miércoles, 6 de julio de 2011

Diony Reports From PWA Aruba

Competing in his first PWA event of the season in Aruba, Diony the seasoned Hot Sails Maui professional sent us this brief report from the beautiful shores of Aruba



"It's been about 16 years since they had a PWA Slalom event here in Aruba, the first time I was here was in 1999 I won the junior's Slalom, last year 2010 was my second time winning the Aruba Hi Winds Slalom Pro, today was the third day of the PWA Slalom, the level is super high, today was my best day so far placing 6th in a Loser Final, tomorrow is another day, hope to do better!
This 29th of June they will start the traditional Aruba Hi Winds again, I'm sure it's gonna be a blast!"


Diony is currently lying in 25th spot after 7 rounds of slalom with one more day to go, tune into the PWA Webiste to watch the action on the LIVE ticker.

All pics courtesy of Carter/PWA

More to follow...

Margarita Wild Winds Report by: Wilhelm Schurmann

Riccione to Margarita…by Wilhelm Schurmann

After the formula Grand Prix in Riccione, I drove up to Milan together with my fellow countryman, Gabriel Browne, Mathias Pinheiro and Aldo Maya (Bebeko) to board my flight to Brazil which would connect through JFK in New York.

As I arrived in JFK, I bumped into Micah Buzianis who was heading back to Maui, returning from the event in Costa Brava. He told me all about the nuclear wind conditions they had in Costa Brava and I told him about the Riccione GP racing where we had very light winds and raced in minimal conditions.

Windsurfing is amazing, we were racing on what was the same day on 12.0s with winds around the 6 to 8 knots range, super light and tactical, while a bit further away they were racing on the smallest size they had, with winds gusting over 45 knots. In both these events, Neilpryde took top spot, showing that the sails are working well from 6 – 45 knots.

From JFK I went to Sao Paulo and arrived there the next morning, a friend came to the airport and picked up my formula gear, as 4 hours later, I was due to board to Venezuela.

My flight got delayed and by the time I arrived in Caracas I missed my connection to Margarita, with this I had to sleep in Caracas and wait for the next morning’s flight. I eventually boarded to Margarita with “also” a 2 hour delay, by the time I arrived in Margarita, it was around 11am (62 hours after I left Riccione).

With no time to loose, I rigged my slalom gear that friends had brought from Brazil for me and hit the water for the start of the event the same day…


MARGARITA WILD WINDS 2011
El Yake (El Yaque) needs no introduction, blessed with trade winds and warm waters; the spot is one of the best in the world for Slalom and Freestyle. It is also so convenient with the hotels and windsurfing club just a few meters from the beach, not to mention the warmth of the local hospitality.

The event went on for 5 days (8th -12th June) and during the first two days the winds were lighter and most sailors were on 8.6 sails and big boards. However the winds picked up on the last three days and sail sizes went between 8.6 and 7.8 well powered up.
We did a total of 7 long distance races and 10 slalom finals.


In the long distance races, I managed to keep consistent with 3 bullets and 4 seconds, thus winning the Long Distance which counted for 20 % of the overall.  Second Place went to Diony Guadagnino followed by Juan Marino in third. Sergio Mehl, who has won the event more times than any other sailor, took 3 bullets on the long distance, but unfortunately severe blisters on his foot prevented him from competing on the two last days.
In the slalom, which counted for 80% of the overall, Diony and I had a good battle right to the last and deciding race. At the last race, we were so close on the second leg, that Diony's board was touching my harness, I could have sat on his board. By the third jibe, I got overpowered on a jibe and went to0 wide, Diony seized the opportunity and went inside to take the lead and win the last race, with this taking the slalom title by 0.25 points ahead of me, what a race.

Third Place went to Ricardo Campello, who is no stranger to the Wild Winds and showed that he can be very competitive on slalom gear and not only wave and freestyle. In fourth was Colombia’s top sailor, Jean Paul Liht, followed by Juan Marino in Fifth.

The Margarita Wild Winds has many different categories, such as Master, Amateur, Kite slalom and Freestyle, Pro, Junior, Grand Master, Women, kids and super kids, the last one being one of the most amazing, as you see the very young generation ripping out there as young as 5 to 6 years old.



A special thanks to Victor Martin for making the event happen, all the people from EL Yake and for the Photos provided by: Alain Galarneau.
For all Photos go to Alans face book page at:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.129448153802242.34130.100002111757973&l=63c7cfec20 Photos: Attached Photo Credit: Alain Galarneau

Another Wild Winds Win for Diony

Diony reports from his win in Margarita;


“The first Margarita Wild Winds was in 1995, I was 12 years old, 17 years later I was able to celebrate my first victory after competing the past 10 years of my career! The conditions were ideal with consistent light conditions in the morning and strong winds in the afternoon for slalom and long distance!"  





"The level was very high this year with 7 different Countries represented; Brasil, Argentina, Colombia, USA, France, Hungry and Venezuela. My good friend Wilhelm Shrmann from Brasil, currently ranked #1 in Formula, was strong competition and it all went down the last day, our first heat of the day I risked my start going over early, we had only 2 slalom rounds left and 1 long distance to close the event! I knew I couldn't make any more errors, to win I had to win all! that's exactly what I did keeping in track, I am super happy in winning the Margarita Wild Winds this year! Thanks for the support of my family and to all my sponsors, Nestea, AHD boards and Hot Sails Maui”
Diony V69


Result:

1st Place Overall Slalom & Long Distance Margarita Wild Winds Pro!

Photo credits: Alain Galarneau