During the first final I missed the start a bit and was last at the first jibing mark. The green flag went up several seconds before the countdown on my watch, but I managed to fight back, overtook 5 people, but took too much risk at the last jibe and crashed. This was my only crash during this week. Enrico Marotti from Rijeka, a 102kg slalom machine, Sailing on Starboard won this first elimination.

At final number 2  I recognized a little wind shift and started at the boat blasting downwind to the first mark, where I managed to jibe a few meters in front of Enrico. I kept my lead, but a big battle started. He tried to push me down, up, but I had great speed on the 107 with the 8,6 and was able to hold him off on the 6 minute long course until the finish line. Happy. So I got this win in my pocket.

On the final day a third round got started and Enrico and myself made it again into the final. Just before the final would have started, the wind dropped below the 11 knots rule and the event got called off, which meant that we had no discard and my chances to win the event this year again, were gone.

But I am happy with my second place,  as I am satisfied with my slalom performance. My speed and jibes are much better and I am more aggressive on the course. So, the winner is Enrico Marotti, I got second and in third came the Croatian RSX sailor, Luka Mratovic, who competed at the Olympic Games in London. Big congrats to Enrico, who sailed really great with a lot of speed and positive vibes!!

I had a great week at the Zoo Station windsurfing center, the organizer of the event. Thanks again to the sponsors Hot Kastil and Zoo Station. The atmosphere was great and I am looking forward to come back to Croatia soon.

At the moment I am at the Costa Brava! I sailed my first heat today. Unluckily with 8,6 instead of 9,2 as I broke a mast just before my heat. And the wind was really light.

Broken mast today. Bad luck.

John Carter got me in front of his lense on day 1 at Costa Brava (Pic: Carter/PWA Worldtour 2013).

Chris (AUT-226)

Check out a few great shots from Bol, Croatia done by Kerstin Reiger

The result of a really hard crash.

107 and 7,0 is a nice combo. Much underrated so far. But needs wind and felt like the Reflex 4 works excellent on the 68,5 cm wide board. I used 38 cm fin, but for sure I could have used a bit smaller one, too

I sailed a lot with Marco Lang, who trained a lot during the last months and has massive speed. It helped a lot to follow him and sail at the limit. We as well tested many different fins and some new ones from Peter Pfaffenbichler, the S4 LTx, which worked very well on my Starboards and Marco’s Fanatics.

Windy days are great days.

I really tried to get prepared well for the next weeks in Croatia and Spain. But time is limited. Especially Costa Brava will be a tough one with probably the best Worldcup fleet since the Slalom discipline got relaunched in 2005. The Croatian Slalom Championships will help to get back some racing routine. Actually I really feel used well to my gear.

Landing out of space at the Slalom Worlds on Sylt. It needed a few days to find the racing rhytm (Pic: Kerstin Reiger).

I registered my brand new Reflex 4 in 9,2/8,6/ 7,8 and 7,0 plus my 2012 iSonics 117 wide and 107. The gear worked great and I was able to cover all conditions with the 42 rule. Good old days .It seems like the 8,6 is much more powerful compared to 2012 version and I can go in less wind as I lost a few kilos, too. A perfect sail for many board sizes. It works great on 117, 110, 107. For sure on 127, too.

Warm up day at Sylt at day 1 of the competition. On my 9,2 with 117wide. Carsten Naumann on the boat with the cam (Pic: Stevie Bootz/Choppy Water).

We saw the first 2 eliminations on day 2 and I definitely struggled a bit. In the first elimination I missed the top 16 very close. A slow start and no speed on the first leg caused a fifth place in round 2. In elimination 2 I went too big in round one, was third for a while, but then crashed at a mark.

On day 4 and five we saw two more rounds. I felt fast on 8,6 with 117 wide and qualified for the winners final in round 3. Was fighting for place 6, but lost ground at the last mark and finished 8th in this final. But was really cool to sail with the top guys in a final.

Round 4 started great despite I was extremely overpowered on 8,6 and 117 wide. A little cold front was on the course. I switched to 7,8 mand 107. That was a big fault. The wind dropped by 10 knots or more. I had no chance to change gear as the start was far outside on the ocean and I only was able to cruise over the course finishing in 6th. Not enough for the top 16. A disappointing moment, but that’s racing. I should have stayed on the big gear no matter how windy it is. The wind is so shifty and can change a lot at Sylt, when it’s blowing onshore. Within 5 minutes strong gusts can loose all the power and you need the 80 cm width underneath your feet combined with a big sail. I really don’t know why I didn’t stay with 8,6 as I was able to hold it in 25 knots still in the first round. Go big or go home. That’s definitely an important rule for Sylt!

In qualifying position for the final during the 3rd elimination (Pic: Stevie Bootz/Choppy Water).

But I definitely felt the fire again. My body was full of adrenalin. Wow, racing can be so much fun. It’s my 9th season now after I started with this discipline, when I turned into 30 a few years ago. After a long winter break I am extremely hungry for the upcoming season. I want to go faster and more aggressive at the starts and jibes again. This was just the first event and much can happen during the season. The new boards should arrive during this week and there are three more weeks left for intense training till the next event, the Croatian Slalom championships in Bol, Brac. I feel it’s easier for me to choose the right gear. I easily can go with 8,6 in the lighter wind, but can hold this size pretty long. Now I need to tune my 7,8 a bit more and test all my 460ty masts to select the ideal ones.

My plan is to register the iSonics 97/107 and 117 for the PWA tour as we will not race in real high wind conditions like we had in the past at Sotavento. What a pity that we will not see a racing event at Sotavento. But let’s check how the forecast for Costa Brava will look like. Perhaps we will get strong Tramontana like two years ago and I am going to register a small Slalom board, too!!

What’s the resume about Sylt: The IFCA Worlds gave me the chance to test the Reflex 4 sails and get some excellent training at starts and marks. It was definitely worth to travel there as the conditions were nice and the racecrew on the water tried everything to run races. On the second last day they tried to run heats at eight in the evening, but the wind died in the end. It was cool to race with all the young hotshots and the best German Cuppers. Really hope to do better at the next event on Sylt, the PWA final in the end of September.

Rough conditions for the boat crew this time. 7 degrees air, 10 degrees water. Was an ok start. (Pic: Stevie Bootz/Choppy Water).

The level was excellent. A lot of young guys are sailing fast and tactically very well! 34 year old Gunnar Asmussen from Flensburg, one of the most experienced slalom racers of the whole fleet, had impressive speed and the will to win. He deserves the title as he prepared several months in Western Australia training with Patrik Diethelm. Vincent Langer sailed very solid and showed great jibing. He challenged Gunnar a lot. Big congrats to Jordy Vonk, who impressed everyone taking the third place. He improved a lot during the winter months But many sailors improved a lot during the winter months. It doesn’t matter, if they are young or masters already. Sebastian Kornum, Maciek Rutkowski, Andrea Rosati, Casper Boumann, Jean Floch or Ethan Westera were sailing very well.

I finished 22nd overall, but was happy to qualify for one winners final. Have a look on the full result here! Big thanks to my girlfriend, who supported me very well at the beach despite the temperatures were really low and some squalls with massive rain went over the event site during the event. See you on the water!

Tuning my gear at the beach. Sylt was worth the trip !! (Pic: Kerstin Reiger).

© Stevie Bootz/Choppy Water, Kerstin Reiger 2013 

Travel to Split and take the ferry boat to Brac island. More infos from Toni Bulic: zoo-station@net.hr

The poster for the Croatian Slalom Championships 2013.

Was fun racing there last year (Pic: Kerstin Reiger).

Peter is working on prototypes in the necessary sizes and we are going to test the S4 LTX pro Slalom with the new gear. We as well will test the new ones against the existing S1, S2 and S3 models and several products from other brands.

Kerstin got some nice shots. I am really into freeriding at the moment. My new racing sails, the Reflex 4, will arrive during the second week of April and the boards later in the month. It’s all good. First competition will be on Sylt during the second week of May!

©all pics Kerstin Reiger

It will be interesting, how an offence is judged by the Race commitee and what’s an offence, which has a value of 250 $. A broken sail, a broken board, damaged skin or broken bones..

All in all these new rules make sense to me and hopefully don’t limit the “No Rules” idea, which helped the sport to get more free . There were just a few delays through little discussions sometimes, but big protests by riders were abolished.

Most of these new rules have organizational character and don’t influence the style of sailing at the race course. Still everyone is allowed to choose the best personal line towards the startline, attack hard but fair at the marks and cover or push down direct opponents. But looks like fairness gets a higher value.

I would like to see a rule which guarantees fair wind along the full starting line and all over the triangle towards the first mark. If you choose for instance a boat start tactics and the wind totally drops in the upwind section of the line and on the following upwind section of the first reach, the race crew should take that fact in consideration. I personally found it really hard at Fuerte last year, when the wind suddenly dropped on the first reach a lot.

Out of my view it can be really tough as well, when the wind suddenly picks up by 10 knots and you are on the wrong gear completely overpowered. There should be a chance to change kit, like an extra time extension. But you should have prepared your gear already at the beach.

Racing at Fuerte 2012 (Pic: Carter/PWA)

1. Race Directors will be advised to take notice of significant amounts of debris in the water. Small natural debris, such as seaweed, should not be considered significant, but if there are frequent, large items of human debris, such as furniture or similar, the Race Director should consider whether it is safe to race. This does not necessarily mean that races will be abandoned or postponed, unless debris is considered to be an unavoidable risk to safety.

2.  Heats shall not be cancelled due to wake created by boats coming through the course. If the boat is physically in the way of sailors forcing them to change course, then the heat may be abandoned, but if it is just the wake of the boat on the water then the heat will not be cancelled.

3. If the wind drops below 7 knots when the sailors are nowhere near then the heat should not be abandoned.

Overpower situation with 7,8m at Sotavento. The wind suddenly picked up by 10 knots (Pic: Carter/PWA).

4. Once everyone has crossed the finish line then the heat cannot be abandoned.

5. Heats cannot be cancelled due to wind strength unless:

i.              Wind drops below 7 knots where it is measured whilst sailors are nearby

ii.             At least 6 sailors out of 8 stop planning for at least 10 seconds.

Racing at Sylt 2012 in difficult conditions (Pic: Carter/PWA).

6. Sailors will be instructed to stay clear of the starting area and must remain upwind of start boat during a running sequence unless competing in that heat. Sailors who are judged to be interfering or potentially causing a genuine distraction at the start by being in the vicinity of the starting fleet  may be disqualified.

7. No changes to will be made to the course between the Start Boat, Start Mark and Gybe 1, after the red flag.

8. Race Directors will be instructed to use more varied courses where possible. Sailors are invited to suggest course ideas and a selection of suitable courses shall be chosen by a subcommittee of Racers / Sailor Reps.

9. Where possible, more regular equipment measurement checks will be performed to try and ensure that equipment registration rules are being adhered to.

10. If racing incidents are proven or judged to be dangerous sailing by the Race Committee, the competitors judged to have acted dangerously will be penalised by the following hierarchy of penalties at each event:

i.              1st offence = €250 fine

ii.             2nd offence = €250 fine plus DSQ from that race

iii.            3rd offence = €250 fine plus DSQ from the event

© PWA Worldtour 2013

Having fun at my homespot Podersdorf, March 2013, 6th (Pic: Kerstin Reiger).

Somewhere in Salzburg! On top of the hill surrounded by the best powder snow youvcan imagine (Pic: Kerstin Reiger).

Some new Gators for the 2013 season, out of the storage of APM in Bavaria.

©Chris Pressler/Kerstin Reiger 2013

Have a look at the shots

On a field with snow close to where we live, mid of January. It´s an intense winter.

After a one year break it was time to spend some days at the BOOT show in Düsseldorf, Germany again. We decided to drive by car from Austria to Germany. That was the best decision as most of the flight got cancelled these days as the heavy snowfall caused a closing down of Vienna airport for a day. In the meanwhile we had a fantastic day skiing just before the long drive up north to Düsseldorf. Luckily the heavy snowfall stopped one day before we started.

Once arrived we felt like home. Our friends Christin, Jens and Susi welcomed us with great food and nice atmosphere and we forgot about the freezing temperatures far below zero. These were the coldest days we ever spent in the Ruhr Region. Two and a half days at the boot, meeting many friends and colleagues. We filmed a bit and got some nice interviews recorded. One day we spent in Düsseldorf, visiting two fantastic art exhibitions in the Museum Kunstpalast. One night we spent at the SURF party in the Nachtresidenz. All in all it was a great trip. Driving 2500 km  cross Germany and Austria was probably the hardest part of the trip. At the beginning of our trip we had heavy snowfall and we were not able to drive faster than 50 kilometers per hour on the highway. It felt like skiing with a car. Wintertime can be really extreme in our homecountry.

Now it´s time for the ISPO in Munich next week and then straight back on the Austrian hills. The snow is great. Afterwards a trip in south western direction is planned.

January was a very sad month too, as we lost two great characters in our sport: Mikey Clancy commited suicide and Andy Buchanan died after a four year long fight against blood cancer. Both died much too young and we always will remember you both!

 © Chris Pressler 2013