Chris Pressler´s windsurfing blog

Before we travelled to Asia I was not sure, how it will work out sailing in a competition. The winter in Austria was extremely hard, no chance to enter the water since the 28th of December, when I had my last session on the lake. I did other training at home or at the gym, went skiing…

And looks like this was a good decision. Sailing here at Vietnam felt easy, at a beach with palm trees and 26° warm water.

I brought 3 Code Reds for racing to Mui Ne, a 6,2, 7,0 and 8,1 plus got three iSonics from Remi, a 86,111 and 121.

The gear worked perfect. I used all sizes of sails and boards, but felt fast on 7,0 plus 111 and 6,2 plus 86.

We had 2 days of racing. 4 races each day. On day one the wind picked extremely up till the end of the day – we had 30 knots of wind – and I could use the 6,2 plus the 86 in race 4. That was fun! Felt a bit like in Gran Canaria. Cyril Moussilmani had great speed in all conditions and Jimmy Diaz, who could win the first 2 races, were a super strong opponent. In one race I could stay in front of Jimmy  and in a few races I could keep up the speed with Cyril to the first mark. Overall I lost at the jibemarks and on the way in. I made one second and 7 third positions. Anyway, it was great fun racing here at Jibe´s in Mui Ne again and thanks to Pascal Lefebvre for the great organisation. Let´see if there will happen an official PWA Slalom and Freestyle competition in 2011.

On the day after the competition I tested 2011 iSonics with Remi Vila. The wind was light, 7 to 15 knots. We tested the bigger sizes and I was impressed by the improvements.

Now it´s time to train and practice on jibing.

Keep you updated,

Chris

Jibing at the inside mark followed by Remi Vila (Pic: Pascal Lefebvre).

Powered up on 7,0 and 111 chased by Remi Vila on 7,5 (Pic: Pascal Lefebvre).

With locked clew over the line (Pic: Pascal Lefebvre).

At the start (Pic: Pascal Lefebvre).

The this years Vietnam Funcup, it will be the 11th edition, will be a tough one. I could win the race last year. It was the 10th time, that the event happened. In the upcoming competition, which will take place on the 29th and 30th of January for the very first time a Pro division will be held.

The organizer Pascal Lefebvre just sent me a mail today: Remi Vila, Cyril Moussilmani, Jimmy Diaz, a couple of Russians,  2 Vietnamese and yourself are on the starting list of the Pro division in the moment. Wow!

It looks like I will have a great slalom competition there! Let´s hope that the wind will kick in, but so long the north easter works  great in this season!

The good thing about the event is that you meet many happy people having fun on the water, a great party plus concert will be up and all the profit of the event will be donated to a charity organization in Binh Thuan Province.

Vietnam, we come!! Kerstin and myself should arrive there on the 26th of January!

The Vietnam Funcup poster 2010 (Pic: windsurf-vietnam.com).

Windsurf Vietnam website

I was really stocked about the fact, that it got warm and als the ice went away. My homespot works again. I had to look for a place without pack ice at the beach and found one in Neusiedl, directly in front of the first class restaurant Mole West. I decided to test out my new freeride set, the Futura 133 plus the NCX pro in 8,0.

It definitely felt different compared to my Slalom stuff, but was fun. A super light sail plus an easy going freerider. The wind was gusty and the water temperature around 3°. But it was worth and many more sessions could follow in the upcoming days.

Chris

Here are some shots, all are taken by Kerstin Reiger, sweet…

The lake Neusiedler, my homespot, is covered with a thick layer of ice in the moment. We had a terrible week with temperatures in between -5° and -15°. That was too much. The conditions for icesailing, or icesurfing were quite good. Two days ago the weather changed completely and we got warm air from the south, perhaps from the Sahara. The temperatures are in between 5° and 10° above zero. So the snow is away, but the ice layer is still covering the lake. Let´s see how long the relatively thick ice will stay compact.

In 2008 I had my last session on the 23rd of December. On the 24th the lake got the cover. This season it was extremely warm till the 11th of December, but afterwards windsurfing was almost impossible and the lake got frozen on the 17 th of December.

Anyway, there is still no chance to windsurf on water, but really hope that the next session will be possible soon.

Wish you all a merry x-mas and have a good time with your friends or family,

Chris

We had snow covering the Caravan (pic: myself)

At the frozen Lake. The sunset could not warm the air, we had -12°. (Pic: Kerstin Reiger)

For all, who were interested in the iSONICs from 2010 and for which conditions, sailsizes and weights they are suited well: check the link with a nice overview from Remi Vila, Jimmy Diaz, Kevin Pritchard and Cyril Moussilmani.

star-board.com iSONIC report

They all are super experienced. The weights of the top Starboard guys are in between 85 kg and 93 kg. The most heavy one, with more than 100 kg, is Björn Dunkerbeck. Let´s see which sizes he will choose. In 2009 he registered 133/ 111 & 86.

Most of the PWA sailors try to cover an extremely big windrange with the 3 boards they are allowed to register at their first event.
I am around 85 naked and tend to go with 86, 111 and 131, but will test the 131 against the 121 a little bit more. I really love the style of the 121, but guess that I can go in extremely light wind with the 131.

Definitely the 86 has a wide range. I use the strongwind board and lightwind speedboard from 5,0 up to 6,7. It´s the board for the Canaries or for events, where it can get rough. Perhaps at Costa Brava with Tramuntana wind, at Lake Neusiedler, in Croatia with Bora winds or in Sylt. In South Korea or Alacati it´s more the 111 or one size bigger.
On the 111 I can put 6,7 up to 8,1.
On the 131 I can use 8,5 and bigger up to 9,8.

The iSONICs 2010, which can be used on the PWA tour and at other international events (Pic: star-board.com)

The iSONIC 131 wood carbon plus the Code Red 8,8. Felt nice! (pic: myself)

The fog has left the lake and we got wind for Formula and Slalom sailing. Today I was out on 8,1 and 122. The gear felt extremely small after all the Formula sessions I had while the last weeks. Wow! I also felt some improvement in my personal muscle power. Gym workout seems to pay off. Tomorrow the snow should arrive in Austria. The winter weather will push some windy snowstorms over the lake. And if not, I will jump on my formula kit or continue my writing stuff. Really thought that this time of the year will be a relaxed one, but have a lot of little projects to finish.

Chris

In Podersdorf at my homespot after a nice Formula session (shot: by myself)

At a sea of fog. The fog covers the ground and is heavy hanging over the lake. I wait for lifting of the fog, when the sun comes through and the wind,too. The lake will be ready again, open and uncovered. Then it´s time:

I MUST GO IN, THE FOG IS RISING (Emily Dickinson, americ. poet, 1830-1886).

The fog is touching the ground (Pic: Chris P.)

The fog covers the reed (Pic: Chris P.)

The beachpark in grey (Chris P.)

In between land, lake, fog and shafts of sunlight (Chris P.)

In Slalom first and in Formula 2nd. Felt great (Pic: Kerstin Reiger)

Full speed on the first leg of the downwind Slalom (Pic: Kerstin Reiger)

“It was a long ride in the car of about 650 km through Hungary and Croatia. But it was worth the effort. Crystal water in the Adriatic sea, blue skies and wind from 7 to 30 knots brought a lot of action. The opponents from Croatia, Slovenia and Austria were excellent and it was a tough fight till the last race.”

Right to me Stojan Vidakovic, left 18 year old Enrico Marotti and to the right of Stojan Vladan Desnica. Congrats to all! (Pic: Kerstin Reiger)

From the 29.10.2009 until the 1.11.2009 the Hallowind 2009 event took place at Jadrija Beach. Jadrija is located on a penisula 5 km south of Vodice on the Jadranska Magistrale highway towards Sibenik, Croatia and offers great conditions for windsurfing.

The forecast for the days of the contest was not looking great, but in the end there could be 10 rounds of Slalom and 2 rounds of Formula finished.

On the first day, we went in super light conditions for a Formula race, but it got cancelled after one round, because the wind completely stopped.

A cold dry northern wind picked up on day two with gusts more than 25 knots and pushed a lot of white caps through the channel of Jadrija and Vodice – and we went for 10 downwind slalom rounds.

“It was definitely hard to choose the right gear. I went as big as I could and did not change to smaller gear, when the wind was at its strongest. The iSONIC 122 plus my Vector 44 and the Code Red 8,1 were the right choice. And when the wind dropped a bit I grabbed my 8,8.”

A packed start and myself very close to the boat. Green flag just goes up, but don´t think too much about over earlies at these events (Pic: Kerstin Reiger)

It was a fight with Stojan Vidakovic from Slovenia and Vladan Desnica from Croatia. Both were quite consistent and had excellent starts. I could win 3 races and took 4 times the second position. The other 3 results were discards. In the end it was a relatively clear victory, which made me super stoked. Th ekey to the victory was to speed up as mch on the first leg, where the water was flat and take board- and sailsize as big as possible!

On day three the northern wind picked up again around midday and we started a Formula race in 12 to 15 knots. In the end we had gusts up to 20 knots. It was my second race since I started to sail on this boardclass in October 2009. My Austrian trainingspartner Peter Pfaffenbichler pimped my 162 with one of his fins, which helped me a lot to perform much better compared to my first Formula competition 20 days ago. I finished race 1 in 4th and race 2 in 2nd position, which brought me overall in 2nd position. Stojan Vidakovic, former Olympic sailor in the Lechner Class and Slovenien Starboard/ Severne importer, dominated the Formula event. Congrats to him! I definitely will continue sailing on Formula kit. In the moment I only bring one board and one rigg to the events, which makes it super easy: a Starboard 162 plus a Severne Code Red 11,0 from 2009.

“I am really happy to finish the racing season with this results and that I started Formula in the end of the year, which is definitely another thrilling variation in the sport of windsurfing. Thanks to all people, who gave me great support this season.”

Absolute freedom in Jadrija, Croatia (Pic: Kerstin Reiger)

Kerstin had a hard time! Filming, taking pics and surviving the nights in far below 10° conditions. Thanks for all (Pic: myself)

Results Hallowind Jadrija / Croatia:

Slalom:

1. Chris Pressler (Starboard / Severne)

2. Vladen Desnica (Starboard / Severne)

3. Zdravko Cerovac (North)

Formula:

1. Stojan Vidakovic (Starboard / Severne)

2. Chris Pressler (Starboard / Severne)

3. Enrico Marotti (Starboard / Neilpryde)

Pics: Kerstin Reiger

I kept on testing the new 2010 wood carbon iSONICS at my homespot and got cool conditions for the next Formula session.

The Formula session was definitely sweet. Grey in grey, clouds, late afternoon and 5 – 10 knots eastwind with super flat water. Pfaffi, my local testpartner and myself sailed along the reed. I got the chance to test a handmade fin from Pfaffi and felt good speed on my 11,0 and 162. Would say this session caught me to invest more time into this kind of windsurfing.

At the lake in Podersdorf, where we stated teh Formula session (Pic: chrispressler.com)

Just before the last light went away we made it back to the beach.

Some days later we went for iSONIC 121 testing. The question was: has the new 121 more lightwind performance? We had 12 to 18 knots. Pfaffi and myself compared the 122 from 2009 in wood edition with the 121 wood carbon. It was my second ride on this model. I already had the chance to jump on the 121, but in wood, at the dealers- and importersmeeting at Sotavento.

Definitely the new 121 starts to plan and accelerate very early. Both the boards were fast. We were on Code Reds 8,1 and 8,3, but switched boards. The new model had a great jibing performance and felt extremely good on all courses, also on extreme upwind and deep downwind.

Now it´s time to compare the 131 with the 121, but have to find the right day with the perfect windconditions for 8,8 /9,0 m sails.

Tomorrow we will head down to Sibenik, Croatia to compete in Formula- and Slalomraces at the Jadrija Hallowind, which is the Supercup final. It starts on the 29th of October.

If you  are interested in some windsurfing gear, check out my offers:

Chris

I was waiting a while to get the right conditions to test the 2010 iSONIC 131 wood carbon. All the last week we had too strong wind conditions, which were great for small Slalom gear. I had a session with 5,4 and 86 fully powered up.

Today we had the perfect 131 conditions, 7 – 12 knots in the afternoon and I was lucky, that Sport Schneider had not sold the model already while the last weekend. So I could borrow the masterpiece – thanks Hannes – and could test it.

The board really started to accelerate in no wind. Was incredible and the jibes felt very easy. In the beginning I had the mastbase a bit back from the sweetspot, but moved it in front of the sweetspot by half a centimeter later.

The board went over the short chop of the lake very quick and it was easy to have good control.  I was quite impressed. The wind was light, but I could accelerate almost 53 km/h in the top speed. The 8,8 m Code Red felt well balanced and the stance is a good one. The straps are far out towards the rails.

My plan is to test the 131 against the 121 while the next days. Could work out on Thursday.

Chris

The set of today: iSONIC 131 wood carbon 2010 plus Canfire 48 plus Code Red 8,8 (pic: www.chrispressler.com)

A view on the super light iSONIC 131 wood carbon 2010 (pic: www.chrispressler.com)