VG Spring tour II

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....


Going fast....end of the city....going faster....highway...uhhh....verrryy fast....country road - why everybody is going so slow - lets overtake them all.... and here we are 10 minutes to the start in the spot. THANKS DAD

THE RACING BEGINS

We start with formula races in very gusty and shifty wind. From 4 to 14 m/s and everything can change in 1 minute.
On the first race I get a nice start on port and after an intense race with Giedrius LTU 11 I finish in the first place.
Second start, the wind shifts - everyone goes on starboard, the wind shifts (2 minutes to the start left), I go on port, (1 minute to the start) wind shifts again oh nooo no nonono! I arrive 11th at the 1st mark, and I am so heated up that I decide to make a catapult and cool of in the 12 degrees water wearing only 2mm long john and a 1mm T-shirt. Nonetheless, I catch up with other guys on the downwind, overtake 5 guys on the upwind, than one guy on the last downwind and finish up in 5th place.

Third race. After a nice starboard start from the boat I am first at the mark with the gap of 500 meter after me. However, after the last jibe to the downwind mark I stop for a few minutes and like a real gentlemen let Giedrius overtake me. However, I am not that gentle on the upwind run and I am in a front position for the last downwind run. And then Giedrius shows skills that even Harry Potter would be envious for - he makes a teleport (he tries to deny it, but there was just no way how he could fairly beat me in the downwind run) and appears right on the finishing line just to steal that bullet from me.
After the break racing continues. And it is still just me and Giedrius who are in front of the pack. We were fighting like mad during all the legs in the 4th race and finished just one feet between the noses of our boards. Luckily I was that bastard who won this race.
I needed to take a bullet in the last race in order to be the first overall. So I focused as hard as I could and literally nailed the start. At the boat, on starboard and just one or two guys were downwind from me, everyone else got into the shadow and Giedrius stopped planning (chuuuu...relax). This time I am fighting with Gedas LTU 76 and Arvydas LTU 789 is closely behind. And in the second lap miracles start to happen. Gedas remembers that he always wanted to see the Elektrenai power plant from a close distance and sails there, Arvydas decides that he hasn't seen the plant for a while as well, and the rest of the guys just follow them. I am tacking and going the right direction knowing that I have the bullet in my pocket and that Giedrius is long way behind. But at the first mark I just can not believe in my eyes. Even though I am clearly first, Giedrius made teleport again and now is in the second place - unbelievable.
All in all, I am first, Giedrius is second and Arvydas is the last on the podium. What a race after all. Giedrius made everything as interesting and as magical as it could be. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't just me and Giedrius in the fight. Other guys like Gedas, Arvydas and Paulius LTU 717 with Mindaugas LTU 646 were quite fast as well.

Don't stop reading the day is not over yet. After a short break to rig our Slalom stuff we are back on the water to do 6 more races of slalom. And then I realized that my of water winter training has paid of. I fell completely normal why others reveal that they have used out most of their energy resources. I sailed all 6 races without any bigger mistakes, isn't that great. In all races I've managed to get good, very good or perfect starts. As a result I was always in the Top 3 at the first mark. And afterwards it was only 2 jibes left. As for the jibes I just could not fall, - again all because of my 2mm long john. If I  have felt, I would have frozen to death probably. Thus, I just didn't fall for 18 jibes in a row. So I got 2 out of 3 ingredients for a good Slalom result. The last one is speed, and with 85 kg on board I wasn't really lacking it. Just Audrius LTU 51 and Mindaugas LTU 41 were able to overtake me on the straights. Thus, I have made everything from my side to be successful, and Audrius and Mindaugas did the rest. Both of them had made a few mistakes, which was enough for me to overtake them. Audrius had one fall at the jibe and one OCS, while Mindaugas had a few falls as far as I know. Thus in the end I has 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 4. Nevertheless, I am sure that the next race will be even more challenging as Slalom pros like Audrius and Mindaugas will be ready to figtht till the end.

All in all, as far as I remember this is first real victory for my in overall class for both Slalom and FW. I hope I will continue to sail this well. Big thanks for all competitors it was a pleasure and a honor to race with you. See you on the water.

Foto by:
Andžela