After eight days of hardcore, intense & epic waveriding action on the shores of the island of La Reunion, the twelve riders of the wave contest by teams La Reunion Wave Classic 2010 will return home with less gear in their boardbags… 10 ripped sails, 9 broken masts and 3 destroyed boards. Not bad!
Click here to vote for best crash (deadline Sunday 5 September).
Thanks to The Exploders for the use of their song Straight Ahead.
On the 25th of August the island of La Reunion saw the start of the second edition of the wave contest by teams La Reunion Wave Classic. So far the spots of Etang Salé and Ravine Blanche have shown their best this year again, and the show has been explosive and hardcore. From pure down the line barrels to nasty ramps and strong winds, here’s a little appetizer of this year’s La Reunion Wave Classic.
Thanks to Serious Music for the use of their song The Elevated.
This year’s Pozo was a tough competition but not for the normal Pozo reasons! The wind wasn’t very strong, for the first day there was no wind at all, so the waves weren’t decent and this meant it was really hard for the sailors to show their best. The PWA had no choice but to run the heats in the less than ideal conditions as the event was so short. All this meant that it was a nightmare to shoot and to make matters worse the light was dreadful as it was overcast for most of the time…
Even so there was some great action from the usual suspects; Ricardo, Philip and Victor. Our video this year focuses on them and the amazing show they put on. It was pretty incredible the amount and variation of moves they were able to pull in those conditions. Philip was probably the most radical and progressive with his double takas and double shakas but in the end it was Victor who was more consistent and deserved the win.
Due to popular demand the whole series of Kauli’s film ‘Novela das 8′ is now on Vimeo. The individual episodes are also available to download if you are a member of Vimeo and if you aren’t then signup as it’s free and quick to do.
In the beginning of April, we booked a last minute trip to Tenerife to catch a good forecast and film Alex Mussolini. After winning the last PWA wave event in Sylt back in October 2009, the Barcelona local has been training hard to go for the world title, and his new homespot El Cabezo seems the right place for it. Cross onshore port tack makes it an ideal place to train for the PWA tour this year and the clip shows what can be achieved in pretty average ‘Euro’ conditions (that is if you are called Alex Mussolini and can taka, wave 360 and goiter on the same wave).
The idea behind this clip was to simply show Alex’s insane sailing at his home beach. Like Pozo, El Cabezo is basically a skate park, where you can throw pretty much all the wave tricks, front and backside 360s, takas, goiters, jumps and some nice turns. It was interesting to see what can be done with production gear by someone who is at the top of their game.
Now all we have to do is pray for conditions at Pozo… It should be quite a show!
Last week you could see the last episode of Novela das 8, a look Kauli’s PWA career. It wouldn’t be a real Novela without an unexpected ending though, and as a little extra to the series we have prepared a bonus episode of Kauli on Cabo Verde, filmed before and during the 2009 PWA world cup held on the island. As so often, none of it was planned, but acting on an amazing forecast proved very rewarding…
Kauli: ‘Cabo Verde has some great spots. I got two weeks of sick sailing there before the 2009 PWA event with nobody around but some locals and Josh Angulo. The best decision I ever made, as it gave me the opportunity to really test my quad boards to use in the event and sail some amazing waves at spots like Ponta Preta and Ali Baba. The funny thing of this trip was that it was not planned at all. I was going to come just one week before the event, and I was in Caribbean with my friends on the Mormaii boat when I looked at the forecast for Cabo Verde: there was a sick swell showing with strong winds. So on the same day I arrived home from the Caribbean I called to exchange my plane ticket and the next morning I left for Sal. A crazy night, packing all my board bags, sleeping maybe two hours. But anyway, I made it to the airport and when I was in Sao Paulo I decided to send an email to Brendan and invite him to come film for the video. I was not going to know if he was coming or not until I arrived in Cabo Verde. When I arrived late at night I went straight to bed, and the next morning when I woke up and I saw a note under my hotel door: “I’m here man, let’s go film.” I could not believe that Brendan made it there and actually found where I was!’
To view the bonus episode of Novela das 8: Cabo Verde, click here.
With Novela das 8, we have a premiere of a new player, by Recast Digital. This player intelligently selects from six video qualities from 450kbps to 3000kbps, spanning a range of video resolutions up to 720p HD. In real-time the player detects the available bandwidth and selects the optimal stream for the bandwidth of the user and will dynamically switch versions as needed without interrupting playback. What this means in English is that you should get the best (full screen) quality possible, so you get the best viewing experience. We are very happy to be able to offer this new player here. If you have any feedback on the player, or are experiencing any kind of problems with the playback, please drop us a line on our Facebook page.
For the sixth and final episode of the Novela das 8 series we take a look at Kauli’s PWA career.
Kauli: ‘Over a two year period, we captured some of my best heats from the PWA World Tour, in sick locations such as Brazil, Cape Verde and of course the ever windy Pozo Izquierdo. There’s even some footage from the world cup in Scotland in 2007, a great place to sail, with real similar waves to where I live in Brazil. I liked it a lot, even though it was freezing! Let’s see how the PWA comes out with their events this year, most are jumping biased in pretty onshore conditions, I would love to have events in Brazil, Cape Verde and Maui back on the tour again.’
Our final question to Kauli has to be whether he actually likes novelas himself. Kauli: ‘I think it’s not a question of liking it, you just get addicted to it! You get curious to see what will happen in the next episode, as I hope you all were with Novela das 8.’
To view the sixth and final episode of Novela das 8: PWA World Tour, please click here.
With Novela das 8, we have a premiere of a new player, by Recast Digital. This player intelligently selects from six video qualities from 450kbps to 3000kbps, spanning a range of video resolutions up to 720p HD. In real-time the player detects the available bandwidth and selects the optimal stream for the bandwidth of the user and will dynamically switch versions as needed without interrupting playback. What this means in English is that you should get the best (full screen) quality possible, so you get the best viewing experience. We are very happy to be able to offer this new player here. If you have any feedback on the player, or are experiencing any kind of problems with the playback, please drop us a line on our Facebook page.
Photos by John Carter/PWA and own archive. umi 2010
For the fifth episode of Novela das 8 we go to Chile, where Kauli spent some time with his friends back in 2006.
Kauli: ‘I had a some really good session on Matanzas and Topocalma, mostly wave riding but occasionally we had some jumping as well. Some of the footage of this session was actually filmed by Victor Fernandez: all our friends from Chile went to a marriage party and we stayed to go sail. We took turns, so each of us sailed for about an hour and filmed an hour. Maybe not the best or most stable footage, but it was a great day and we had the spot all to ourselves, with light wind and clean waves!’
To view the fifth episode of Novela das 8: Chile, please click here.
With Novela das 8, we have a premiere of a new player, by Recast Digital. This player intelligently selects from six video qualities from 450kbps to 3000kbps, spanning a range of video resolutions up to 720p HD. In real-time the player detects the available bandwidth and selects the optimal stream for the bandwidth of the user and will dynamically switch versions as needed without interrupting playback. What this means in English is that you should get the best (full screen) quality possible, so you get the best viewing experience. We are very happy to be able to offer this new player here. If you have any feedback on the player, or are experiencing any kind of problems with the playback, please drop us a line on our Facebook page.
From 10 to 20 May 2010 the Moroccan town of Essaouira was host to the Essaouira Wave Classic. Initiated by Boujmaa Guilloul, Thomas Traversa and JB Caste, the event gathered some of the world’s best wave riders looking for the best wave riding conditions around Essaouira’s coastline, to offer the most radical and explosive windsurfing show possible. Besides Thomas, team umi was present with the film crew Brendan Pyatt and editor and competitor Jamie Hancock, as well as Graham Ezzy, who reports about these 10 days in Morocco.
After spending two weeks on the beaches of Essaouira and Moulay for the EWC, the country is even more mysterious than when I arrived; the place escapes description, for it is a juxtaposition of contradictions. The beaches are littered with broken glass, yet underneath the rubble is uniquely beautiful sand cliffs and beach pebbles. The locals control their camels and other animals by hitting them with sticks, but the same people were incredibly friendly and helpful to us. And the windsurfing was just as multidimensional as the place. At Moulay, we could jump, ride down-the-line, and go for tricks like takas and goiters; every style of wave sailing is jammed into this one beach, giving us the perfect environment for competing.
The competitors were from all over the world: Hawaii, France, Italy… and naturally each sailor approached the wind and waves with his home spot biases. And with the versatile conditions, the Hawaii guys were able to focus on carving up the waves while the Moroccans searched for soaring jumps. So, every rider was at home.
The conditions, though, were not alone in making the riders feel at home; the team competition format fostered a feeling of unity and camaraderie throughout the riders. Without a rigid focus on individual performance, we were able to support not just the riders on our team but also all the other riders in the event. All the riders pushed ourselves because we all wanted to win (obviously), but at the same time, our desire to win did not cause any animosity. So, everyone honestly cheered when Boujmaa launched massive doubles or when Thomas threw a taka and a goiter on the same wave.
At the end of the event, we were left with another contradiction; there was a winning team (Boujmaa, Fettah, Leo, and I), but every rider felt like he won. And every sailor did win in that each scored Moroccon waves with the best windsurfers in the world.
Photos by Maxime Houyvet/Open Ocean Media. umi 2010
