After the amazing season opening together with my bro' Arnas I was more than ready for the first competition. I had 1 Slalom training and 3 Formula days.
The equipment was working just perfectly. The new Reflex 4 10.7 from Severne is simply amazing. I have never sailed such a stable sail before. Doesn't matter how strong the wind is it just keeps pulling forward. I start planning and pointing higher than everyone just a bit after the lightweight guys. I mean I am like a little grizzly bear 85kg (yeah!!!) compared to Arnas who would definitely be out weighted by a fly (when he stepped up on the weighting machine at my flat it showed MINUS 70 kg). So to get back to the topic he starts planing in just half a meter less wind than I do (and he uses a bigger sail,- 10.7 compared to 11.0). I am still using the 167 wide made by Starboard, which I think is the best board for lake conditions.
On the Slalom side I am a bit old-fashioned. I have never ever experienced the joy of riding Z-Fin, Boss, Tectonic or anything else the guys use in PWA. I stick with an trusty old Select 07 (not elite), a board which was made when I still had the ability to walk through any door without bending (yeah, you know guys being almost 2 meters high is not that easy) - I guess it was then called JP Slalom III 109. Just on the sail I'm a bit more "fresh" Reflex 3, 7.8 by Severne is an absolute machine.
Oh and I here comes the racing day. I get up early and go to put all the equipment in our surfing van, but there is one small problem, the battery is absolutely dead. Luckily, my dad has been encountering such problems for the last 30 years. So in a matter of seconds he had numerous solutions for this problem in his head.However, it took a while for us to choose the best. Nevertheless, after 1.5 hours we were trying to drag the bus to start the engine with the battery half charged. However, I had to use the knowledge of tying up knots to fix the dragging line cause the "Chinese" original broke - twice. All in all, with the help of 170 BHP from AWD Subaru and 2BHP from two leg drive pocket grizzly bear (that's me) the engine was started. There was still 70km to the spot and around 40 minutes left....