 One day before the start of the PWA event in Turkmenistan we had an amazing sand storm going on here. You couldn’t see 50 meters and the wind was blowing with gusts up to 40knots. We had wind all day long but the conditions were so crazy that only a bunch of guys tried it. Today there was the official opening ceremony with the president of Turkmenistan. Hundreds of people were working day and night to make this opening as perfect as possible. The president was planing to come around 11am but the organization didn’t know for sure, so they let everybody wake up at 6:30 so that we were ready, if the president would show up earlier.
Waiting for the president
Turkmenistan is a small country that is changing with the new president. He is applying new laws for the residents. His key rules are more education, more health and more sport for all. He is preparing the country for the rest of the world. Turkmenistan has one of the largest gas reserves of the world and is looking into a bright future. Half of the population is working for the goverment, so it is easy for the president to control his country. After the arrival of the president there was a show for him, where all sailors had to go to the water and besides there were many other sportmen were presenting their sports like: waterskiing, kitesurfing, wakeboarding, parasailing…
After the opening the rain kicked in and so we went for lunch.
Finally the first skippersmeeting of the event took place with some interesting news. There will be a different heat order, heats with 12 sailors (6 advancing) and giant marks, we are still looking for smaller ones.
Marco Lang and the giant mark | Basti Kördel & Gunnar Asmussen – Pic: OTS
The forecast is not looking so promising for the next days, but in the morning there is always strong wind. So the race director told us that there will probably be skippersmeetings at 5:30 in the morning. Let’s see and wait what happens.
DAY 2 – COMPETITION HAS STARTED
Oliver Tom Schliemann
Slalom Action
R i do apreciate your moderate tone very much and i too think now that we kind of agree on many points. i always try to raise my voice where i see prejudice, and since you are from a (one that used to be a?)poor country you will know how stupid prejudices are. I must admint i do think you are indeed too idealistic here just as you state it. – PWA goes where the sponsors are, it never has been different. Pros from Canaries organize sponsoring so PWA goes there. PWA would go to Wimbledon if the tennis association… Read more »
No worries.
You might well be right. It will be interesting to see what will happen in the future.
In the meantime we’ll work on our prejudices
Someone please explain to me, because I really don’t get it… Turkmenistan???? Why??? Is there actually anyone at all in Turkmenistan (besides their president and Yelken Yacht Club apparently) who actually cares about windsurfing? Or can afford it? Or even knows it? Or is it (as it seems to me) that the PWA is finding it increasingly difficult to find other countries (read: countries in which windsurfing is at least known to some part of the population) willing to cough up their high starting fees, and now, in a last ditch attempt, resorts to an entirely unknown (but rich!!) village… Read more »
But something about this (=PWA) doesn’t feel quite right.. => totally agree!!!!!
well, would you also object to PWA wave in Moroccoco/Dahkla? perhaps to the coming event on Cape Verde? There are more Turkmens, who can afford windsurfing, than moroccans and Capeverdians together let alone Vietnamese. That is for certain. Anyone here from Sao Vincente? Kind of similar with Chile, Venezuella (Ever seen Andre’s film about Gollito?), perhaps bonnair and most of the carribean. Turkmenians have Gas, others(except Chile) have fish, and there is less and less fish in the ocean every year. It would be same for MAUI if it was not for all these well off Americans and Europeans settling… Read more »
I agree with most of your arguments, at least partly. But I feel the need to clear up some inaccuracies in your comment. Firstly, I never said that i object to the PWA organizing an event in Turkmenistan. In fact, I’d rather see a fuller PWA event list than an empty one. What I did say is that their decision to organize an event at this location sits unconfortable with me, and that I question their motives to go there. Like i questioned the FIFAs motives to organize a world cup in Qatar for example.. But that aside. I think… Read more »
A couple of inaccuracy s here. #1 Turmenistan is far more represive than Morocco, it’s not even close. In fact normal Turmen are not even allowed into the ‘Yelken Yacht Club’ which has “gates behind it to keep out Turkmenistan’s citizens” see here http://www.rferl.org/content/turkmenistan-hosting-windsurfing-world-cup-event/25286610.html #2 I have no idea how anyone can compare the government of Turkmenistan, which is a dictatorship with completely fraudulent elections, to Chile or Venezuela, unless you are just trolling. Despite your claims Since December 2006, “under the Government of President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, no significant improvements regarding human rights and civil liberty have been observed by… Read more »