Wednesday 29 June 2011

Kiel, Germany

A spot of Kiel which I have been windsurfing at with RS:X can be easily found with a help of GPS or heading to the North of Schilksee town in Germany, Kiel.
The spot can be reached with no special trucks, ships or planes as there are roads which stretch nearby leaving areas.





FW equipment rigging guide / FW inventoriaus takelavimas

It is very important to rig the sail correctly so here it is a complete formula sail rigging guide for you.
Sail
I suggest you reading sail rigging instruction, which should be written on the sail, in the rigging instruction or in the manufacturers website. There you will find out the exact way how to rig your sail. But most of the sails can be rigged in this way:

Monday 27 June 2011

New Vision Cup, Day 3

After 1 day of medium wind formula and one day of medium wind slalom on Sunday we had great strong wind formula races. 3 races were completed.
Karolis LTU 1001 was showing amazing upwind speed and angle, but some branches in the water and some mistakes didn't let him to rule the races. All the time he was closely followed and in the first two races overtaken by brothers Greseviciai (Mantas LTU 13 and Gedas LTU 76). Giedrius LTU 11 was also sailing fast. These 4 guys were in TOP 4. And there was an intense fight for the 5th place.
I came to the starting line first to measure the distance and this was a mistake. Before the starts it was better to start Starboard near the pin-end, but during the starting procedure the direction shifted and now it was better to start near the boat, afterwards I have made couple more mistakes and finally finished in shameful 8th positions.

Sunday 26 June 2011

Kieler Woche 2011/Germany, RS:X youth

Aloha amigos!

Recently I had an exciting experience in Germany, Kiel. Due to the fact that there were enough competitive guys who wanted to show their skills with 8.5 sails, the group of 20 youth sailors was made. We arrived at the spot a couple of days before the official starts what gave us a chance to get acknowledged of windsurfing conditions in the cold Baltic sea fully overtaken by jellyfishes.

We were living at the camp side in our super fast camper. The trip from Poland didn't really get bored as we were flying with extremely high 80km/h speed ( Of course if do not count the supernova 90km/h speed downhill ). Anyway the living was comfortable and chill as everything we need was in the same place.





Saturday 25 June 2011

New vision CUP, Nida, 2011 Day 2

Today we had Slalom day. 4 slalom races and one 1h Slalom race.
The forecast anticipated 8m/s wind but today average was around 7m/s, so some guys were complaining about wind all the time. Nevertheless I was pumping really hard and I started planing one of the first. I was using Simmer Style SC 7,0 and JP Slalom III 109l with 39cm Select SL 7 fin. My weight is about 73-74kg so other guys with 8,6 sails and 120l board should have started planing earlier, but they were to lazy to pump.
During all the starts I didn't managed to cross line perfectly:
1st race: I came to the line to early, stopped everybody sailed over me and I felt in. Afterwards I was struggling really hard and finished in 4th place.
2nd race: I got OCS
3rd race: So so start, not good but not bad as well, 3rd place.
4th race: So so start, 4th place.

New experience : 1h slalom race.
I made good start (I was late 2 sec, but other were late even more). After the start group of 4 sailors got ahead: Mantas LTU 13, Gedas LTU 76, Arunas LTU 109 and me). Mantas LTU 13 was sailing really fast and got away. After few laps I have overtaken Gedas and Arunas. Mantas was sailing in the front all the time and other guys were chasing me. Around 45th minutes Audrius LTU 51 has overtaken me, he was so fast and he was doing all jybes perfectly. So after 1h  results were:
  1. Mantas LTU13 
  2. Audirus LTU 51
  3. Rytis LTU 799
  4. Gedas LTU 76

New vision CUP, Nida, 2011

Nida - one of the most beautiful places in Lithuania. I am always very happy to come back here again to race. This time for New Vision windsurfing cup. As we celebrate 'Jonines' here in Lithuania we have long weekend - friday, saturday and sunday. The forecast was very good as well - one day for formula, 2 days for slalom.


Yesterday we had 5 FW races. 3 - break - 2. During the downwind leg to the starting line (off-shore winds) - I have somehow broken my sail's lower cam. So I had to sail 3 races without a cam - nice, huh?. Nevertheless my results were quite good: 1st, 3rd and ..mmm...7th - not really good. During the upwind leg I didn't feel big difference, but on the downwind leg all guys had better angle then me because of my cam. Although during the 3rd race 2nd lap the wind has shifted a bit and the right side of the distance became better, guess where have I sailed? - Yes, to the right side of the distance.

During the break I changed my cam (Thanks for Gediminas LTU76 who gave me one). While going downwind I felt that my sail is working much better. I finished 3rd and 6th. Not bad, but not great as well. I have been making too much tactical mistakes to climb higher.

All in all the results are:
  1. Giedrius Liutkus LTU11   8 points
  2. Mantas Gresevicius LTU 13  9 points
  3. Rytis Jasiunas LTU 799    13 points
  4. Karolis Sipavicius LTU 1001  15 points
  5. Gediminas Gresevicius LTU 76  17 points
The wind is coming in right now and everybody is hoping for slalom and 1hour slalom.

Friday 10 June 2011

How to buy? / Kaip nusipirkti?

So you have red my last article, you understood that you wan't to expand your wind range or to start competing in FW competitions, you realised that FW is not so physically hard as you though before and you checked that you are experienced enough to sail in FW - whats next?

  1. Right now you need to try FW windsurfing gear. Try to borrow it from friend of yours or some friendly guy at the beach, but be careful do not crash it, remember the board is very fragile.
  2. Or you can miss step one and just buy all equipment.

Thursday 9 June 2011

What is 'Formula windsurfing'? / Kas yra ta FORMULÄ–?

This is the first article of upcoming big, long articles serie about Formula Windsurfing. In this articles serie I will try to tell and show you everything about Formula windsurfing that I know. I have been windsurfing for 9 years by now and for the last 4 years I have been doing FW. It may not look very much and you might say that I am not experienced enough to do such good quality articles, but I am not going to talk about advanced techniques of Formula Windsurfing. I am going to show you simple tips how to step from your freeride board to formula kit and how to control it.

Monday 6 June 2011

Poland, Puck, RS:X pumping contest

Aloha amigos!

Nearly a two weeks ago I had a quite good event in Poland, competing in their some kind of championship.
On my way to Puck yacht club I was a bit worried as I have heard that polish guys are RS:X pro's, so to tell you the truth I was wondering on how many laps they will beat me. Heh, unfortunately they weren't so angry on me and actually I kicked most of their asses :)