Today is the first day of the PWA slalom event on Aruba. Jesper Orth, our man on Aruba, has already got his equipment and had a trainings session on the water.
Jesper Orth
Nationality: Denmark
Sailnumber: AUS-10
Sponsors: RRD, KA Sails, Vector Fins, Aeron booms and CTM masts
Sailrepair WA – Jesper Orth
I was down finally down to only missing 1 bag. I was quite nervous if this bag would show up, as it contained all my 13 x highly tuned handcrafted Slalom Vector carbon fins, – those is unreplaceable “babies”, together with my special selected 10 x Organic protein bars, that is a great snack between races,,
When I came back to the hotel today a huge smile came on my face when I saw the last missing bag standing in front of my door at the hotel. “Sorry I was late” said the note. I quickly counted that all the 13 fins and the 10 protein bars was there, just to be sure.
Jesper´s bag
The important fins
I finally went on the water yesterday and today for some sailing. You have to sail / drift a good 300m out from the beach before you hit some more “steady” wind. It is very different sailing from other places. First of all it is very beautiful blue warm and flat water. The wind can be gusty with some big lulls, so if you sail to small gear you will lose a lot of momentum in the lulls. It will be important to tune the gear to could perform really well in the lulls and then just hold on to it in the gusts,,
Warmin up - Pic: Jesper Orth
It sounded like most sailors had a story or drama on their journey to Aruba. Rowen Law from Perth Australia probably had the longest journey over 2 days to get here. i also meet Andrea Gucci on the beach, who is always friendly and up for a chat. He got denied to go to the US, as something in his passport was not right. So he got send a totally different route and made 3 other flights on standby. Good effort!!
I finally made it onto the water for some sailing time. Diego Domenianni a new face on the tour who started last year, was friendly to lend me a fin, before I got my own ones. In general most sailors help each other out if there are any problems with gear etc.
Tip of the day from Kurosh Kiani: Place the air went in the mast track when travelling. You will never lose it and you can’t get the mast base on without remove it from the track. So there is no chance that you will forget it or fill your board with water.
Fact of the day:
Aruba’s strategic location was recognized by the Dutch who initially occupied the island in 1636 to protect their salt supply from the mainland and establish a naval base in the Caribbean during their 80-year war with Spain.
C7 – Jesper
PS: Watch out for the turtles and party boats. The turtles seem to pop their head out of the water occasionally to have a look around. The party boats cruze up and down the coast with tourists occasionally popping their heads into the water to have a look,,,,,
