Unfortunately the 2016 Cold Hawaii PWA World Cup ended without an official result. After five days on hold, the conditions allowed the qualifying round to be completed. Loick Lesauvage, Mads Bjørnå, Julian Salmonn and Julien Taboulet won the qualifiying round. There was some hope to continue with the main competition, but unfortunately the swell and wind dropped as well as on the next and final day of the event.
On the final day a Tow-In jump super session with 2000€ of prize money was held. Dieter van der Eyken showed the best jump with the cleanest landing – an inverted Pasko – and took the victory over Ricardo Campello and Amado Vrieswijk.
During the final award ceremony event organizer Robert Sand announced a break of the PWA event for 2017. 2017 a SUP World Cup will take place. He also stated, that windsurfing might be back in 2018 with a different concept. They think of a mobile event and want to include more spots of the coast.
Cold Hawaii PWA World Cup 2016 – Highlight Video
the only realistic way of not getting skunked when it’s time for a comp, would be to have a “storm chase” alert kind of scenario, where riders are on standby and have to fly in for contests when conditions arise. A logistical nightmare, which would mean an even lesser budget, no live stream etc, which would further reduce interest from the viewers. In our sport, it is a fact that we are at the mercy of nature, sometimes the wind wont play ball and nothing can change that. But this mobile competetion business is a great initiative and a step… Read more »
Hi Erik, I definitely agree. Would be cool to run events with different formats. Some event locations have steady conditions, some need a bit more flexibility in terms of the format. A few pros already attended in the Red Bull Storm Chase events or other mobile events and are quite experienced in it. Windsurfing in good wave conditions is definitely something exclusive, if your home spot isn’t a world class wave spot. You need to travel with the right gear to the right place at the right period. But if the spot worked well, it was all worth the effort… Read more »
Windsurfing is soooo picky!! First you need wind, than you need waves. If you get strong wind you might not not get big waves and vice versa. This is a real nightmare for organizers. Maybe we should stop thinking of windsurfing as a sport , but as of a recreational activity and stop all official contests on whatever level… By this we sould tame the demons within us, once and forever. Don’t get me wrong, I love windsurfing (there is nothing like it ), kite surfing has no meaning to me, but at the same time frustration is to much… Read more »
easy, easy. look at this: https://www.windfinder.com/forecast/klitmoeller_dune
today 35 tomorrow 48 knots of wind in Klitmoller. PWA needs longer time windows for its events!
I personally guess that windsurfing has much more to offer than competitions and it can be much more than a sport. Competitions come and go. A few will be remembered for a long time. But it’s definitely interesting to read that an organizer is going to rethink his concept and has ideas to go for mobile wave competitions in the future. The Fuerte Wave Classic exactly followed this idea a few years ago. Wave windsurfing needs so many “ingredients” and more mobility in terms of spot choices will allow more action. With the reduced fleet of 32 riders it’s possible… Read more »