PWA Slalom Alacati - Day 1&2&3

After three days of Slalom competition and one finished round, Antoine Albeau and Sarah-Quita Offringa are leading the ranks. On the first day the race crew was able to finish 1 full round and start with the first heats of the second elimination before the wind dropped. On the second and third day the wind was very light, arrived late and was always on the limit. We have seen sailors hardly planing and pumping around the jibing marks. Today, on the third day just three women heats of the first round got completed before the wind dropped again.

Slalom Action

The walk to the beach

Registration

Sailours lounge

Locals

The beach

French connection

Antoine Albeau

Crash

Albeau and Dunkerbeck

Pierre Mortefon

Sarah-Quita Offringa

Lay it down

Outch

Sparky (PWA race crew) resumes day 1 incl. Antoine Albeau’s big crash

https://s3.amazonaws.com/c7media/bigvids2/sparky_statement.mp4

Let’s have a look on some of the riders

Sarah-Quita Offringa
Although Sarah-Quita Offringa is hardly on the slalom equipment throughout the year (because she is busy with her study and normally on her freestyle gear) and were not able to fill out the registration form properly (she had to fill out a second clean form), she is killing it on the race course. She has amazing speed and carvers through her jibes safely and won with a big lead. But we need to mention, that four of her big contenders were disqualified for the winners final because of premature starts: Lena Erdil, Delphine Cousin, Marion Mortefon and Valerie Arrighetti.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/c7media/bigvids2/Sarah_Quita registration.mp4

Antoine Albeau
Antoine Albeau is flying over the course and seems to make no faults on the course. But not today. He did an over-early in his quarter final heat and hopes for three more slalom rounds to discard the bad points. And not to forget, he crashed into the boat of the organizer yesterday. After crossing the finish line of his first heat, he had a spin out, because he was focused on getting a good picture from John Carter, who was on the boat, and went straight on to the boat. He catapulted and broke the board, the mast and the sail.

Karin Jaggi
Karin Jaggi had an absolute shocker yesterday because she did not qualify for the winners final, after a bad start and a jibing collision. And after colliding with Gelly Skarlatou at the third mark she could only manage to finish fourth in the losers final.

Finian Maynard

It seems that Finian Maynard has lost some kilos. We haven’t asked how much weight he has lost, but he definitely looks healthy and fit. Yesterday he missed to qualify for the top 16 but today he won the quarterfinal in really light wind conditions and was leading the heat from the beginning on. Maybe he is adpating his body for the light wind Slalom events, but we really hope to see some high wind events back next year.

Chris Pressler
Chris had one of the hardest crashes yesterday. He saw a spot, where he wanted to place the jibe, focused on that and was not aware that Andrea Ferin was still going straight down-wind of him. So, Chris started his jibe and Andrea just t-boned him. Chris said: “When the crash happened, I immediately tried to dive to the ground to avoid to have contact with Andrea’s fin.”

Björn Dunkerbeck
Björn Dunkerbeck has brought almost his whole family to Turkey (on the pic: Daniel and Martina). On the race course Dunkerbeck has good speed, but avoided a collision with Gonzalo Costa Hoevel in the winners final yesterday and finished 6th. Today in the quarterfinal Björn had a big catapult, caused by Ben van der Steen who pushed him down, just before the first mark. It was a big wipe-out and Björn sailed back to the beach and broke his board completely.

Matteo Iachino
India Clacuiura is Matteo Iachino’s girlfriend and personal talisman. She was with him at the event in Costa Brava and Matteo did his best result ever and finished the event in third. So, it can’t be wrong to bring her to Tureky, too.

Maciek Rutkowski
The young Polish sailor is not happy with his performance in Alacati (he were not able to advance in the first round) and decided to make himself a present and bought a surf board. “After the worst racing day of my entire season I made myself a very well apreciated present.” We don’t think he will be faster around the mark with this board, but it will maybe help to bring back the smile on his face.