Sea, Sail & Surf newsGran Canaria Vargas • Aguimes
Competition fianlly started but the first heat was quickly abandoned
samedi 3 mai 2003 –
Competition started the moment the wind was strong enough, but the first heat was quickly abandoned when none of the windsurfers were able to land the two required jumps. The format was adjusted to better suit the light winds with only one jump and two waves to count.
Jason Polokow (JP / Neil Pryde) made his come back debut convincingly winning his heat against the young Englishman Andy Funnel (F2 / Arrows). He’s won every World Cup event he’s been able to compete at in the last two years, but due to a series of horrific injuries he’s not been able to do enough events to get an overall ranking, or indeed take the World Wave Champion title that he dominated in the mid nineties. Jason said "I’m winging it here. My foot isn’t going to heal for a few years yet and I’m on pain killers just to be able to sail."
Sure enough, since he’s been here he’s almost only sailed for the ten minute duration of his heat, but that was enough to show the rest of the PWA sailors and the judges that he’s still the man to look out for.
Another outstanding windsurfer today is fellow Australian Scott McKercher (Starboard), who although doesn’t have to compete until the next round due to his high placed seeding, was ripping and showing the PWA that he too means business for 2003.
The second, third and fourth heats ran smoothly with no major upsets to the highest ranking sailors challenged by the less experienced. Australian Greg "Grubby" Allaway (JP / Neil Pryde) beat hot shot Luca Orsi (Neil Pryde) from the neighboring island of Tenerife. And Dario Ojeda one of Gran Canaria’s wildest and best wave sailors clearly showed the tourists who’s boss round here beating the newcomer from Norway, Andre Andreassen.
Britain’s Tristan Boxford (Gaastra) and Robby Swift (JP / Neil Pryde) both took honors but only due to their superior wave riding skills. 90 kilo Tristan virtually only planed once going out and managed to just spin around a low back loop to clock up a few points, whilst the lightweight local who’d been tipped for the top, Regis Bouron, landed a massive back loop to take an early lead in the heat. Tristan fought back though with a couple of decent waves showing that his aggressive and dynamic riding skills could see him beat even the most fearsome challenge.
Likewise Swifty disposed of Tonky Frans (AHD / Gaastra) also by showing better wave riding skills. Both Tonky and Regis scored highest for overall impression, but that paled into insignificance as riding waves scores more points. No surprise in heat four, another Aussie took top honors ! Luke Walmsley (Starboard) beat the well trained Englishman Matt Pearch (Mistral / North) in tough conditions as the wind began to die.
Heat five was abandoned as the wind dropped but the clear leader was yet another Australian Ty Bodycoat (Starboard). Team-mate Levi Siver (Starboard) is rating Ty as having "sick turns" which in surfing jargon is about the highest praise.
Unfortunately a dark cloud moved over Gran Canaria and the PWA event here in Vargas, putting both these entities into double jeopardy as the wind vanished.
By mid afternoon at high tide, the skies had cleared and the wind was back at over twenty knots, and although the swell seemed to have increased, at high tide in Vargas it wasn’t big enough to break far enough out for wave sailors to do much wave riding, so the contest remained postponed.
The wave sailors who are shining through today were all on pretty big boards to help maintain their speed throughout their turns. Because the waves were only about shoulder high and moving slowly, they were pretty weak, making it tricky to really surf Surf #Surf them. Windsurfers were relying almost only on the power from their sails and their own skills to keep their boards moving quick enough to carve good turns and cutbacks in these really challenging conditions.
Evidently today was a good day for the Aussies, but can they hold their form tomorrow as the wind and swell forecast remains good ?
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