10th October, 2011

Hello everybody!

Sorry for the lack of updates; my Athens routine is completely crazy. Apologies... September was spent working all week and then with the children on the beach on weekends. Days went by super fast. End of September I flew to Germany to attend the last PWA wave event of the year. I am back in Athens since a week. Seems like the weather is getting colder here...

This year was one of those classic Sylt forecasts where the island is super windy before the contest, the wind drops on registration day, 10 days of absolutely nothing follow, and then on the day everybody’s getting on the train to Hamburg, it starts to blow again, and the next days are epic. Only nobody is there anymore ;) This place is just amazing... It has been 2 years since I was up in Sylt last time; I had a nightmare of a trip to get there this year, absolutely every part of my trip was a disaster... It took me a few days to recover from all the stress that being a professional windsurfer traveling with gear involves - if things go wrong you can get in a real mess.

Hats off to the organizer and all the crew up there, who ensured that we had an awesome event, despite the lack of wind. They had tow-in sessions almost every day, during which the guys were killing it. Both freestyle and (some) wave sailors gave it a go, and I must say that it was pretty tough. I personally spent the week on Sylt doing quite a lot of work on and off the event site, and getting out of my Athens routine. Most importantly, version 2 of weendy application went online whilst I was there and I spent a lot of time getting feedback from people; also had a nice presentation on the Sylt stage, in front of the crowds.

All pics by the famous John Carter/PWA

Not sailing almost at all this year is starting to feel a bit hard on my nervous system though; I can feel it. My next update will probably be from the island of Naxos, where I am going next week to join the crew of Flisvos Sport Club for the second time this year. Looks like there is north wind coming, so hopefully we’ll spend a few hours playing with the nice waves in front of the beach cafe in Agios Georgios. Fingers crossed!