Thanks to the help of our friends Jürgen and David we got lifts from the airport to our home and the other way around. Travelling with 4 boardbags and two big bags to Izmir through Istanbul was a big workout. When we arrived at our final destination in Izmir, not one bag had been arrived on the belt. It needed us more than 6 hours waiting at the airport for all the gear, which got delivered by Turkish Airlines time by time.

Late at midnight we arrived at our Hotel, called Otel Bakirli at Alacti.

The competition started straight on the following day and my motivation was down. I felt so tired plus the motivation was a bit down. All my gearbags were directly in the sun, no shade available. I had been arrived too late definitely this time. Plus went on too big gear, using my 9,6 m Reflex too often. I definitely should have changed to the 8,6 quicker, which fits extremely good my body size and weight for light wind.

No shade for guys, who were a bit later arriving. That was my spot.

I managed to get a 5th in the first round of the first elimination, which was not enough to advance in the quarter final, but was ok  sailing on the big gear fully overpowered. In the second elimination the PWA racemanagement went with a new seeding system sailing in groups of 11 people in the first round. I just passed many people swimming at the first mark, when a Turkish sailor pulled his sail against my boardnose and I got locked inside his boom. That was extremely bad luck just finishing in 10th and second last position of this round. What a nightmare! I got so high points! For sure the discard!

In elimination 3 I saw myself with a worldclass fleet in the first round: Maynard, Dunkerbeck, Williams, Mortefon. The start was slow and I finished 7th out of 8th.

In the 4th race, we also sailed on day 2 of the event –  I felt less tired, more aggressive again and started quite good together with Cyril at the top near the boat. I could not overtake Cyril, so I had to take the direct shortcut to the mark behind his tail, sneaking in in front of some guys and showed up in front of Cyril after the jibe, but without speed at the end of the mark one. It needed me too much time to pick up the speed again. Cyril and Andrea overtook me easily. I always stayed close to Andrea Cucchi, who was in 4th position, but never had a chance to attack him. 5th again!

Elimination number 5, which never saw a valid result!

After day 2 the wind dropped completely, just went for freesailing, testing, tuning, repairing a broken batton. Thanks to Kerstin, Gunnar Asmussen and Ben van der Steen for the help! On the final day, the 14th, we saw some little comeback of the Meltemi.

Good position in race 5 (Pic: by Karo).

I decided to go with the iSonic 131 tuned by the Pfaffi fin 48,5 cm plus the Reflex 8,6. I had a ok start up at the boat, but felt good speed plus free wind and could pass Jesper Orth on the first leg following Arnon Dagan and the eventleader Micah Buzianis. Jesper overtook me at the second jibe again, because I opened him the door jibing to wide, but the Danish Aussie struggled at the 4th and I came in third position again. Damien Le Guen could not get me this time. I was extremely happy making it up in the quarterfinals. And it did not feel like hard work. I had freewind and stable speed cruising through the lulls. Before the race I got my boom up by 5 cm, which perhaps helped me to find a more stable position on board.

Unluckily this round did not see 12 valid runs and the result did not count anymore. Next time I will continue with a heat like I finished here at Alacati!

4th at jibemark 3 just behind Jesper Orth. Leading is Arnon in front of Micah (Pic: Karo).

I only finished in 49th position at Alacati, which dissapoints a lot. Overall I lost 4 positions as well and felt back from 38th in 42nd position. It was the fourth time competing in Alacati, but was my worst result so far. The fifth race would have changed my result a bit. One more race is on the calendar, the final at Westerland, Sylt, which starts on the 23rd of September. I will get myself tuned as good as possible and show, how good I am. See you on Sylt!

It´s over for 3 days already. We sailed 10 full rounds. I finished 36th in my 6th Fuerteventura Slalom, where I started my Racing career 2005. It was my best result since the last years event at Fuerte. My start into the this years competition here at Sotavento was also not the best. I went on too big gear in my first heat, crashed at the first inside jibe in race 2 and got sailed down at the starting line by an opponent in the third race of day 1. Later with the bigger gear I could fight back from position 46 to 36, but believe that I could be placed a bit better. Anyway I used all my gear in the competition I brought to Fuerteventura: the iSonic 111 and 86, Reflex in 5,6, 6,2, 7,0 and 7,8

The level of slalom racing was by far the best I´ve ever seen live and I was happy to make into several quarter finals. Besides we were 4 Austrians starting here: Max Schanda, Manuel Zugsbratl, Marco Lang and myself. That felt cool, that younger sailors from my country found motivation to compete on international level.

In the this years event we saw 4 sailors, who were outstanding: Antoine, Finian, Björn and Cyril. Antoine, who won the event, took the overall lead. Looks like Antoine and Björn will battle it out for the 2010 title. But behind it´s super close. 7 riders are within 600 points. Anything can happen.

My jibing has improved, but must work on setting the jibe much better. Now I am looing forward to Alacati. The event in Turkey will start on the 9th of August. Until the 5th of August I will stay on Fuerte to do some training and get the updates about the freestyle event done plus get some stuff filmed sailing by myself.

Action in the jibe (Pic:Kerstin Reiger).

At the jibemark in a quarter final (Pic: Kerstin Reiger).

Where´s the shortest connection from the start to the finish line (at Gimpo airport)? (Pic: by myself).

Arrived in Asia after several hours on the plane (pic: by myself).

I got some shots for you from South Korea. Some of them are mine, some are by John Carter. We had one day with racing: I started good in my first heat. It was the first heat of the event and the 2010 season. I felt surprisingly good on my new Reflex 9,6, but went for a pin end start in the second heat and got covered.

In the second race I missed to advance in round 2 by 1 meter against Icingir Ertugrul from Alacati. But felt great in the heat fully powered on 111 and 7,8. Definitely I have to speed up my jibing a bit.

In Race 3 I had a great start near the boat fully powered on 111 plus 8,6, what is a great combo. But my fin broke after 10 seconds So far we had no more racing and I am far back from where I would like to be. But looks promising for tomorrow. Right now it´s raining quite strong. Yesterday we had light wind conditions, which gave an ideal situation for testing and tuning the iSonic 131 plus the Reflex 9,6.

Overall the racing was fun and it looked like the level got better again from 2009 to 2010. 11 different riders made it in 3 rounds into the finals, but just 3 of them made it into all 3 finals. Right now it seems like 4 sailbrands – Gaastra, NP, Northsails, Severne – plus 3-4 boardbrands – RRD, JP, Starboard or Tabou will have a realistic chance to win a constructors title and take the crown in the racing discipline. The 63 rule seems to work better than ever, especially in light winds. Race number 1 has been started in quite light conditions. Most of the sailors registered sizes in between 9,0 and 10,0 m and wide boards around 85 cm width.

To make it from the hotel to the beach or the other way around it´s a nice walk. Below are some shots I catched while these walks and mixed them up with the professional pictures of JC and Victor Couto….

The mirror is a must have (my hotel room 308)! (Pic: by myself).

Enjoying 10 knots strong gusts on my new lightwind kit (Pic: John Carter, PWA 2010).

And in the end it was not me getting early enough over the line (Pic: John Carter/ PWA 2010).

Posing for the cam (Pic: John Carter/ PWA 2010).

We are sharing an equipment tent plus Victor Couto, who took the shot: Björn, Steve, Wojtek and myself (Pic: Victor Couto).

A lonely man walking through the streets of Jinha while its raining (Pic: by myself).

Micah with his ipad and nutrition (Pic: by myself).

Korean building style at Jinha Beach (Pic:by myself).

Josh Angulo is not loosing any time testing his new Gun sails (Pic: myself).

Kevs message inside his geartent (Pic: by myself).

Kurosh is discussing the tactics of Josh at the volleyfootballcourt (Pic: by myself).

Björn gets filmed by the media crew (Pic: by myself).

It´s not a vending machine for drinks or chewing gums (Pic: by myself).

Wojtek back on the tour and he already made it into a final. But in the team with Steve, who is reflexing in the background...(Pic: by myself).

The diving ladies from Jinha. Respect! (Pic: by myself).

TV show by UBC. And the windsurfers in the background played around far a while to stay in the picture(Pic: by myself).

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 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

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

The race crew started with a Formula race in very light wind conditions. I was on my 11,o  Code Red and the Formula 162. It felt really different to sail on such a wide board. Besides I am much more used to fight head to head for positions. The fleet was splitted in all kind of directions. My heart rate went definitely up, when I pumped on the 11,0 for a while. I had to open the zip of the wetsuit to get some fresh air for cooling down myself, when arriving at the upwind mark. And we only had 13-14° airtemperature. In the end I finished in 9th position in my first Formula race.

The wind picked up and we went for 6 rounds of Slaloms. The crew set a 4 mark downwind course with the first leg on porttack. My favourite starting direction. The fleet had 30 sailors. It was quite crowded at the line. In the first three races I sailed on iSonic 122, Vector 44 plus Code Red 8,8. The trimm was good , but I missed some knots. The wind was up and down and big windholes were on the course area. It was a tough fight with Markus Pöltenstein, who could beat me in the first 3 races. In race 4 the wind picked up to 25 knots and I was fully powered on 7,0 and 101 plus Vector Canfire 36. We had an awesome run, but the heat got cancelled, because too many guys were over early. While the restart the wind completely lost strength and I massively struggled arriving in 10th position at the first mark, but could overtake a lot of sailors with a hard carved inside jibe and finished in 3rd. That meant Markus was winning the this years 2009 Nationals. In race 5 I changed back to 122 plus the 8,1, because the gusts were still strong. The sail felt super quick this day. I had by 1,5 cmm more downhaul, but felt already some pain in the muscles. In the 5th race I had a good lead, but met a massive windlow before the last mark and lost the lead to Stojan Vidarkovic just 300 before the finishing line. In the final elimination number 6 I kept on going on the same gear setup and changed my starttactics. It paid off and I could win the race with a good distance towards my opponents. It felt good winning the final elimination.

Immediately after finishing the Slalom we continued with Formula racing. Two more rounds got sailed and the wind was much stronger compared to the morning. I did ok and finsihed once in 9th and once in 10th position. It was an ok debut out of my view. There were quite good sailors from Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovenia.

Overall it was a cool competition and I really wished to win in the Slalom competition, but also felt happy with the second position. Congrats to Markus, Stojan and all other competitors, who were fighting like animals.

full results

At the first jibemark in race 6 (Pic: Kerstin Reiger)

Now it´s time to keep up training and my plan is to compete in some Super Cup events in Slalom and Formula.

The PWA tour is over for 2009. I finished in 27th  in the overall Slalomranking and could improve from last year by 4 positions. In the moment there are no infos about the next years tourstopps, but I will try to improve my skills in all terrains and kind of windconditions. I also want to improve my jibes. The plan is to change the boardsizes. Instead of the 101 I plan to ride the iSONIC 111. As the biggest board I will use the 121 or the 131. Will test the 131 against the 121 from 2010 very soon.

Chris

After a long day of competing (Pic: Kerstin Reiger)

But it was definitely worth to come to Sylt. I had some trainings sessions in the rough North Sea and could watch awesome wave and freestyle action.

Back from the Slalom heat (Pic: Kerstin Reiger)

While the Sylt event we had the PWA meeting and there are some cool new developments around the corner. Let´s see, if the plans can be realised.

Prparations before the start (Pic: Michael Schwartz)

On the upcoming weekend the Austrian Nationals will be held at Lake Neusiedler and the windforecast looks good. I am already excited to get a good result done.

Chris

I brought all my three registered iSONICS in 122, 101 and 86, Code Reds in 8,8/ 8,1/ 7,0/ 6,2 and 5,4 and a lot of masts, booms and extensions. The shorebreak can be extremely hard and a big punishment here at Westerland!

The Slalom races could start tomorrow around 11:00. Let´s see, if the wind will be strong and steady enough. Should be on the lighter side. I hope I can make a good result at the end of the PWA season. If there should be no competition, I will be at my sponsors tents in the pit walk. Just pass by and let´s have a talk about the new 2010 products. I already had the chance to test them at the René Egli Pro Center and while the importers- dealersmeeting 2 weeks ago.

Below are some impressions of today,

Chris

On the stage with the Austrian crew, Manuel Zugsbratl left and Michael "Rossi" Roßmeier on the right (Pic: Kerstin Reiger)

With Florian Lachauer from APM at the Starboard 2010 tent (Pic: Kerstin Reiger)

A view back: at the 2010 Starboard/ Severne/ Airush importers/dealersmeeting (Pic: Kerstin Reiger)