FUERTE NO WIND to BELGIUM NO WIND

04 August 2007

In the first double elimination in Fuerte, Marcilio Browne "Brawzinho" from Brazil was winning in front of Kiri Thode from Bonaire - I made a 13th place - was kicked out by 3 times world champion Ricardo Campello after advancing two heats. Everybody thought we'd do at least two more double eliminations - but nobody thought about "calima" - coming straight from the desert, it delivered 46°C for 3 days and disturbed the tradewinds - so there was no wind at all for the rest of the competition - while all the riders (and also judges and the organisation) were on standby with sometimes 15 minutes time till the first heat - for 8 hours a day!!
So that 13th place sets me to the 17th place overall in the current 2007 PWA Freestyle overall ranking.

On 31st of August my flight from Fuerte to Munich was landing at 11pm - Sandra picked me up and we drove to Bredene in Belgium for the EFPT Event there (800km!!) - next day 2pm we arrived. There was no hurry at least - as already at the skippers meeting the organizers told us that there's most probably not goin to be any wind.
This is the first competition where nobody of the riders did not even rig my sails!!
So actually just continuing what we did in Fuerte - waiting waiting waiting - The competition is over now and there's goin to be a big party tonight. Most of the riders can't wait till they get home - as waiting sucks after a while somehow....

Pix from Fuerte
Credit: PWA/John Carter