I’ve stayed in Greece this winter, trying to sail as much as
possible in and around Athens…
We’ve had some good days with really strong wind and quite good waves for
jumping, some so-so days with wind but no waves, and a lot of days with
absolutely no wind.
The good thing is that we’ve had a
few days with south wind, which is not so common in Athens, so I’ve had the chance to sail a
little bit on starboard tack. South wind in winter is the best, because it’s
always warm and you can stay in the water all day long without feeling cold.
Although the wind is a bit weird when it’s blowing from the south, sometimes
it’s really fluky and light, I’ve had some really good sessions on my NewWave
Twin 72 and 4.5 - 5.1 The Fly sails with starboard tack jumping and port tack
surfing. The waves are quite nice, although at times it’s really onshore and
hard to surf them. It’s nice to sail on starboard tack, because I am trying
different moves than usual, and I feel much more comfortable waveriding with
left foot forward. I have also wanted to try shakas on starboard tack since a
while now, but I couldn’t really try them properly when I am sailing port tack
coming in. So I have been really motivated sailing on starboard tack and I
landed my first shakas the other day, so now I want more starboard tack
jumping. Let’s hope we have more south wind coming!!!! Fingers crossed
The king is crowned!
29th October, 2008
The freestyle
challenge is over after 2 days of wind and almost perfect conditions for freestyle.
There were 32 participants in total and some heats were really spectacular.
On Saturday morning
we did the registration, the single elimination ladder was put up, and after a
half-an-hour warm up, the first sailors hit the water. The sailors that made it
to the quarterfinals were really consistent with their moves and some heats
were really close to decide. The sailors that made it to the semifinals were Vaggelis
Divis, Alex Prapas, Nick Athanasiou and Stam Prombonas. The first day came to
an end around 5 in the evening, after the single elimination was completed. The
result of the single elimination was 1.Stam, 2.Nick, 3.Alex, 4.Vaggelis.
On the second
day of the competition most sailors were on the beach early to check the
conditions, prepare their equipment and have a look at who they had to battle
against on the double elimination. The double elimination started and the
climate between all the sailors was really nice, everyone was helping out each
other on the beach with the equipment and heat sequence.
The sailor that
came up to challenge the 4th place finisher of the single
elimination was Pantelis Papagiannopoulos from Patra. The heat was spectacular,
with both sailors landing quite technical moves, but in the end it was Vaggelis
Divis who prevailed, managed to keep his lead and went on to challenge the 3rd
place finisher, Alex Prapas. Gaining momentum, Vaggelis had a really good heat
against Alex, with the latter being in an unfavorable position after choosing a
sail that was too small for the conditions. The result was that Alex could not
demonstrate his usually polished repertoire of switch chachoo, puneta, clew
first puneta, funnel, eslider, double flaka, spocks, grubbies, forwards, and
had to succumb to his opponent who landed his moves cleanly and more dry. Vaggelis
continued to face out Nick Athanasiou, who was waiting in second place. Nick was
fresh and he was performing his moves effortlessly, leaving no doubt as to who
was to advance.
The final was
once again between Nick and Stam and once again it was spectacular. Stam was
really confident and I have to say that he has been killing it in this event. In
his heats in the single elimination, even against not so strong opponents, he
has been landing forward, shaka, ponch, flaka, cana brava, no hand flaka,
puneta 1 hand, eslider, switch chachoo, gozzada and he even tried a burner in
the final of the single elimination, which he almost landed. Amazing… Nick put
up a good fight, but he could not match all of Stam’s moves in style and
execution. He tried to reply to Stam’s perfectly executed ponch by trying
double spock, but fell two times, which was not good for his motivation and
flow. The decision was straightforward, Stam had won… Well done for my fanatic
team-mate !!! He really deserves it.
Pic: Stamatis
no hand flaka
Final results:
1st Stamatis Prombonas
2nd Nikos Athanasiou
3rd Vaggelis Divis
4th Alex Prapas
Overall, it was
a really fun weekend and the onlookers that were sitting at the waters’ edge
were really into the event. Besides some omissions, everything went perfect and
the only downside of the event was the injury of good friend and freestyle
sailor, Tasos Galanis, who broke his foot during a double flaka attempt.
Thanks a lot to
the organizer, Mr. Kontarinis from “FORWARD” windsurfing shop, as well as
everybody who supported this event. A big thanks also goes to the three judges
that sat on the tower for two days in a row and didn’t miss a move! And also to
Nikolas Karavanas who was taking care of the flags and horn and was so helpful
in letting everybody know about heat times, remaining time, who’s next, pretty
much everything actually. He must be exhausted after this weekend !
There were about
4.000 pics taken by the photographers of the event, some of them will be
uploaded on the greek website www.windsurfing.gr. I will also upload some
here…
Until next time !!!
DaKine Freestyle Challenge 2008
22nd October, 2008
This weekend (25 – 26 October) we have a freestyle event in
my homespot. A lot of people are going to take part and we are expecting some
radical performances… I have been watching the guys practicing freestyle all
week long and I can say that they have made big progress…
I will keep you updated !
Autumn is here
17th October, 2008
Pics: Fotis Papadopoulos
Autumn is here and I am back in the water
after my leg has healed completely from the stitches I did in the middle of
September. We’ve had some good conditions and I had the chance to try all my
new sails and boards the past two weeks. I’ve got new NeilPryde Zones and Flys
and a new Fanatic twinfin board which I absolutely love.
We’ve had an absolutely amazing day in the Korinthian gulf,
with Northwest wind. It was my first session with the twinfin 72lt, and I was
in the water from 10 in the morning until 5 in the evening riding waves. It is
unbelievable what this board can do, you can take completely different
positioning on the wave than with a single-fin board…
I’ve also put up some new clips on the gallery section
(videos), one of them is from the day with the riding session. Just to have a
look of how it was. Thanks a lot to Christos Zymatikas and Aris Xintaras who
stayed behind the camera for a little while to capture some of the action.
Check out some new pics on the Gallery (Greece -
Korinthiakos), I've put some from Lexeio, a spot that is 1 hour west of Athens
and works with West wind. I was really overpowered on my 3.2 that day... Thanks
a lot to Fotis Papadopoulos for the
pictures !
I’ve got much much more footage which I will put together
in a video soon….
See you all in the water !
3S magazine Pushloop Technique
15th
September, 2008
Hello everybody
!
Here you
have a pushloop technique that I wrote for the greek magazine 3S , it was
published in the August-September 08 issue. Sorry for the pictures being small, you can save and enlarge them to see better. But the words are in greek ...
Hope you
enjoy it !
Mykonos pictures
4th
August, 2008
Hello everybody !
I have just uploaded some pictures from the greek island of Mykonos, where I spent one week in the
beginning of May. Mykonos is a really beautiful
greek island and I always like to go there… All pics are taken by my friend Dinos Sempepos.
Check out the gallery section. I hope you like them !
Pozo PWA finished !
12th July, 2007
pics: PWA/ John Carter
After 9 days of competition here in Pozo, Gran Canaria, the
event is finished …
In waves, Victor kept his 1st position, followed
by Ricardo Campello in 2nd who also put up an incredible show in the
double elimination. Dani Bruch finished 3rd and Kauli Seadi 4th.
In the women, 1st was Daida, then Iballa, then
Karin and then Silvia, who put up a pretty good fight in the double
elimination.
The whole double elimination took place in insane winds,
all the girls were completely overpowered… and the guys too, most of them were
on their 3.3 and 3.0 and were really powered up… first time I saw Victor
Fernandez sailing on his 3.4 full power, and first time I saw Daida and Iballa
take their 3.0m out ! it was completely crazy !
I didn’t do so good after I twisted my knee earlier this
week, I was not so confident anymore with landing my moves in these crazy
conditions, so I lost against Junko Nagoshi in the 3rd round…. So
now I am overall 7th in waves.
In freestyle, we had 2 eliminations, both of which were won
by Sarah-Quita… this year her sailing has reached another level! She is so
confident with her moves it’s almost unreal… Daida was 2nd in both
eliminations, Laure was 3rd in the first elimination and 4th
in the second elimination, and then Junko Nagoshi was 4th in the
first and 3rd in the second elimination. Laure and Junko had to
resail this morning, on the last day of competition, in order to break the tie,
in completely crazy winds for freestyle. It was almost a suicide, I was a bit
scared as they were heading out to sail their heat. They both started good, landing
spocks on the inside. But then when it came to switch stance moves, Junko who
was trying them coming in could find better flat spots and less wind than Laure
who was trying them going out… Junko finally won the heat and the 3rd
position in freestyle… Pozo this year has been TOO windy i must say... The last three days the wind has been so
strong that I am completely overpowered on my 3.3m sail and 69lt waveboard… I’m
going to bring a smaller sail and board when I come back next year, that’s for
sure !
Wave Super Session
12th
July, 2007
pics: PWA/ John Carter
On the last day of competition the
wind was still howling, 3.3m sails completely overpowered and most of the guys
were on their 3.3 and 3.0. Also, we still had waves, so we did a Wave Super
Session with a €1500 prize money. With the super session format, we all go in
the water for a final in a jump only contest, and the judges score only the
best jump from each competitor.
We girls sailed the final straight
away because we were fewer than the guys… The guys did 4 heats, with only one sailor
advancing to the final. The final consisted of Victor Fernandez, Ricardo
Campello, John Skye and Kauli Seadi. All the guys were throwing doubles in the
final, it was amazing. And then Ricardo tried a triple and almost made it... Results:
1st Ricardo, 2nd Victor and 3rd John Skye.
In the women’s final, Daida Moreno
won for almost landing a double, I was second with a pushloop
and Iballa Moreno was third behind me… it was good to be on the podium even if
it was the super session and not proper competition, especially because I was 2nd
ahead of Iballa, who is always 2nd here in Pozo.
I’m going back home in 2 days, to
check if my knee is ok and relax after a long 3 weeks stay here in Gran Canaria…
Wave Single elimination completed !
4th July, 2008 pic: PWA/ John Carter
First day of competition in Pozo today, we started straight
away with the waves based on the quite good forecast… it was not as great as we
expected, but they pushed it a little bit and we completed the full single
elimination….
The elimination ladder was bad for me, I was against Daida
Moreno on the second round so I got knocked out…
Now I have to wait for more waves and the double
elimination. The forecast doesn’t look that great for the rest of the week, looks
like we’re going to do lots of freestyle eliminations, but let’s hope we get
some good waves before the contest ends next Saturday !
The results of today are:
MEN : 1st: Victor Fernandez
2nd:
Dani Bruch
3rd:
Ricardo Campello
4th: Nik Baker
WOMEN: 1st: Daida Moreno
2nd:
Iballa Moreno
3rd:
Karin Jaggi
4th:
Nayra Alonso
Off to Pozo !!!
17th
June, 2008
Hello !
I’m going
to Pozo on the 22nd June, to train before the PWA Gran Canaria Grand
Slam that runs from the 3rd until the 12th of July…
The
forecast for next week looks really promising, I am really looking forward to
sailing in Pozo again after one whole year !
News
