Rewarded

Gollito Rewarded

Gollito may have missed out on the World Title in 2011, but he was back with a vengeance  in 2012. Gollito performed at every event, in every heat to take the World Title with an impressive three wins out of three.

As the champion was crowned the movie by Andre Paskowski documenting the life of Gollito was also released. Rewarded is a true labour of love from the multi talented Paskowski who continues to inspire many with his moving videos. Is this the movie and moment of the year for you?

Philip Koster

World Wave Champs Crowned

Philip Koster and Iballa Moreno were crowned World Wave Champions in 2012; Koster taking his second title at age just 19 and in awe inspiring fashion, whilst Iballa Moreno sailed better than she ever has before to beat her sister Daida in many tense finals.

David vs Goliath

Koster had been unbeaten for more heats that anyone could count, but on one light wind day in Klitmoller he was finally beaten in the double elimination super final by Thomas Traversa of France. In his first PWA event win Traversa scored solidly, whereas Koster couldn’t get a second high ride, this secured the event win for Traversa taking down the man some thought couldn’t be beaten.

Bernd Roediger

Rise of the New School

On the other side of the pond the AWT held a great tour, culminating in an epic event at Ho’okipa. Throughout the series Camille Juban had been the one to watch, he took the overall title, but it was the final of the pro men in Ho’okipa that through up a few surprises. Kevin Pritchard made it through to the final, bucking the trend and using a single fin, but he was beaten in the double elimination final by 16 year old Bernd Roediger. Could the young Hawaiian challenge Koster for the title if event locations were a little more varied?

Josh Angulo and Bjorn Dunkerbeck, collision!

Angulo vs Bjorn – The Take Down!

Every slalom heat on the PWA tour is a battle, with most of the top racers being fairly big, powerful guys who are not going to back down at a gybe mark. Whilst this makes racing very hard, it definitely adds some excitement for spectators. One of the most unbelievable moments in 2012 came from Josh Angulo, who when he was pushed tight at the first buoy by Dunkerbeck seemed to sail straight into him, slicing his sail in two from leech to luff! The image below shows a little but anyone who saw the incident live will remember just how spectacular it was!

Dorian van Rijsselberghe

London (well, Weymouth) 2012

The Olympic racing may not be every windsurfers cup of tea, but in 2012 the RS:X class provided a true spectacle of our sport in Weymouth. Dorian van Rijsselberghe did not just win gold, the 24 year old out performed the whole fleet with an unbelievable amount of bullets giving him the gold with one race to go. Though he couldn’t be caught Nick Dempsey was hot on his tail and took a silver medal to add to his bronze from Athens. In the women’s fleet Marina Alabau stormed to victory in the stronger winds of Weymouth. All in all we think the windsurfing at the Olympics was absolutely outstanding, do you agree?

Olympics Reborn! 

After the despair of earlier in the year as windsurfing was voted out of the Olympics in a shock decision, the sport gathered together like never before to push for windsurfing to be reinstated. After a few long and hard months of lobbying, tough decisions and lots of work from many another vote was taken and in a twist of fate windsurfing took the Olympic spot back from windsurfing.

Antoine Albeau

World Speed Records

Antoine Albeau, one very small canal, one even smaller board and a lot of wind lead to the world speed record being absolutely smashed at the end of the year. Albeau was joined by a couple of others to take the record well over, but it was the big Frenchman that finally pushed it all the way to 52.05knots. For the women Zara Davis also pushed the world record to incredible new speeds.

Now have your vote and use the comments below to let us know your opinions!

Did you tick other? What windsurfing moment made your year that we haven’t mentioned? There are many more windsurfing stars and events that we wanted to add to our shortlist, but unfortunately there just wasn’t room; what do you think should have made it? Drop us a comment below to tell us what your top windsurfing moment of 2012 was.

Although you are going to require a certain level of French to understand this, it’s not essential as the pictures also tell the story.

You can order here – DLG Movie

You can also check out our Behind the Scenes feature HERE.

This year has been filled with many incredible windsurfing movies; Rewarded by Andre Paskowski is without a doubt one of the stand out freestyle movies, but now Flo Jung, a team of editors and riders have released a stand out wavesailing movie too. After two years of hard work Boardseeker catches up with the riders of Don’t Let Go to find out more about the making of the movie. 

Robby Swift in Chile. Image credit Pablo Berrios.

Robby Swift – The Injury Curse

Instead of “Don’t Let Go”, the name of the movie would rather be: “Should have let go!” The crew of the film has been plagued with injuries trying to go big to go for the movie, right from the start when Flo had the idea to make this project, he injured his ankle in Cabo Verde. Then Flo got better and Boujma almost killed himself trying a triple forward in Maui.

In the summer we had a good run in the Canaries injury free on the PWA. I then went to Chile and broke my foot really badly and had to have an operation. I was able to go to Klitmoller to commentate on the event, even though I was on crutches still and there, Flo broke his knee doing a massive back loop.

We split up after Sylt; I went back to Maui to do my rehab, Flo did his in Germany. Finally in April we were all sailing together again and had a few good days of filming when Boujmaa broke his foot, the same injury as mine. Finally everyone was back on track and we managed to finish our last part in Peru all together.

My favourite locations were Maui and Chile. We had a sick swell in Chile this year at Punta De Lobos which was amazing and Maui had one of the windiest winters for a very long time, so we got in a LOT of sailing.

It’s very different from any other windsurfing movie I have seen so far. It is more emotional and more personal than any other video I have seen so I really like that about it.

My wife Heidy was one of the main filmers, Manuel Grafenauer was the main editor and Leon Jamaer also helped edit the final parts. Flo was the driving force behind the movie. He has been working really hard, over the past 6 months especially!

Boujmaa Guilloul. Image credit John Carter.

Boujmaa Guilloul - Gold Sessions

It is the first windsurfing movie I’ve been seriously involved in, we all dream about the perfect one, the one that will mark the history of windsurfing, action, lifestyle, editing, music and emotions, elements that make difference between all. Once you get the perfect set up, then you can make un unforgettable DVD, that you  will watch over and over again.

It has been really hard for us, to find funds and to realise our visions on film. We are working with a tight budget to get around and film together.

We had the idea of it back at Cape Verde contest in November, where Flo started filming, then we saw each other in Maui again, talking more seriously about it, and there it went; we filmed a couple sets and we continued trough the PWA tour.

I think we captured already some “gold sessions” and I am especially looking forward to see the Morocco part finalised.

You can expect different styles of windsurfers with very different motivations and backgrounds.

I loved pretty much everywhere we filmed, all the spots were good fun windsurfing, all different, but I always love my place, which is my personal favourite spot.

Camille Juban in Maui. Image credit Jimmie Hepp.

Camille Juban – A True Documentation

It began when Flo told me about the idea of making a film expressing the message to others to follow their dreams and “don’t let go”.

We don’t want to show another windsurf movie just with good action and  perfect conditions, it’s more about a true documentation of windsurfers and their life as a pro, travelling around the world to follow their dreams with all ups and downs; I hope you enjoy it.

Flo Jung pulling a goiter. Image credit Jimmie Hepp.

Check out the Facebook page for the latest updates: www.facebook.com/DLGWindsurf or visit the Don’t Let Go website for more and to purchase www.dontletgo-movie.com.

Manu at work. Image credit Maxime Houyvet.