Cape Town in February has been just great. Together with my Swiss Team mate Olivier Stauffacher we had a good training over that time. Two spots where we mainly went were Langebaan, which is 1.30h driving up north and the Lake Rietvlei, which was only 5 min driving from our house. Mostly half of the days the wind was blowing and offered perfect freestyle conditions at those two spots. I could improve a lot my moves and get them pretty much constant. After my stay in Cape Town I had another few weeks school, which were very intense due to a lot of exams. After that cap it was time again for another training so I flew for my fifth time now back to Egypt, were I’m preparing and getting ready for the first PWA Event which is going to take place in Austria by the end of April. I’ll keep you update from what is going on until and while the first Event in Podersdorf!

>> more pics from South Africa

Jomilson, who is 18 years old, is next to his close friend Hugo de Souza, also a very talented young Freestyler that lives and trains in Camocim. Both started sailing only 4 years ago and even having a lot of problems with their equipment, that was breaking again and again while that time, both now got on an incredible level. They are really passionated and promising Windsurfer and hopefully they will find a way to realise their dream, to compete one day on the PWA tour.

http://www.continentseven.com/2011/08/23/skopu-loick-spicher/

The Camocim Movie also online on Vimeo now, check it here:

http://vimeo.com/27764961

During my one month stay in Camocim, Brazil, together with local friends we filmed action from the water but also lifestyle footage.

I just edited now a clip out of it and created a rubrik Camocim on my homepage where you can learn more about the local kids, the windsurfing and Camocim itself. See and enjoy here the result of our filming. =)

>>here to the rubrik "Camocim"

Last competition Day on the Fuerteventura grand Slam 2011 

A very exciting day seeing the best freestylers fighting for the first place for this world cup. Steven, Gollito, Kiri, Taty, Tonky, Björn, Dieter and Davy had each very hard duels and gave everything to overpass their opponent. In the end Belgium superstar Steven beat Gollito in a tight 3-2 decision. Steven is at the moment for me the most consistent and powerful freestyler on the water. He deserves the world title 2011. After the price giving on the beach most of the freestylers went on the water to enjoy a nice freesailing.

Third day

No wind in the morning this let wait the continuation of the double. In the Afternoon some heats got sailed. The finals were holding on day 5 of the PWA grand slam.

Second competition day in Fuerte 

This time the wind kicked in a little bit later. The finals got sailed straight as soon as the wind showed up. The impressive heat of Taty Frans was not enough to beat 4 times world champion Gollito Estredeo V-01. After winning this Heat Gollito kept it going winning the first single elimination over Steven Van Broekhoven B-72. The woman had a good final aswell, seeing Sarah-Quitta Offringa ARU-91 beating the Swiss talented Laure Treboux SUI-4. Laure stated that she shuld have gone for her best moves, her routine can’t overpass the wolrd champion from the Caribbean.

After a good lunch break the double got started around 15h. This time my heat would be the 7^th in the first round. On the heat was Mauricio Alvarez AUT-86 against Loïck Spicher SUI-199. This time I was concentrated to a maximum going on the water at the right time and ducking for the first move just seconds after that the heat started. Unfortunately I missed the duck and instead of a SW Kono I slided into a CF Puneta. After that I crashed two Shaka in a row, it was clearly not my best start so far. In the other hand Alvarez landed a nice Puneta and did a Frontloop ouside. But this didn’t stop my motivation. No good Konos for me in the heat, but a nice Shaka and Puneta more to a Flaka and wet SW Kono made me pass the round. Heat number two will be my last heat of the competition in Fuerteventura, as I got stopped by Christopher Kalk EST-141. Even I had good moves like a nice Shaka, Air Flaka and a NH double Flaka on the way out and on the way in a good landed SW Kono, fast Puneta and Eslider, It was not enough against his big Air Flaka, Shaka Flaka, Eslider and on the way in double Puneta, Spock into Flaka and funnel. If my normal Kono’s would have been part of my heat, I could have passed, but I didn’t land anyone. This lost made my stay on the 25^th position. The doubles were stop after finishing the third round. Chris finished on the 17^th position, as he could not beat strong Antony Ruenes.

pics by: Markus Adrian

First competition day on the World Cup grand slam in Fuerteventura.

After a great opening party at the playa Sotavento last night, today the first competition day got started. The wind slowly kicked in around 10.30 and the first heat was set for 11.30.

As soon as the first heat was finished I started my watch and went up wind. German sailor and friend Tilo Eber G-414 (JP/NP) was my opponent, the green flag raised up. Starting with a high Sw Kono while seeing Tilo crashing in front of me made me feel confident. My heat went on pretty well, landing a nice Shaka, Flaka and NH Flaka on the way out and on the way in, sliding a Puneta, Eslider and a CF Puneta. Crashing 3 times a duck on the way out for the kono, on the other side a nice Kono on the way in worked on the first try. After the heat I was happy with the performance of my first heat in a PWA event. I saw Tilo only two times, twice crashing a move outside and a Switch Chacho on the way in, so I was not sure that my tricks would be enough to score better than his. Excited about to hear the result, I arrived on the beach. As soon as I saw my father coming on me with the big smile and the confirmation that I won, I got suddenly very happy. Beating Tilo that was ranked 14^th on the world tour, was a very nice start for me in this first world cup. Tilo crashed a lot this heat and had not enough moves. The second round of the first single elimination started soon. My next heat was against Yegor Popretinskiy RUS-11 (JP/NP), best Russian Freestyler. Compared to my first heat everything worked less good. I couldn’t set up my watch as I make a mistake with the flag and went later as planned on the water. I just made it to be on time on the water at the way in. Once the heat started, I unfortunately missed my first duck that was for a SW Kono. My moves of this heat got a Shaka, SW Kono, CF Puneta and a regular Kono on the way out this time! I crashed a lot beside that, trying twice a NH Flaka and Konos on the way in. This heat I can’t compare to the first, less concentration, missing almost the start and just crashing to much. More to this I heard afterwards that Yegor even had a problem with the top of the sail and had to change it, missing the 2 first minutes of the heat! A shame that I couldn’t take this chance and sail a good heat. But Yegor sailed strong 5 minutes and deserved to get into the next round.

The sailor of the day for me was clearly Youp Schmitt (JP/NP). He sailed strong and constant heats, passing over Tony Mottus, Nicolas Agazyan and Davy Sheffers, he mastered a high level performance. Congrats dude!

The girls finished the first round aswell and are also ready like the man’s finals that will hold on tomorrow. A Nice first day here in Sotavento for everybody, the ambiance is on the place!

After a long no wind period in Bonaire, it got finally the time for me to fly back home. I stayed in Switzerland for 1,5 week with my family and friends.

As the Bise Noire classic and the EFPT events will start soon, I booked a flight to Dahab were I'm going to train now for one week. The forecast were amazing, every day wind, so I just took this opportunity to have a last training before the events.

Today, together with my Swiss friend Jibi, we had a strong wind session in the morning. I was just over powerd with 4.8. After so many low wind sessions in Bonaire with the 4.8, I was really not used to the 3.9 with which I sailed later. The wind blew until 14h aproximately and then went down.

The forecast for tomorow is good, so we'll wake up early and go train. We are going to film and edit an action clip that will follow online soon.

greez Loick

Having a great time here on Bonaire, even if there is not a lot of wind this weeks. Training everyday by doing sprints, gym and other excercises. But also some relaxing beside like doing some cliff jumping or some light wind sessions.

The forcast gets a bit bether so hopefully there is going to be some wind soon to have other sick freestyle sessions!

here some pics about the last day

hang loose

New design on the Soulrider website, check it out! http://www.soulrider.com/

After my training in Brasil I’m now staying in Bonaire since 2 months, with two surf buddies, Bastien Rocco Rama and Julian Mas, that I met in Brasil. Some days we had really nice conditions and I could improve and train a lot with the entire Pro’s who are training around here. At first I was a bit disappointed about the wind, because people told me that usually it’s blowing almost every day. But for us, in 3 weeks time we had maybe only 7 days wind (with 3 days of pump).

After a while I noticed that even like this I can progress a lot. In the windless period I did some physical exercises to stay in form and to be ready for the next wind. Training in this light wind motivates you to be more aggressive while ducking the sail and doing the tricks faster, if you are not fast enough you won’t be able to do anything. I think that it is really important to train in light wind conditions to improve your Freestyle. Through this way, you will get really used to your boards, have a good balance and in strong winds fly higher than before. But of course you also need some days with stronger winds to train all the stuff also with a lot of power to get used to.

The first 6 weeks went on really easily. My friends and I visited the Island, went snorkeling and did a lot of other stuff. Even the wind wasn’t really playing with us, we still had a lot of fun and had some training days to improve our moves. During the two last weeks in contrary, the wind was quite strong and sick! We trained everyday and surfing again with a fully powered up 4.8 sail, was just amazing. I did my highest Konos, on both tacks and improved with my air Funnels and also landed my first Skopus. These are going to be my big moves I want to land at the EFPT events, from which the first one will take place in Lefkada at the end of May.

I am staying another 6 weeks in Bonaire, training constantly, focus on my moves and land them regularly. I will also prepare my heats. The wind forcast for this week doesn’t seem good, so then I will concentrate my efforts on the physical training, in the morning and evening, and will be ready to catch the first next wind full power!

I’m also working on a movie about my trip in Brasil, including my Brazilian friends and the ones whom I surfed with.

I’ll keep you up to date, very soon!

Kuma is in Bonaire and edit a lot of sick action clips!

watch this one from 3.36 on is my part:

more pics >>