2012 SLALOM WORLD CHAMPIONS: BRAVO ANTOINE and RRD!
Bjorn Dunkerbeck came into the event with the world title lead, but unfortunately for him things didn't go exactly his way over the duration of the event, and Antoine Albeau reclaimed his PWA Slalom World title having relinquished it for the first time in five years in 2011.
Albeau commented: “I am really happy to be number one in the world again. I think that the 2012 PWA Sylt World Cup has been a really big success because we got results for all three disciplines. It was another big battle for Bjorn for me, and I think this is one of my best world titles because I didn't have the best start at the beginning of the season, but I finished strong. Last I'm delighted to bring the title back home to France.
“PWA WORLD CHAMPIONS!
A dream come true. A success coming from the work of all of us. Bravo Antoine!”
Roberto Ricci
RRD X-Fire LTD V4
The Official 2012 PWA World Rankings – Men's Slalom
1st Antoine Albeau (RRD / NeilPryde)
2nd Bjorn Dunkerbeck
3rd Micah Buzianis
4th Julien Quentel (RRD / NeilPryde)
Interesting that an error in crossing the finish line by another competitor threw Albeau a life allowing him to make the top 4 in one heat that he had otherwise crashed out in. Talk about going down to the wire!. Would the much publicised mast snap of Bjorn made any difference to his title defence? I guess we'll never know, but it was pretty exciting to watch and be part of this year. Hopefully next year is bigger and better.
What's MORE interesting is that error crossing the finish line was from one of BJORN'S TEAM MATES... !!! d'oh!
In fact, if Chris Pressler had crossed the finish line correctly, Antoine would have been out in his first round heat and Bjorn would have still won the World Title even with the broken mast.
Vietnam would have been cool yep!
They've moved it to February 2013 ... the PWA make you pay all the money (which is A LOT) for the event up front before they'll sign the contracts, so sometimes events don't happen simply because they can't cough up that quickly.
But apparently a 5-year contract has been signed for Vietnam to happen each February ... so it's gonna be cool having some events closer to home next year :-)
Vietnam would be good in November / December
But by february all the sand is washed out from the beach resulting in swell bounceback backwash running back through chop and swell - which means 3 swell directions running through each other so you get 3 squared = 9 times the chaos! (Bit like sailing Scarborough really) You can barely feel your rails and fin!
Which = hideous sailing unfortunately. Perhaps a slightly different beach in the area could be investigated ?
Be great if the event could be done earlier- as i'd love to see an Asian NE monsoon tour (i grew up windsurfing these winds ) incorporating Taiwan, Vietnam and Malaysia /Singapore.
but the tour has got to have some time off i suppose. Bring back the Asian Windsurfing Tour!
Yeah, would be awesome to get a PWA event in AUS.
Cost is definitely the factor; I had an idea that it was around 250K in EUR not AUD! But with that cash the PWA actually bring the party - they bring the race crew, judges, infrastructure, media team etc etc and work with the local organisers on building the tents etc and everything on the beach. Their events are pretty top class at the moment - especially now there is live-streaming with different countries being able to buy advertising on the stream - it's a nice package!
The other problem with PWA is you have to put the money in to their bank account 2 months before the event dates before they will sign a contract. If you have government sponsorship money (ie, Tourism), it's hard to get them to cough up that far in advance of an event. Possible, but difficult I guess.
Also it's probably hard to justify a return on $250K investment with a windsurfing event unless it was tied to some other sporting event or touristic area. Maybe a slalom event at Manly in Sydney could get some interest?
Can I get following information?
What exactly board Antoine was using? Xfire v.4 how many litres ?
How much he weight?
(I am about to purchase new RRD and I am 80 kg)
Antoine registered:
98, 114, 129 X-Fire V4 12's...
Equipment list for the 2012 tour is here:
www.pwaworldtour.com/fileadmin/user/main_editors/pdf/Competitor_Equipment_Turkey_12.pdf
Not entirely sure of his weight but I'm going to throw out about 105kg.
Hi Macro.
We will be getting the X-Fire version V when it's released, later in the year, so if you want any info, then give us a ring. It's hard to give size recomendations without more info as there are so many variables.
There is a brand new 90lt, & the other sizes are as per V4, though they all have been worked on.
Cheers.
Jez RRDAus.
If they had a two board/three sail rule in the PWA, then it would encourage less financial sailors like slowboat to HAVE A GO.
dude can sail!
