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Enjoy the video and be sure to head over to Ben’s Facebook Page to keep up to speed with all his happenings – facebook.com/k800ben

With no livestream we decided to take a little browse around the web to bring you our top 12 favourite shots from the event so far.

Photos by John Carter / PWA World Tour
Photos by J.Pina / PWA

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Here is a video below of a similar challenge that fellow Starboard teamriders John Palmer and Sam Ross took part in just over 3 years ago. Here they shared 100 loops between the two of them – best of luck from all at Boardseeker (and Boards) Mr Drummond.

A frustrating day 2 at the Raceboard Youth and Masters Worlds for both competitors and race committee. The first possible start scheduled for 11.30 was delayed until early afternnon as the wind eventually shifted into the right direction for the thermic breeze.

One race was possible before the wind dropped and began to swing back to gradient wind direction. Competitors were sent ashore to await improvement, which eventually came and out they went again. But, once again, the wind eased off and delayed the start of race 2. Sadly no improvement led to the end of racing for the day.

Master Pawel Gardasiewicz (POL-102), winner of the first race, said it was a great opening to the championship. Even though not enough wind to plane it was very nice to race with friends, he had a very good start and maintained the lead throughout. In second place was Grandmaster Karel Baranek from Slovakia, followed by Italian Paco Wirz.

Giuseppe Zerillo (ITA-07) heads the youth fleet, with Daniel Blinnikka from Finland in second and Marcos Guedez from France is third.

Day 2: First blood to Albeau as the reigning world champion claims the first victory of the week

The local thermal effect kicked in once again on day two of the PWA Catalunya World Cup as the remainder of the opening elimination was completed, under glorious sunny skies and winds ranging from 7-14 knots. Reigning world champion – Antoine Albeau (RRD / NeilPryde) – sailed a flawless elimination and was duly rewarded with the first bullet of the week, firmly stamping his name at the top of the event rankings, but it was truly a day to forget for Alberto Menegatti.

Elimination one

Winners’ Final

With the current tour leader – Alberto Menegatti (Starboard / Point-7) – surprisingly missing from the winners’ final – due to gybing around the wrong mark in heat twelve – Antoine Albeau was presented with the opportunity to take control of the title race, and the Big Frenchman duly obliged as he seized the early initiative by claiming the first victory of the week. Albeau didn’t have it all his own way though as it was Maciek Rutkowski (Patrik / Point-7) who crossed the start line in first place. The young Pole’s lead didn’t last long, however, as Albeau, Matteo Iachino (F2 / Challenger Sails / AL360), Cyril Moussilmani (Starboard / Severne) and Pieter Bijl (Angulo / NeilPryde) all came surging past him to complete the top four at the first mark. Over the remainder of the course Albeau sailed brilliantly to open up a substantial lead over his closest rival Iachino, and after safely navigating the final mark he was left to enjoy the final reach before crossing the finish line. The top four remained unchanged, meaning that Iachino finished in second followed by Cyril Moussilmani and Bijl in third and fourth respectively.

A Moment of Madness

The incident that everyone has been talking about today involved Britain’s Ross Williams (Tabou / Gaastra) and the current tour leader Alberto Menegatti. The duo were both involved in the final quarterfinal and looked as though they were both comfortably going to qualify for the semifinals as they held first and second place respectively. However, as the pair headed down the second reach Williams initiated his gybe much too early and rounded the wrong mark, unfortunately – from Menegatti’s perspective at least – the Italian also followed Williams around the same mark to leave everyone on the beach and on the water in disbelief at what they were watching – none more so than the head of Point-7 Andrea Cucchi (Patrik / Point-7), who benefitted from both Williams’ and Menegatti’s disqualifications to qualify for the next round, even though he probably would’ve probably preferred to see his main man advance. Also benefitting from the pairs mistake was Jimmy Diaz (Starboard / North) who eventually went on to book his place in the winners’ final, whilst Steve Allen (Starboard / Severne) and Pascal Toselli (Tabou / Point-7) qualified for heat fourteen as well.

Menegatti will now be praying for more wind in order to bring a discard into play, however if that doesn’t happen then today’s trivial mistake could prove to be one of the defining moments of the season – which could ultimately cost the twenty-eight year old a maiden world championship title.

Read the rest of the report here

The inaugural day of the PWA Catalunya World Cup saw the competitors registering for the upcoming competition between 10am and 11am. With a less than promising wind forecast, combined with a very quiet start to the day, not everybody was expecting to be competing come the afternoon. However, as the skippers’ meeting took place at one o’clock the wind gradually started to increase as the local thermal effect kicked in. Shortly after 14:45 the first heat of race one was underway in winds ranging from 7-10 knots. A stop-start afternoon was eventually concluded at around 17:30 with five heats being completed – there were however a number of casualties in the opening round as the marginal winds made for very tricky racing conditions.

The biggest news of the day involved Bjorn Dunkerbeck (Starboard / Severne / Dunkerbeck Eyewear / Chris Benz) in the opening heat of the day – who was one of the aforementioned casualties above. The terminator was in the crucial top four at the third mark, but light winds then haunted Dunkerbeck as he failed to get back on the plane which saw him drop out of the qualifying places. Dunkerbeck wasn’t the only surprise exit from heat one though, as Gonzalo Costa Hoevel (Starboard / Loft Sails) also fell victim to the light winds after gybing underneath Micah Buzianis (JP / MauiSails), only to find himself in a no wind zone and unable to get planing again. In the end Oliver-Tom Schliemann (Starboard / Point-7) finished at the front of the pack with Buzianis, Casper Bouman (Angulo / NeilPryde / Mystic) and Peter Volwater (Fanatic / Avanti) all qualifying too.

A very upset and hugely frustrated Dunkerbeck speaking after day one:

“I got to the first mark in second place, but after that the wind became lighter and getting going was hardly possible – of course that was nice for the lighter guys. With some rule changes, which have been implemented this year, this will happen more often – sailing in these lighter wind conditions!”

“Good or bad I guess it will make other windsurfers win!”

On a day where the conditions were marginal, it was no surprise to see the sailors pushing their starts extremely hard to try and guarantee their survival into the next round, however as you would expect their were a number of premature starts today – the first of which came in heat two with Enes Yilmazer (JP / NeilPryde) jumping the gun. Upon the restart Patrick Diethelm (Patrik / Loft Sails), Ben Van Der Steen (Starboard / Gaastra / Mystic / Different), Matteo Iachino (F2 / Challenger / AL360) all did well to advance, but sixteen year old debutant – Coen Swijnenburg (JP / NeilPryde) – couldn’t have asked for a better introduction to life on the PWA World Tour as he booked his place in the quarterfinals at the first time of asking.

For the rest of the article head on over to this link.