Blog dedicated to surfing, windsurfing & everyhing that surrounds them, with special attention to the beach of Pozo Izquierdo.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Stretching and relaxation exercises

For some of us (especially veterans like me) it’s hard to wake up after a day sailing with strong wind, we feel so stiff an tired, because through ignorance or laziness we do not stretch after sailing and it's something that really (if you do it propperly, with no rebounds and without forcing, and we must be careful because a bad stretching exercice can cause injury) helps us to feel better not to have that feeling the next day that you can not get up from bed, not to mention the physical benefits and the prevention of injuries which brings us to have more flexibility in our muscles.
The Salutation of the Moon is a great exercise to do before going to sleep, it's a good stretching routine in addition to being a good exercise that helps us to relax before going to rest.
This is one of the variants of the Moon Salutation that I draw with the help of Jutta (our specialist in sports massage and yoga in Pozo Izquierdo), there are more versions of this routine, this is just one of them it is important that each one finds his rhythm at the time of making it (note that the positions in which stretches are catching air, and you expel the air in the next position, when contracting) and not forcing the postures to the extreme of pain. Normally we start repeating 3 times the cycle which is shown on the pictures below, and you can gradually increase the number of repetitions as you start feeling comfortable with it.
Is a proper exercise of muscle relaxation for the night (especially after a day of windsurfing or surfing, but also as a daily routine), and then go to rest, in a next post we will publish the Sun Salutation, a most invigorating exercise appropriate for the morning or warming before sports.

Freestyle in Fuerteventura


Yesterday was completed the first double elimination in Fuerteventura, confirming the winers of the single elimination, Gollito and Sarah-Quita.

No wind at the moment in Sotavento (strange, becouse in Pozo Izquierdo we are having really strong winds), but if you want to follow the evolution of the day click here or go to www.pwaworldtour.com

17fuerte2 Iballa in the tent at Sotavento, photo: John Carter/PWA

Pozo Izquierdo 2010

17-a1 17-a2 Jonas with the Goya Guru and the Fanatic New Wave Twin 72 and Pablo with the Simmer Icon.

17-a5 17-a3 Moritz with the North Ice and Lino absolutely happy with his new Twin 72 and the Simmer Icon.

17-a417-b1 17-b2 17-b3 Jose Miguel testing the Fanatic New Wave Twin 72 and testing the new SUP from Fanatic Aleix and Dario.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Simmer 2010

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Already in CUTRE shop the new 2010 Simmer Sails, at the moment arrived the Icon and the Iron, we are waitng the Mission X in a few days.

Fuerteventura Grand Slam

Antoine Albeau keeps wining the slaloms, he has been the winner at Sotavento too, today started the freestyle, with victories from Gollito defeating Brawzinho in the men final and Sarah-Quita defeating Daida in the women's.
To see the complete results and all the information from the event click
here.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Interview with Sebastian Wenzel

-Which are the main changes in the 2010 board range?
-During the last 12 months we developed more new boards than we ever did in one year, we did a complete new range of big freeride boards, a complete new range of slalom boards, we did four new twinzer shapes, we have a brand new New Wave shape, we have new Skates with an additional size on the smaller boards, and new Hawks as well, so pretty much the all range is new, there’s very few shapes that I left, a couple of shapes that were very successful are still in the range, but the majority of the shapes are new shapes.

-What can you tell me about all this buzz around all those new fin placements, quads, thrusters, twinzers, all that stuff?
-Ok, with twinzers we’ve been working already, we introduced them last year, and obviously there’s quite a bit hype about fins, thrusters, quads… I can only say we’ve been experimenting on this already like over ten years ago, I made boards for at the time very good German sailor Ralf Bachschuster, a three fin and he got the German championship with that board, so it’s nothing really new, we looked at it at the time, we are looking always at different things, but we are not introducing just to bring something new, when we bring a shape, like for example the twinzer, we make really sure that the board works, and we don’t bring a board in the range just for marketing reasons.
So, just imagine, with the single fin it’s pretty easy to put the fin, you put it in the centre and you can move it forward and back, with two fins you have already front and back and how much you put them to the side, with quad fins, the possibilities are quite tricky to get it right, and the more fins you put the more special the board gets, so we are always looking at everything and developing in all kind of directions to see how far we can go.

-With the fins, it’s just fin placement or involves a completely different shape for a different fin configuration?
-No, as you can see with our twinzers, it’s not just a regular New Wave with two fins, it’s a completely different shape, and if you develop something with three fins or four fins, or two tins or whatever it is, you have to develop a shape that suits that sort of fin placement, it’s not just like, ok we are putting two fins on that board and do it, that’s why I was a little bit surprised to see already some production quad fins and all that stuff, because usually it takes really a lot of development and not just like, ok we take this board and we put four fins and the board works better, definitely is not like that.

-What about side-shore and on-shore, a good wave board works well in all kind of conditions or you really need different boards for different waves?
-First of all, it depends on your sailing style, on your personal style, wave sailing have different parameters than racing or speed sailing, there you have to go fast, but on wave sailing you have personal style, everybody has a different style, some people like to stay really close to the wave, others like to go for deeper bottom turns, others are faster… so here is where starts what kind of board suits you best before we talk about the conditions, then, as we know, certain shapes work better in certain conditions, for example in on-shore places you will always be better with a faster board, because if you have a slow board with a lot of rocker, you go off the wind to do the bottom turn and you loose all the speed, so that’s really important.
The shape has an influence on on-shore or side-shore, but the style as well. Obviously Punta Preta is a completely different scenario than Pozo or Guincho is different than Hookipa, so for sure you should have as a professional different boards for different conditions.

-How do you do to test the freeride boards, because I always though that average sailors should test those, but maybe a good sailor can figure it out how it is for an average one anyway?

-We give all our boards during the test process to different kind of people and get their feedback, but obviously the main testing is done by us, but you have to see, if the board is easy to sail for us, is also easy to sail for the final customer, so you have to determine before you develop the product, what the product should be like and then with our experience we can then develop it to what we feel it should be in the market, and if you look at Fanatic, you will see that the boards are very easy to use throughout the complete range, everybody can jump on them and sail with them, even the slalom boards, we try to make boards that are really accessible even to maybe not professional slalom sailors, so we have a wide range of use.

-For when the super light indestructible board?
-It’s very easy; you can have a super light indestructible board if you want to pay a lot of money. A light board usually contains less material or better material, so if you have a light board for a good price, usually materials are not so good or not so much material inside, so there’s no magic in this, I’ve been making boards now for over 28 years, since 1981, there’s no miracles, it’s always down to the same thing, the higher advanced materials you use, the more time you use to make the board, the more detail you work, the better result you get, the more expensive it gets.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

US Open goes big

Strong winds

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Strong winds throughout the day, with sustained winds in the range of 25-30 knots and gusts between 35-45 knots.

The forecast for the next few days indicates a slight but steady decrease in the intensity of the wind.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Hurley US Open of Surfing

Hurley is giving this year at the US Open of Surfing at Huntington, 100.000$ for the winner (the biggest prize ever at an ASP event), that’s the reason why all the top guys are competing there even if it’s a qualification event (WQS), if you go to the live webcast you will see: Kelly Slater, Andy Irons, Mick Fanning, Rob Machado…

Fuerteventura Grand Slam

Second day of competition in Fuerteventura and Antoine Albeau keeps leading the classification with 6 slaloms completed.
Strong winds today in Sotavento, 25-30 knots, but even stronger in Pozo Izquierdo, with winds today in the 35-40 knots range.
For more information about the competition in Fuerteventura www.pwaworldtour.com
Photo: PWA/Carter

Pozo Izquierdo 1983-1985

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Angel Estrada, one of the pioneers of Pozo Izquierdo has given us these wonderful photographs of the early years in Pozo, in the first one (top left) we can see Angel himself, with a Depoorter 2.8 m2 in 1985, the photo on the right, is from Robby Naish's first visit at Pozo Izquierdo in 1983, as you can see, still not wearing his famous pink sails. The two photos below are from 1984 with a gear I'm sure it was not easy to navigate in such wind conditions.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

From the bunker

In this picture we can see some of the regulars in Pozo Izquierdo during Competition time:
John Carter - www.pwaworldtour.com
Kerstin Reiger - www.continentseven.com
Chris Pressler - www.continentseven.com
Arcadio Suárez - www.pozo-izquierdo.com

Not in the picture but always in Pozo:
Fernando Sánchez - www.ffotosports.com
Dani Miquel (yo) - www.cutre.com/v2/index.php/es/dani-miquel

Windsurfing lessons


Advanced lessons will help you progress in gybes and all kind of jumps, from waterstart to forward loop, and also the knowledge and fine tuning of the equipment.

The lessons will be just one person with an expert teacher with over twenty years of experience in the practice of windsurfing and ten in physical preparation. Also if you want you can have the session on video to see your faults and progress.

Beginner lessons The fastest way to learn windsurfing, the latest equipment adapted to all kind of conditions and sizes, lessons of a maximum of two people.
For more information go through Cutre shop in Pozo Izquierdo, or call 00 34 928 79 13 04

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Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Addicted to Ride 5

Tonight (Tuesday July 21) at 21:00 world premiere at the restaurant El Viento in Pozo Izquierdo, with the screening of the new video Addicted to Ride 5 (Fanatic 2010).

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Pozo Izquierdo spectacular

Victor Fernandez defeated Jonas Ceballos in both finals today (they did today the single and the double elimination) in the Spanish Wave Circuit with amazing conditions in Pozo Izquierdo. Dario Ojeda was third and is now leader of the circuit with just one event to finish.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Historic moment

Twelve years ago was something like what we saw today in Pozo Izquierdo, then it was with the girls, two young twins took by assault the wave discipline in Pozo, her superiority was such that literally caused the retirement of several veteran windsurfers who saw impossible to approach the new level in windsurfing. That hegemony in waves lasts to this day, whith Daida and Iballa being first and second in the waves of Gran Canaria.
Today, the young Philip Köster (15 years) has drawn a line to which many can not dream to get close, showed a superiority and dominance of elements, none of the competitors could reach. I think most of us, left today the beach with the sensation that a new era has begun.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Albeau wins the slalom

Tomorrow is the last day of competition in Pozo Izquierdo, but Antoine Albeau is already the event's slalom champion.
Waves double elimination started this afternoon and the forecast looks amazing for tomorrow to finish the double elimination in Pozo style, today we had gusts over 45 knots and tomorrow is supposed to be stronger; skippers meeting at 10:00 am.

The wind machine

Six days of competition in Pozo Izquierdo and the wind machine hasn't stop for a second. Three more slaloms completed today that make a total of twelve, from a maximum of fifteen. According to the weather forecast, I think they could run the last three slaloms tomorrow and the waves double elimination on Friday.
If you want to see more photo from the competition click here.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Sailing the rock



Fun video sent to us by our friend Gregersen Rolv

More slalom

Three more slaloms completed today, making a total of 9. Looks like Wednesday will be a slalom day too, but the forecast for Thursday shows an increase in wind and waves, and for Friday looks really promising to finish the waves double elimination in amazing conditions.
To watch more photos click here.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Three and a half hours

They say the day today at the Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay has been one of the best in the history of surfing competition, the three and a half hours between heat nine and thirteen of the second round today at Jeffreys, have had more nines and tens as never before in such a small amount of time, if you want to see summaries of the heats click here.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Slalom day in Pozo Izquierdo

I have been watching the slaloms this morning while I was having breakfast in the terrace of El Viento (the local restaurant in Pozo Izquierdo, next to the beach) with Victor Fernandez and his father (who just arrived yesterday), talking about the amazing lever of windsurfing we are having this year in the waves, we were checking the forecast too, and looks good for the double elimination towards the end of the week.
If you want all the updates from the slaloms today in Pozo Izquierdo click here, or go to www.pwaworldtour.com

Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay live now

Daida and Philip lead the waves

Incredible Sunday in Pozo Izquierdo, the day started with a pair of slaloms to warm up (Finian won the first and Albeau the second) and when the tide started to come up, the waves got bettet, so they decided to finish the waves single elimination.
The four local sailors who were in the quarters (Victor Fernandez is considered a local in Pozo Izquierdo, he has been spending long periods here since he was thirteen and has earned the appreciation and respect from all the people here) all went trough the semi-finals, so we had a final stage of the competition with only local sailors, with Jonas Ceballos and Philp Köster in the first semifinal, Dario Ojeda and Victor Fernandez in the second and The Twins (Daida and Iballa ) in the women's final, the show was served and even though the waves started to slow down a bit, the level of the competitors couldn’t be higher and we enjoyed one of the days of competition in Pozo Izquierdo with the highest level ever.
To see more photos click here.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Philip Koster wins the single elimination

The young Philip Koster, just won the wave single elimination in Pozo Izquierdo, he defeated in the final Victor Fernadez, winer of the previous 3 editions.
Tonight we will publish all the information and plenty of photos.
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