windsurfing in the heart of London, powered by massive generators that produce wind up to 30 knots!
the London Boat Show is a huge exhibition with thousands and thousands of visitors every single day. a special hall with a 70m x 25m pool and a price money of 75.000 euro attract the best windsurfers in the world to come to the Excel and battle it out in jump, freestyle and slalom!
to save a place in the freestyle final round I had to beat top names like John Skye, Yannick Anton or Browsinho! unfortunetely I couldn't get used to the pool conditions that quick (we only had 3 moves practice) and was struggling with my portack moves as I couldn't keep up by the fans on the way back to land my switch stance moves. finally the routine won and i had to watch the competition from now on, quite a bugger, but hey...
the tricky thing about the pool is that the wind is so unbelievably gusty and way too strong up by the fans (4.7 overpower), fast dropping though when you go downwind! and then there's the only 25m wide pool that forces you to time your jumps very well!!
during the four days of competition people saw quite a lot wipe outs together with some incredible moves! Ricardo almost landed a ponch and did a perfect shaka, but couldn't claim his switch moves on the last day, Yannick Anton busted out a perfect DOUBLE LOOP on Sunday and Kauli came along with an air chachoo!! Nicolas was as safe as it gets in switch chachoos and that made him 1st in freestyle, second time in a row!! Ricardo won the jump and the overall title...sailing in the pool is really good fun, especially when there's a big crowd!
full report and all results on the pwa homepage...
staying in London at my friends' house (thanks again to Andy and Adam)
together with some sightseeing, golfing and of course the boat show made it a perfect week! stay tuned for 2007!
