Test day

Germany

JAPAN JAPAN NETHERLANDS Oct Dam X Holland SPAIN 2 al 5 de Enero National Championship Wave/Slalom ALMERIA CEF 2018 2 al 4 de Marzo National Championship Slalom CEF TARIFA 2018 29 de Marzo al 1 de Abril National Championship Wave/Slalom ALMERIA CEF 2018 28 de Abril al 1 de Mayo National Championship Slalom CEF MURCIA 2018 1 al 3 de Junio National Championship Slalom CEF CATALUNYA 2018 12 al 14 de Octubre or 1 al 4 de National Noviembre Championship or 10 al 25 Freestyle/Slalom de Noviembre ZARAGOZA CEF 2018

Leucate Expo Fehmarn

Conca D'oro- Lake Garda

Motosuko, Yamanashi Miura, Kanagawa Dam X El Ejido (Club Deportivo Víctor Fernàndez ) Valdevaqueros El Ejido (Club Windsurf Mar Azul) Los Alcázares (CN Los Alcázares) Roses (GEN Roses) La Loteta (Club Windsurf Zaragoza)

This month we were IN:Calasetta ITA Costa Brava ESP Viana POR Nuesiedlersee AUT

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