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.

Name: Iballa Ruano Moreno

Date of Birth: 1/December/1977

Born in: Gran Canaria

Currently living: Gran Canaria

Sponsors: Roxy, Starboard, Severne, Baker &Mckenzie, VW Comerciales, Flying Objects

Disciplines: Wave

Top results: 5 times world champion

Nicknames: Princess Ib

Describe your style on the water: Fluid

Describe yourself off the water: Open minded, friend of my friends and funny

Favourite spot: Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, Tenerife

Current favourite board and sail:  70L Starboard QUAD and 4,2 Severne Blade

Iballa Moreno

at home

Best memory from 2012:

Being able to organise the world cup in GC and save the event together with my sister and our club Morenotwins…..

in Pozo,

Gran Canaria

What do you think helped you win the title? Training all year in different conditions. Also when there was no wind, I did a lots of training with my Stand Up Paddle board.

How did you celebrate? We had a little celebration on our birthday recently

What are your plans for the winter? Staying around the islands for surf and windsurfing….keep training

Who do you admire the most on and off the water? My sister Daida for being a champion in the water and off the water!!! Life give us hard times but only you can make it change and go through it…So I’m thankful she is doing well now and has recovered.

What are your strengths and weaknesses? My strengths are the surfing and weaknesses jumping probably…I would like to learn some new jumps!

What skills would you like to have from another competitor?  Daida´s jumps

Image credits PWA/John Carter

Iballa, with her sister Daida.

Windsurfing is all about imagery; capturing the perfect moment on the water is something truly special. In this new series Boardseeker catches up with a few of the World’s top windsurfing photographers as they share their favourite shots and explain the stories behind them.

We start of with Pozo based photographer Dani Miquel.

All images © Dani Miquel.

Pozo Izquierdo, Agust 10th, 2009

Alessio Stillrich

That’s one of the average morning sessions at Pozo Izquierdo, usually I tell the guys to jump in front of me or just by my side, but not later because then we are in backlight (like in this case), but sometimes that can be ok, in this case the black and white finished the work.

Sometimes, not controlling the elements in the picture, helps to increase the sensation of action, like here, the contrast is too strong because of the backlight. There’s drops and small reflections everywhere, all that stuff can ruin your best shot, but in this case I love it, I think it makes you feel the action better.

Pozo Izquierdo, December 11th, 2006

Javi Espin, windsurfing teacher, co-owner of the local shop Pozo Winds

We usually don’t have sunsets like this with wind in Gran Canaria, but the high clouds that afternoon made me think we could have a nice sunset, so I prepared the housing with the 50mm f:1,4 to be ready for low light. This time of the year there were just friends sailing by the bunker and Javi was the one nailing the picture.

The special about this picture is of course the lighting and the colours and that brief moment of stillness when you are at the top of a backloop.

Pozo Izquierdo, December 9th, 2006 (yes, two days after the previous pic)

Jonas Ceballos

You can’t appreciate this from the picture, but this day Pozo was big, mast high with some sets closing out the bay. Days like this there’s not much setting up, I tell the guys I’ll be there and I try my best against the current and not drowning. I remember that session, it was a short one, the second time I was caught inside by one of the bigger sets and washed to the shore I was done.

I care a lot about the light and the colour in my pictures, in this case both are pretty bad,but the action is so good; one of the best backloops I’ve ever seen, by the backloop master himself Jonas Ceballos, and from this angle you can really appreciate the jump.

Pozo Izquierdo, August 10th, 2009

Jose Romoreo, one of the Pozo Izquierdo young talents.

When I go for a morning watershoot session in Pozo, especially if it’s with the wide angle, I really need to trust the rider, because I want him to jump really close to me, and that’s not that easy. Fortunately a few of my friends are really good and Jose is one of them, so depending on the light and the conditions we have a small talk before going in the
water to tell them what I want.

A good picture for me is always about the sensations, the feelings, and when I watch this one I feel as I was there, in a perfect morning at Pozo Izquierdo just relaxing and having fun.

Pozo Izquierdo, August 12th, 2009

Moritz Mauch, he was 13 when I took this picture.

When I know the next day is going to be windy and the sky blue (usually the sky is not that blue in this island) I always try to set a shooting early morning the next day, and in this case was with the kids. I like shooting with the kids, because they have a lot of fun, it’s like if they are just playing.

This picture absolutely shows what windsurfing is for me, I don’t need to do loops or ride huge waves, as soon as I’m in the footstraps with good planing, I’m just happy, and you can see in Moritz’s face, he is just happy in that picture, with the hair still dry flying in the wind and a smile that big that barely fits in his face.

Pozo Izquierdo, April 20th, 2012

Pablo Ramirez BolaÒos, another one of the Pozo young talents.

I was watching the conditions at noon with some of the guys, and looked like by mid afternoon could be good for waveriding just in front of the rock, so I told them I would be there at 5.00pm with the fisheye, so I wanted them to do everything really really close to me (but not killing me).

You can feel the tension in this one, he is so close to me you can see his eyes, you can nearly feel the power of the wave and the tension of being almost too close to the photographer. I also like the detail of seeing the houses in the background. I’ve just used a few times the fisheye to shoot windsurf and I haven’t seen too many pictures from other photographers either, but I think there’s a lot of potential in it, so it’s one of the directions I really want to go.

Pozo Izquierdo, January 23rd, 2010

Iballa and Daida

The Twins had just signed with Starboard-Severne, they needed a picture sailing and despite being flat, the light was perfect, so we went for the
freeride just fun shot that I always love.

It’s all about the beauty and the fun in this picture, I love it!

Pozo Izquierdo, July 12th, 2012

Victor Fernandez

Victor is a good friend, so when he just won the event in Pozo Izquierdo
and was looking so confident to become world champion (which he ended up
being that year) I asked him to do a portait shot. We waited a couple days
because I wanted calima (sand from the Sahara in the air) wich gives the
kind of light I wanted to do the shot.

I like the picture because I think it shows how is Victor and the moment
in his life he was going trough.

Secret spot, Gran Canaria, June 6th, 2012

Victor Fernandez

That was a day with no wind in Pozo Izquierdo, but as VÌctor was in town,
we decided to try “somewhere else”, the wind was light and gusty but waves
were nice, so we gave it a try and of course Victor delivered, it’s always
a pleasure to work with athletes at such level.

To me, this is one of thesse pictues that feels like being there, that
makes you want to go saling; I can’t ask for more in a picture.

The women in Tenerife provided an exhilarating show, in challenging conditions. Iballa Moreno lead the way, with incredible riding and perfectly placed jumps, however the other women were hot on her heels. Boardseeker shows what the women are really made of…

Photos by: PWA/JC, Video by: Alfie Hart