South Korea Journey 2012

May 14, 2012 by chris | 1 Comment

This morning I was walking down the beach and through the green forest of pines. It was my last relaxed morning walk here at Jinha. Still I have a lot of memories in my mind of an event, which was fun and challenging at the same moment. For the very first time I made it in all quarter finals at an event since I started Slalom racing back in July 2005. But this time it was not only a cool windsurfing experience. I also found enough time to follow the South Korean lifestyle and see some other places thanks to Mr. Han, the event organiser. And today I saw the Island of Myeoungseoudo covered in real fog! We really were lucky with the wind as the wind never reached suitable conditions since the event came to an end!

Overall it really paid off to come to Korea in 2012. We sailed 5 full eliminations in attractive conditions. But it was a last minute decision while the event in Italy. Due to the fact, that two events, Aruba and Marseille got cancelled. 4-5 more events will follow and hopefully some strong wind conditions. So far I only used the Reflex III in 7,8/8,6 and 9,2 and the iSonic 117 wide or the 107. It´s time for the 87 with 7,0 and smaller.

Overall I finished 27th here at Jinha and this result makes me happy.

My plan is to compete in Croatia on the island of Brac in the beginning of June and then straigt travel to Costa Brava.

Posted in Competition, Equipment, Life, Windsurfing Tagged Chris Pressler, PWA Slalom worldcup, Severnesails, South Korea, starboard |

Andalusian Dream 2012

March 11, 2012 by chris | Leave a comment

It was a while since I travelled to Tarifa. More than 10 years ago I spent several days at Tarifa, when driving down to Morocco with Rudi Breitwieser. We were lucky and had some nice waves and strong Levante at Las Dunas.
But I said myself that I will return for sure to this wonderful area at the south western end of Europe, where Africa almost touches Spain. This time together with my girlfriend and some Slalomgear. So Kerstin and myself decided to jump on a plane and enjoy some days in Europe´s wind capital. And it was worth to travel there. 12 days, 12 great sessions: highwind slalom action at Las Dunas, speedsailing at Campo de Fútbal, lightwind racing and sailing in onshore waves at Arte vide, surfing and Wave sailing at Bolonia.
I got the chance to have several Slalom sessions with Ben van der Steen, current number 3 in the PWA Slalom ranking, Ludo Jossin, current number 19 in the world and Tom Malina, the best Czech Slalom racer. They all live there at the moment, were in a great shape and had their gear fully tuned.

While the last days of our stay we had the chance to see, how the locals at Tarifa celebrate their carneval. It was fun and we danced some Austrian Salsa with Kerstin in the Spanish crowd.

Really hope to return to Tarifa very soon. It´s great for windsurfing and surfing. Not one day was similar to the next. Always changing conditions, always windy. I had following gear in my bags: two iSonics with 117 and 87 liters, an EVO waveboard with 76 liters, a Minimalibu trifin Surfboard in 8″- teh same I surfed with at my first trip, three Reflex III racing sails in 8,6m, 7,0m and 5,6 m plus a S1 in 4,5 and a Swat in 3,7. While the period of 12 days I used everything.
At the moment I am back in Austria, where the conditions are excellent. All the ice is gone and the water- and airtemperatures are ok. Tested my Reflex III 9,2 yesterday. While the upcoming days my plan is to test the 7,8 or 6,2 and a bunch of fins. In less than a week the next flight will start. This time to the North Shore of Fuerteventura.

Here is a little photogallery from the trip to Tarifa. Most of the shots are taken by Kerstin. Some are outtakes from the videoclips.

Posted in Life Tagged Andalusia, Ben van der Steen, Bolonia, Kerstin Reiger, Las Dun as, Ludo Jossin, Tarifa, Tom Malina |

Cold Russian air arrived

February 5, 2012 by chris | 2 Comments

Finally the cold Russian air arrived in Austria and the Lake Neusiedl is covered with a thick ice cap. But got some sessions done on the new Reflex III before the real winter arrived. The new sail, I used the 7,0 most of the time, delivers more power and stability comapred to the previous model. The cam rotation was great from the beginning on and the sail felt a bit lighter than the Reflex II. I tested the sail on the iSonic 87 and 107. The 7,0 feels great on the 107, what´s a good news. This combination can be used in relatively strong wind conditions.

Jibing on the iSonic 87/Reflex III 7,0 combo (Pic: Peter Pfaffenbichler).

I also tested a lot of new fins produced by my testing partner Peter “Pfaffi” Pfaffenbichler. He recently finished the S3 fin, which is available from 22,5 to 33,2 cm and developed a new nose treatment to sharpen the nose profile a bit more. It felt like the boards started to plan a bit easier and earlier.

We are also convinced to have an excellent fin for the iSonic 87 and 80.

The new Pfaffi S3x fin in 32,8 cm (Pic: Peter Pfaffenbichler).

January is the month of tradeshows: Vienna Austrian Holiday Show, BOOT show in Düsseldorf or ISPO in Munich. I visisted the show in Vienna and Munich this year. At both events I met myself on really nice banners. Have look on the shots below:

Right now I am about to finish some articles for magazines and leave for a windsurfing trip afterwards to get in shape for the first Slalom event in southern Italy. Recently bought tickets for the Canaries in March.

Posted in Equipment, Life, Windsurfing

Stormy days after new year

January 12, 2012 by chris | 7 Comments

Are the winters wamer nowadays?

It was an awesome start in the new season. Just returned from new year´s celebration and the storm Andrea fully kicked in at Lake Neusiedl. I only sailed on 5,6 or 7,0 and used most of the days my smallest iSonic with 87 liters. We saw 5 great days out of 6 and tomorrow the wind machine will be on again. On the January 6th, the Twelfth Day, the storm had its peak and I was definitely on the limit with 5,6 and 87 liters. The temperatures were ok with 4° to 7° without the windchill. But still, unusual warm for January. Are the winters getting warmer? We saw really low icy temperatures while the previous years. The lake frozen. But 2011/2012 is different. Hopefully not the end of the year ! Probably I just feel less cold due to the fact, that I own a great drysuit now. After the weekend cold artic air from Russia should arrive and then I have to say: game over for a while. It´s time to get on a plane. The first PWA event of the season, which should take place in Vietnam, got removed to the end of the year. There is now enough time to prepare for the start in South Korea, which should happen from the 5th till 11th of May. Overall there are 9 Slalom events on the tourplan with new events at Reggio di Calabria, Italy in April and Marseille, France in June.

Kerstin got some really nice shots on the 6th, when sailing overpowered on 5,6, testing a new 27 cm long fin, which was too short for the 87, even in the storm. The rest of the shots on the 7,0 were taken by Peter Hörler, one of the top Austrian Formula sailors. This day I was testing new Pfaffi Fins on the 87 in sizes 31,5 up to 33 cm. Thanks to both of them for the nice shots.

Posted in Competition, Life, Windsurfing Tagged Lake Neusiedl, Pfaffi Fins, Podersdorf, Severne Reflex II, Starboard iSonic 2012 |

Getting used to the cold

December 31, 2011 by chris | 9 Comments

Each session in cold temperatures is teaching me how to get better in keeping my body protected against the cold air. Today, December 30th, a nice breeze was on and I was motivared to test my latest toys: Titanium socks, 1mm thick seamless gloves combined with my drysuit and a 5mm strong Titanium Arctic hood. And it worked well. Sure, the wind was ligter than in my previous sessions. Was on the iSonic 107 from 2012 and the Reflex 8,6. But the long socks under the drysuit kept the ankles warm. This are was a problem zone at my last session, when I used ordinary boots. The hands felt as well much warmer. Could not imagine, that 1 mm of a great material without any stitches could make such a difference. And teh Artic hood heated my head up! The next step will be to organise really thick waterproof boots.

My testing partner Pfaffi worked hard while the last week to get a new nose profile done on a 40 S2, which matches great with the 107. The new concept felt excellent. We will continue the tests on other sizes.

We sailed till it was dark. And I really felt comfortable on the new iSonic. It was incredible in how less wind the board started to plan. At the moment I play a bit with the footstrap positions, but bet that I will have them fixed as far as possible to the tail of the board. Plus with the mastbase. Had it around 3 mm back from the recommended position.

The next size to test will be the iSonic 117 wide. Just heard that the board works very well with 8,6 and 7,8. My job will be to find th eright fin sizes. Will use the board predominantly with 9,2 and 8,6.

Wish all of you a happy new year and have a great windsurfing session tomorrow with an unforgetable party. 2011 was a great year, also for myself. Despite back problems I enjoyed windsurfing and could make some progress on the race course, but also could improve my general body coordination and flexibility through the training I did in the past months.

I am also super happy having the 2012 boards already now. Received them last season very late, in April and had less time to train on them. Very soon the new Reflex III should arrive!

See you on the water in 2012!!

Chris

Thanks to Peter Pfaffenbichler for the shots!