The 2nd of July I left Switzerland and flought to Fuerteventura where I’m preparing now for the upcoming Worldcup. It’s the third time for me and I still like it as much as the first day I had been here.

I had a few training sessions the last week together with my friends Olivier Stauffacher who is from Switzerland too and Lennart Brünig who is from Germany. We trained most of the time at the Rene Egli Center 1, a tricky spot where the World cup takes places every year. The wind is gusty and the choppy water makes it not easy. Everybody needs some time to get used to the conditions there.

During the last days couples of riders arrived including the world champion Steven Van Broeckhoven. The wind was blowing very strong and a almost 2.5m swell hit the Center 1. Steven was sailing his smallest sail, a 3.8 Neilpryde Wizzard, while I had to go out with my, 3.9, which is my smallest sail! I was struggling just to have a proper sailing, while Steven was pulling out big moves.

Today I had a session at Matas Blancas, a spot just next to Costa Calma. Flatwater but really gusty wind makes it tricky too. I had some bad crashes and hit my leg with the mast. I stopped sailing for the day and let it recover now. It’s hurting already less than in the afternoon let’s see if I can go on training again tomorrow.

The level is very high this year. All guys trained very hard during the winter and they are pulling moves higher and crazyer than ever before.

I had the chance to combine my studies with windsurfing and could improve my skills too. June has been a taff month because I had to finish all exams.

That means that I wasn't sailing for almost one month. The very good part is that I passed all of them and I'm very happy to have been able to managed studying and training.

However the last days I got used to be on the water again and feel confident for the second world cup. My goal to finish in a top 20 position.

I’ll make an update before the competition starts and put some more pics online.

Thanks to Oliver Stauffacher for the pictures!

Thank you all for your support !

After a few weeks of good sailing and a perfect preparation in Egypt, I flew to Austria on the 26 of April to compete on this years first world cup event in Podersdorf.

Austria

Sunny weather, warm temperatures and south wind offered great conditions over all the event days. For the first time we have been three young Freestylers with Balz Müller, Jeremy Plüss and me from Switzerland competing on a freestyle worldcup event.

It was really nice to see all friends on the tour again and we had a great time together at the opening ceremony on friday night!

We had the riders registration on the first two days of the competition and on the 3^rd day the wind finally kicked in so that we could get started with the first single elimination.

I had my first heat against Phil Richards at about 10.30 in the morning. Even though the wind was light and quite gusty, I managed to sail a constant heat landing a Shaka Oh, Flaka, NH Flaka and on the other side a SW Kono, Skopu, Kono and Eslider. Phil on the other hand crashed quite a lot and messed up his heat so I came a round further.

My second heat was against Davy Sheffers. Our first heat got cancelled due to the lack of wind and we had to re sail it. In the other heat the wind was still really light and gusty but we both had several moves. It was Davy who had the highest score and came in the next round.

On the next day the double elimination got started. I had to sail against Brazilian Chico Bento. The wind was very light but enough for barely planning. We both had various moves. I sailed my best heat so far landing a Shaka 360, Grubby, Flaka into Flaka and Spock 540 OH and on the other hand: Funnel 900, SW Kono, Kono and Eslider. I was pretty stocked about that heat in this low wind conditions.

Unfortunately the wind died in the afternoon and didn’t show up again till the end of the comp. The double had to be cancelled in the end.

In the evenings a tow in session as main attraction was held in front of the crowd. I had two attemps on the third evening, which weren’t successful. Even though it wasn’t the first time for me pulled by a boar, I’ve never been pulled so fast as the Jet Ski did. In the next times, I’ll try to do and train more often the Tow-in discipline. It was still great fun to take part at the night town ins, with the loud music and the crowd cheering at the beach. It gave me good sensations.

After leaving Podersdorf it was time again to go back to shool. I did several exams and got the result and feedback of my maturity work which I passed and finished with a “very good”. So I’m more than happy to have combined the studys so far with all my trips and trainings. Next step is some more exams in the middle of June and then off to Fuerte to get ready for the second Wolrd Cup event.

This years Dahab Surffestival was very cool! An opening Beach party with a night Tow-in session made it a perfect start.

The wind forecast looked good on Tuesday so we all stayed focused for that day. On tuesday the wind kicked in quite strong and blew during all the day. A whole single and double elimination got done.

In the single I passed first round against probably the best Egyptian freestyler. We both sailed very good and constant. I passed the round while landing as my best moves a Skopu, huge Oh Burner, Kono and on the other side a high Flaka, shaka and a double Flaka.

The second heat against Jamie Drummond didn't worked so well and I lost. Jamie sailed very good and past into the second round.

Luckily in the afternoon the wind still blew constantly and the double could get started. I felt very comfortable on the water and passed 3 consecutive heats. I landed nice moves like big Skopus, Burners and NH Flakas. In the 4th heat unfortunately my way up got stopped by Russian Freestyler Vladimir Yakovlev RUS-99. He deserved to win while sailing just better than me on that heat.

However I was already pretty stoked about my performance on the water that day and was really happy to end on the 3rd place.

See the competition report here: http://boards.mpora.com/news/dahab-festival-update.html

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

I just edited an action clip from my Brazilian friend Jomilson.

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.

My second trip to this wonderful fisherman's town Camocim was a big sucess again! I had a perfect four week training, having had every day nice wind and perfect flatwater. Next to my training I could study every morning and prepare for the upcoming exams at shool.

Camocim is definitely a place where I want to go back again.

Watch here a very difficult new move I trained and learnt over that time!

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