FW World Championship Day 2

Today we had condititions for formula - not for surviving and the resuls have changed. The wind was about 15-18 knots all the time. We had 3 races for youth and 4 for masters.
IIn youth fleet Sebastian Kornum had 4 bullets from yeserday, but today he had to fight hardly for place in Top 5. Mateo BRA 767 was the leader today, he took two bullets and one second place. I was going really fast, but I have made some stupid tactical mistakes - sometimes it is hard to predict the wind shifts.
So today I finished 6th, 12th, and 5th. I was using strongly downhauled 11,0 and ZE0S- on Starboard HWR.
In Master fleet Bryan DEN 173 is leading against the Black Point 7 team rider Andrea Cucchi ITA 1.
The most crucial part off racing here in Skive is tactics. Which tack to start, when to turn it is very hard to predict. Thats why locals suddenly  apear from nowhers while foreigners are dissaapearing to somewhere.
Today in race 2 it was more favorable to start on port, but before race 3 jury has changed the starting line although the wind hasn't changed. So it became very hard to start on port tack. The best way to start was to start on starboars and then to tack quickly on port. There were and more tricky parts in the race. I hope tomorow we will have even less wind so I hope it will be possible to use ZE4S-.

FW World Championship JYM

Hello everybody from Skive, Denmark. The place where the wind is so gusty and shifty that locals screw down their sails to the ground when they leave it on the beach. The most interesting view was - flying sails, - unfortunately my 11 has flyed away as well and the batten broke. Luckily I didn't need it today - I was using 8,5 all the day and I was overpowered all the time.
There were 4 races for master fleet and 4 races for Youth fleet. Officially the wind was from 15-23 knots in the first two races to 20-28 knots in the last. But I think there were over 30 knot, and I am not the only one. 
In the first three races I was trying to survive:
On the upwind I was doing the craziest stances I have ever seen and on the downwind I was sailing with front foot in the footstrap back foot near the opposite side footstrap and without the harness. I finished 13, 14, 15.
On the last race I remembered what Paulo BRA 3333 said about going in high winds - you just grab the boom tight and go. So I grabbed the boom in the way if I wanted to crush it, tighten my abs and just went. I finished 9th.
I hope for less wind tomorow.
;-)

Estonia Baltic Cup Day 3

Today we had very good conditions for racing, the wind was 10-25 knots. 4 races were completed. In the first  two I used 11,0 and in the second two 9,7. I better used 11,0 all the time, because I haven't trimmed 9,7 correctly yet.
My best result was 10th place today and worst place was 24th. Unfortunately I don't remember details of each race - the wind has blown away everything.
All in all I think that 14th place in Tallin event overal and 1st place in youth is quite good although it could have been better.
In overall Baltic Cup series I took 9th place overall, just one point behind Gedas LTU 76.
Mantas LTU 13 is going very very good this year. He took 7th place overall and 6th place in Tallin event.
Now I am going to Denmark for FW Worlds JYM.
See you there.

Estonia Baltic Cup

Hellofrom Tallin. Here we are going to compete in Estonia Baltic Cup - final event of Baltic Cup series. We have 52 registered competitors.
Today we had wind from 6 to 10 knots. We had 3 attempts to do starts, but all of them were canceled.
Now we have grill party and later we will have party here as well.

Kaunas Championship, Last day

Ola amigos!

Just after the sun raised above the horizon the last day of racing began.
Today we had a nice breeze coming from  NW which was from 3 to 5-6 m/s  and luckily no heavy rain at all. 3 races were planned to be made and I was really determined to maintain the 1st place in overall.

We rigged our viper sails, polished viper boards and went out on the water.

Euro champ final day

The last day of european championship greeted us with 3 meter high waves and wind from 15 to 25 knots. There was only one race for golden fleet.
Paulo BRA 3333 won the race, Gonzalo ARG 3 was second and Arnon ISR 1 took third place.
Later all planned races were canceled because of dangerous conditions.
I took my surfboard and managed to catch some waves.

All in all I took 47th place overall, second youth and second in silver fleet. My results could have been better, but I am very happy because I gained lots of experience. I also saw and talked with the best windsurfers in the world(Steve Allen,Arnon Dagan, Gonzalo Costa Hoevel, Wilhelm Schurman, Dennis Litlle and others). All of them are very friendly and willing to share their knowledge.
It was also very interesting to talk with one of the best race director in the world. He was changing the race course every day and he was always trying to place the race course as close to the beach as possible, so that you could follow the race from the beach.

See you in Tallin in Baltic Cup.

Kaunas championship, Day 1

What's up?

Today I had a nice racing day in quite rash weather conditions.
This time I was sailing with vipers and did really well in all 4 races.
That was not so easy as I expected, as young guns who are sailing with vipers are improving in huge paces. This time we had an enormous load of rain and a lovely wind blowing from 6 to 10/12 m/s.

Euro champ Day 4

Today we had two races for each fleet. The wind was cross off-shore from 10 to 16 knots and almoust flat water.
I was going pretty fast, but I was doing stupid mistakes again. In the first race I had a terrible start and in the second race I crashed while going downwind to avoid crashing into one women who was going upwind.
I finished 3rd and 4th.
In the golden fleet 'Pszemek - pont' is leading, Arnon Dagan is one point behind him.
Tomorow is the last day of the championship.

Euro champ Day 3

Today we had 4 races for every fleet. The wind was from 14-16 knots in the beggining to about 10 knots during the last race.
The wind direction changed from NW yesterday to SW today.
During the first race I didn't made any mistakes, but I was going very slowly because of the stange wave. Later I got used to it and started going faster. I finished in 5th position in silver fleet.
In the second race I made a bad start and I have fallen on the jibe so I finished 10.
I have fallen twice during the third start: one time latvian guy laid his sail just in front of me and second time when I was pumping and the wind dissapeared. But I didn't gave up and finished in 5th place.
In these 3 races I was starting near the boat, but I decided to start near the pin end on the fourth race. It has paid of I got away in clean air and water. I was leading the fleet from the start to the finish. The gap beetween me and other sailors was jus getting bigger. I finished about 500 meters on front of the second place.
Today I was using Severne Reflex II, SB HWR and Z-fins 70S-.
Most of the time I was fighting closely with Giedrius LTU 11.
Now I am in second place overall in silver.
In gold fleet there is an intensive battle for first 4 place.
From Lithuanians Mantas LTU 13 is doing the best he is 26th. Gedas and Andrius are fighting good as well.
Karolis LTU 1001 and Arvydas LTU789 are in the very very end of the fleet.

Euro Champ Day 2

Today we had one race for blue and yellow fleets then we were divided to gold and silver fleets. The best 45 guys were sent to the golden fleet and others were sent to silver.
In the first two races we had pretty strong wind - about 15 knots.
I was going as always somewhere around 19th-21st place, unfortunately on the last downwind leg I made a catapult and I have lost about 5 places. I got discard for this race, but with 66 points I took 48th place and I was sent to silver fleet. On the one one hand this is a huge dissapointment for me, but on the other hand I am sailing in such tough conditions for the first time. Now in silver fleet I will try to get used to these difficult conditions and I am going to try out diffirent tactics.
We had two races in the silver fleet and in both I finished 3rd. The wind was about 12 knots in these races , but the wave stayed the same as earlier - about 1-1,5 meter. In overal I am second now.
In the golden fleet there is a huge competition and there is no clear leader. Check formula windsurfing website for results.

European Championship

.Hi everyone,
We have no wind yet here in Liepaja. So about 100 sailors are waiting on the shore.
All the Top sailors are here, just world champion Albeu is missing.
There are 3 fleets - 2 for men and one for women.

So today we had 3 races for every fleet. Conditions were chalenging: wind from 13 to 16 knots and wave about 1 -1,5 meter high.
I was in the same fleet as ISR 1, AUS 0, NED 52, POL 25 and many other very fast guys.
I felt very slow on the water because it was the first time in my life when I was sailing in such big wave.
I hope that I will qualify for Gold fleet, now I am somewhere around 20th place.
I am also the first youth in my fleet I hope in overall as well.

The first difficult thing was to get out of the shore break - it was pretty big and pretty angry. It has taken a lot of battens today.
Second difficult thing was to go upwind. The wave was very steep and it was very hard to keep the board on the water. It was trying to jump on every single wave and if you let the board to jump after you land you stop or you get a spinout. I haven't found the way to go over this wave yet.
The third difficult thing was to go downwind. The wave was quite messy so it wasn't possible to catch the wave and ride it. You had to have a good speed and to fly over the most of the waves and to ride down the biggest waves.
And last difficult thing was to do tacks and jibes - the board was trying to kick you of all the time just like a wild horse trys to kick off the rider.
I hope for smaller wave and less wind tomorow.

Baltic Sea session

Long time no see!

I have just came back from Palanga after a super great session. My holidays lasted for 2 weeks and it would have been great to expand it for hundred years more. In overall I had about 4 fantastic days of windsurfing and about 4-5 days with kite due to light wind.

Baltic Cup Day 3

Yesterday night we had a fantastic party at coyote fly club with a lot of drinks and go go dancers on the bar ;-).
Nevertheless there was no wind today. At the price giving all division's winners were awarded with big tropheys.
Tomorow is registration day for FW Europeans, we hope to see a some PWA stars comming as well.

Baltic cup Day 2

Hi everyone,
Today we had 2 races more. The wind was off-shore from 8 to 16 knots. There was no swell, just chop created by the wind.
I sailed quite good today, taking 14th and 11th place. Just the start off the second races was terrible for me. I decided to go with the leaders and to start near the pin end, but there was a big hole, one french guy sailed over me and I got stuck. Luckily the wind was very tricky and I managed to fight back.
Ups and downs off the day:
Ups
FRA 531 Nicolas Waremburg ruled the fleet today by taking two bullets.
EST 202 Martin Ervin took two second places and became the leader off the event.
POL 555 Philip is sitting in the 3rd places
LTU 76 Gedas was sailing very fast today he took 5th and 6th place and jumped into 11th place.
Downs
EST 24 John Kaju was doing something very wrong today - 12th and 13th place and he has felt down to 6th place I guess.
LTU 13 Mantas was afraid of "high" wind and made wrong adjustments for his sail. He felt down to 12th place.
See you tomorow.

BC Latvia

Hi guys,
Yesterday we had 2 completed races and 1 race was canceled.
As far as I know this is the biggest Baltic Cup ever. 80 competitors - wow.
The wind was from 8 to 14 knots - side off-shore. We also had 1 meter high swell. Near the shore the wind was really really ligh what made going out very difficult. Many battens were broken and some sails were torn.
Many sailors were stuck in the shore break quite long so they were late for the start as well.
I made so-so start and near the first mark I was in Top 15. Later I managed to overtake few sailors and finished in 9th place.
In the second race the wind direction changed and it became imposible to start on starboard. I have tried to do this and I got stuck. Later I was fighting very hard and finished in 18th position.
In overall I took 13th place and 1st in youth. Mantas LTU 13 is the best Lithuanian standing in 8th place overall. Leading sailors are Wilhelm BRA 999, John EST 24 and Philip POL 555.

Baltic Cup Latvia, Liepoja

Good morning guys,
I have just driven out of Kaunas and I have plenty of time, because Liepaja is 300km away. I don't have driving license so thanks to my parents who are driving.

You should remember that I've caught a flue during the last competition in Poland. It was more serious than I've though in the begining. It lasted for almoust 2 weeks, I lost 5kg of my weigh(70kg now) and my physical condition went down as well. I gave as much rest for myself as possible, I've also done some ligh excersizes, so I hope that will be enough for competing on FW.
During that time my windsurfing school was finaly visited by one student so now it is officialy opened. ;-)
I'm going to write reports from this competition every day, so follow my blog.
Take care

I love rankings

In the newest FW overall class rankings I took 9th place.

http://www.formulawindsurfing.org/news.php?id=1956

I am very happy about this and I am looking forward to keeping up as high as possible.