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PWA | PODERSDORF

PWA Podersdorf 2016

What a blast to finally compete again! It’s been a while since I was able to compete again, but I’m back on tour again and it’s very exciting for me to perform again on the highest level! The PWA Podersdorf was a great way to step out of my comfort zone and to challenge my level against the very best Freestyle windsurfers in the World. I could win a couple heats and I lost couple too. The level right now is again very high, though I feel that there’s much more potential for me and so there is for others in the upcoming tourstops. The new live-scoring system at the PWA is great way to get the needed feedback to step up the level of sailing during heats. Even though I had a couple of good heats and lost by sometimes close scores, I really know now where to improve! I’m thrilled to be back again, as this will be a very exciting year!

Thanks to all my loyal sponsors, partners, familie and friends supporting and believing in me!

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EVENTS NEWS PWA

PWA | Worldcup NL

PWA Worldcup in the Netherlands:
A historic moment, having the World Cup back in Holland. The last World Cup has been in Zandvoort back in 2000, 
so it has been a while. Not having been proparly healed, the organizers of the World Cup at PWA DAM7 asked me if I could 
fulfill the roll as a speaker, during the event for both PWA and EFPT competitions. Eventually that was a small part of my
Job at DAM7. It became clear, that I could help out a lot more for both PWA and the EFPT. I helped out with the media, 
the riders, the riders tent, registration, price giving, coordination, rescue-guards, for the crew etc To sum it up; 
A great learning experience working together with a great team. It was kind of weird to stand on the other side, 
instead of on the water, though I was glad that I could invest my knowledge and my skills to help out with this great 
World Cup event. So much positive energy :)

Maarten van Ochten Omroep Zeeland

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PWA

PWA | SYLT – Full report

PWA Sylt report:
I had the feeling that this was the best competition of the year for Freestyle at least. From the 12 days days that I spend in Sylt we’ve had 10 days with wind, last year it was the opposite as there was no wind at all!  I’m glad that we got to compete a lot, instead of only doing one single elimination we now did one double elimination. During the single elimination the conditions where tough, but fortunately during the double elimination things got better as we had side shore wind from the South. I’m happy that I could sail a lot of heats, definitely not happy with my last heat. But final 9th place is not bad at all, happy to be in the top 10 again. What also helped me,  that I really know now where I have to work on for my next season. Hopefully we have more competitions in 2013 and combined with both good wind and water conditions too. I might consider attending in a couple of wave events.

Below you can read my daily report
DAY 1 report: Just arrived in Sylt together with my team mates Brian Metcalf Perez from the US and Steven van Broeckhoven from Belgium. Sylt is an Island on the border between Germany and Denmark. We drove really fast but at the same time we where all tired so we slept a lot yesterday. The forecast for the week looks really promising for every discipline as there will be a week of good wind here in Sylt. Tomorrow the skippersmeeting will be at 9AM. We might start with Freestyle.


DAY 2 report: Today was a big waiting game at the beginning. Around 2PM we started finally competing, I was facing a though draw although there are no easy heats. Actually everybody is sailing really good and with tough conditions out on the North-Sea anything could happen. First heat today was against fellow teamrider Ricardo Campello. 3x Worldchampion Freestyle and 2x Vice Worldchampion Wave. Ricardo is special, this one of the most gifted sailors and is good in pretty much every sport he does. Even when not competing in actual freestyle competition anymore I would still put my money on him making it into the top three. If there only were more wavy conditions at the tourstops. I knew I had to sail a very super good heat to beat him. When going out the conditions where really not in the favor of anybody. Light winds combined with current and not to much power in at least my sail to get going for bigger jumps. I decided to sail more like a safe heat. Just to fill up the scoring sheet, and after this to take much more risk. Ricardo made a super high AirShaka, as well a Backloop, boosting up his scores for sure. But eventually he missed out on a couple of moves. So I won the heat, didn’t expect this to happened. For sure Ricardo will be on warpath chasing trough the double elimination. Next heat I had to face Bjorn Saragoza from Bonaire who’s currently ranked 5th overall. Again a though heat, so I had to give everything. Luckily the wind picked up for my 4.8 sail. During the heat it was so hard to sail for me and for Bjorn too. We where both crashing all over the place. Just over time I nailed a Airchachoo, which could might give me the edge….? When heading to the beach Bjorn won with a 2-1 decision winning with 0,5 point. Which let me with thought, what if..For tomorrow we might first start with wave discipline and later on Freestyle, I hope the conditions will turn out good for me and I can setup a great performance!!


DAY 3 report: Great wave sailing action today. Outstanding sailors where: Ricardo Campello, Alex Mussolini, Victor Fernandez and World champion Philip Koster. Waverider of the day; Alex Mussolini, who was riding the waves like he was surfing at Ho’okipa beach in Maui.


DAY 4 report: Today we started of with the double elimination of freestyle. I did pretty good advancing 4 rounds, eventually Phillip Soltysiak was sailing against me which prevent me from advancing any further rounds. Philip was sailing well and I had a really bad heat so he deserved it! Right now I’m 9th. in the double elimination. So far my scoring was really good on port tack had some really clean Airchachoo’s but also really would like to a double in a heat (wind was to light), but I really need to step up the game with tricks on starboardtack. Tomorrow we might finish the Freestyle double elimination but if there’s enough they will finally start the Slalom. This what the PWA had to say: Double Elimination The first round of the double elimination went according to the form book and all of the sailors that expected to progress did, as did much of the second. The main talking point occurred in heat thirty-seven as Max Matissek (Fanatic / North) sailed against Tony Mottus (JP / NeilPryde). The two sailors endured an extremely close heat and the result came down to a 2:1 decision in the favor of Matissek. The closest heat in the freestyle though occurred in the next round as Andy Chambers took on Maarten Van Ochten (JP / NeilPryde / MFC). The pair landed some massive moves, including an outstanding air chachoo from Van Ochten, and by the end of the heat the scoring was tied. This meant that by way of a tiebreak Van Ochten progressed into heat forty-five, where he would face Phil Soltysiak (Starboard / Sailworks). The Canadian proved too much for Van Ochten on this occasion as Soltysiak marched into the top eight.As already mentioned in heat forty-five Phil Soltysiak was able to dispatch of Maarten Van Ochten, meanwhile, the B-side of the heat saw Dieter Van der Eyken (Starboard / Severne) continue his hugely impressive form as the Belgium brought an end to Davy Scheffers’ (Tabou / Gaastra) double elimination.


PWA Freestyle Sylt overall result:

    1. Jose Gollitio Estredo V-01/ Venezuela
    2. Kiri Thode NB 61/ Bonaire
    3. Steven van Broeckhoven B 72/ Belgium
    4. Tonky Frans NB 7/ Bonaire
    5. Youp Schmit NB 12/ Bonaire
    6. Philip Soltysiak CAN 9/ Canada
    7. Dieter van der Eyken B 35/ Belgium
    8. Elton Taty Frans NB / Bonaire
    9. Maarten van Ochten H73/ Holland

Photos: John Carter/ Matthias Mueller

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PWA

PWA | FUERTE – Day 1 and 2

PWA Fuerteventura day 1 and 2
After a long day of waiting we started the single elimination in Fuerteventura. The scene right now in Fuerteventura is a little different than a couple of days ago. Like the past weeks we’ve been only using the smallest gear and there where plenty of waves all over the place. Right now everybody is on their biggest gear and the water is pretty choppy. Not really the typical Fuerte conditions. Yesterday my first heat was against Max Matisek from Austria. Max has been training and improving a lot this year so tough competitor like all the others. We both didn’t perform really well, actually I was crashing a lot and was getting really nervous as I wasn’t performing my heat as I would like to. In the end it was a close dissension but I advanced to next round. Now I had to face the Belgium Dieter van der Eycken. I started of good with Aifunnel, Burner puneta and Shovit spock. Suddenly I was crashing moves and forcing them with less style amplitude, Dieter was also not sailing is his best heat but still sailing good. The final result rather surprising to me. A very close heat but Dieter took the edge and worked his way up to 4th place in the single elimination. Tomorrow we will continue with the double elimination. So I hope the conditions turn up good and let’s wish for some waves for even more excitement on the water.



Photos: John Carter

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PWA

PWA | PODERSDORF

PWA Podersdorf summary
The PWA in Podersdorf 2012, was again a well organised event with lot’s of spectators visiting the scene everyday combined with a good and warm atmosphere. Apart from other years we’ve now had only warm days each and everyday. This time I brought lot’s of warm clothing even a snowboard pants and Jacket to keep me warm during the event. Needless to say with the forecast which provided only South East wind and really warm weather. I didn’t need any of that besides a few short and T-shirts.The first day was registration plannend and for me getting all the gear ready for the event. The second day of the event we’ve had some wind enough to complete four heats from the single elimination that day.


On the third day the actual forecast was great and in the morning the wind was all ready good for 5,3- 5,0 weather. As the wind direction was really offshore we had to compete far outside from the actual beach. This made it difficult to decide what gear to take as the wind was changing in strength too. Lot’s of riders organized a caddy with bigger or smaller gear, in case the wind changed, there was no time to get back to shore and swap sails nor boards. I decided to use my big Freestyle board the JP Freestyle 106 Pro and my 5.3 Neilpryde Firefly. This day I had to compete against Julien Mas F-07 from France. Last year I wasn’t able to compete, this also effected my seeding. I didn’t have seeding for 2012. This also means that I had to face a quite a tough, draw. But than again the level right now is so high from all riders so there are almost no easy rounds and anything can happened during the competition. Julien Mas progressed a lot last winter  a strong rider and for sure I had to sail a good heat in order to pass him. On Porttack I started of with a high Shaka, bouncing of into a flaka this move field solid and gave me confidence for my second move a good Shovitspock 540 followed by a Ponsch. On starboard tack my best moves where a Ponsch, Burner and Double switch Chachoo. When nailing also the Ponsch over the other tack I had a good feeling that I won. My moves were solid, powerfull. Julien Mas was sailing good to but not as good as I saw him in free sailing, landing some moves a little wet.


When arriving back at the beach my teammate, who was watching the heat Yegor Popertinsky, told me that I won for sure and my next heat was against him. This could get a interesting heat too. As I was getting prepared I heard the news that not me but Julien passed? Julien was really surprised and glad advancing to next round??!! I was confused and asked the land crew if they might made a mistake giving not the right name? Went back to judging boat which took me another twenty minutes as the field was far from shore, all ready a little mad I stepped on to the boat. Received the scoring sheets and it noticed to little scoring at variety and technical difficulty?! All my moves were different apart from each other and technical difficulty was rated to low accordingly to the other judge who saw my heat too?! Normally I’m not that kind of person who’s starts to making a scene at the judging tower. Having factualy mistaken my moves which caused me to go out the first round was a big disappointment for me! The upcoming days I had to wait for the double ellimination to work my self back up in the ladder again.The weather was playing a game with everybody although the PWA Crew did there honest best trying to run the the double elimination but the wind didn’t seem to cooperate which resulted in one single counted elimination only for a final result. Like at every competition you have to give it all to succeed and to create a final good result. This year I’ve been training hard and as we have still three more events to go (with one discard) nothing is decided yet (Fuerteventura, Sylt and Vietnam), I hope we get to compete a lot combined with good conditions and I’m looking forward to the Worldcup in Fuerteventura.


Result PWA Podersdorf 2012

  1. Gllito Estredo V-10 Venuzuela
  2. Taty Frans NB-9 Bonaire
  3. Kiri Thode NB-61 Bonaire
  4. Steven van Broeckhoven B-72 Belgium

Photos: John Carter

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PWA

PWA | SYLT – Day 5

PWA Sylt 2010 Day 5
Today there was some Slalom sailing in the cold but sunny morning, unfortunately for the slalom guys the wind was dropping fast so they only could sail a few rounds. Later this day the wind didn’t came back and everybody was on standby the whole day. Tomorrow the forecast isn’t looking to promissing and there might be a chance that slalom sailing will start of around 10:30.

Photo: John Carter

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PWA

PWA | SYLT – Day 3

PWA Sylt 2010 Day 3
Skippersmeeting was plant at 10AM. When arriving at the worldcup location it was already “raining cats and dogs”. After rigging and bringing all my gear to the beach it was a matter of a waiting. But minutes later new weather updates showed that the wind would might come late midday from NE direction. This means offshore and really gusty winds. Finally at 17:00 the PWA decided to give it a try and started of with the first round. During the first rounds the wind was shifting from directions all the time When warming-up I was sailing with my biggest gear 5,7 Neilpryde Firefly and My JP Ausltralia Freestyle 107. With just a couple of other riders I was one of the only one who could get into planning speed. When the first heat was sailed from 2nd round the organisation decided putting the competition on hold. One hour of waiting the PWA eventually decided to cancel the competition for this today. If tomorrow will be windy I have to sail in heat nr. 12 which means I am in the 2nd heat. If not there might be some slalom sailing, during the day.


Photos: John Carter

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PWA

PWA | SYLT – Day 2

PWA Sylt 2010 Day 2
Skippers meeting for Freestyle took place at 9AM in the morning. When arriving there was some wind left but definitely not enough wind to start of with the first heats. Having seen the elimination ladder, there have been added some new big names in the Freestyle competition. 3x times Freestyle Worldcampion Ricardo Campello V 111, who’s only competing in waves these days decided to register too. So did Kauli Seadi BRA 253 2x vice Freestyle World Champion and 3x Wave World Champion.

In the whole elimination here there seems to be no easy heats. Again a strong field as there was in previous World cup events. Right now the level of Freestyle is extremly high and so is the level of almost all riders. There are actually no easy heats and you have to give it all in each and every heat. The conditions in Sylt can variate but mostly wavy, which makes Freestyle really exciting.Having waves on the outside makes it exciting for nice jumps such as high airchachoo’s, shaka’s and double loops. Going in perfect for the newest power moves. For this day the wind didn’t get sufficiënt enough even for starting of with the Slalom, which can be hold in minor windconditions. Tough there where quit a lot of good waves for surfing and Supping (stand up paddle –surfing). This all together made today quit a nice day to prepare and enjoy the atmosphere of Sylt.


Photos: John Carter PWA