Mercedes-Benz Sylt PWA Grand Slam

Day 2: Light winds see the first foiling exhibition of the event

After yesterday’s full day of competition today saw an early skippers’ meeting, but unfortunately it didn’t pay off with light offshore winds greeting the competitors. Over the duration of the morning the waves improved with the tide on the push tempting quite a few sailors out for a surf in the pumping swell.

During the course of the day the wind swung more cross-off shore and several sailors including — Ricardo Campello (Patrik / Point-7 / MFC) and Victor Fernandez (Fanatic / NorthSails / MFC / Shamal Sunglasses) — were able to tuck into a few North Sea nuggets.

For a brief period the wind did threaten to kick in raising the possibility of some slalom, but the breeze soon dropped back, so to keep the crowd entertained an exhibition foiling race was held, which saw 12 sailors fighting it out. With winds of 5-6 knots there should have been enough for foiling, but the strong current made things tricky and after the first mark the majority of the fleet stopped flying. This left Alexandre Cousin (Patrik / Sailloft Hamburg / Mystic) with an unchallenged lead after the first and he claimed a decisive victory over Williams Hupert (Fanatic / NorthSails), Maciek Rutkowski (Tabou / GA Sails) and Gonzalo Costa Hoevel (Starboard / Point-7).

With less happening today than an action packed first day we thought we’d see what a few people made of yesterday’s competition:

Alex Mussolini (RRD / RRD Sails) reacts after winning yesterday’s single elimination: “I cannot believe it! Won the single elimination here in Sylt!! Thanks a lot to my sponsors RRD and Godzilla Surf Shop for the support and to all my friends for the messages!! Also thanks to Omar Sanchez, Moritz Mauch and Pablo Ramirez for their support on the beach. Thanks to my love Vicky,Zaro for your love, without you this dream could not be possible!”

Thomas Traversa (Tabou / GA Sails): “Wow… second place in the single elimination of the Wave World Cup here in Sylt. It’s such a special moment to sail the final with my mate Alex Mussolini aka "the Sylt Monster" and it was even more special to have Sophia and our little Lola cheering on the beach — this was priceless for me! Also thanks to Antony [Ruenes], Cedric [Bordes] and Ross [Williams] for the great help and support…”

Dany Bruch (Starboard / Flight Sails / AL360 / Shamal Sunglasses) had mixed emotions after yesterday: “Sooo... I finished 5th yesterday  and I’m happy but not happy… This is the second time this year that I lost by 0,something… and yesterday by less than half a point against Victor [Fernandez]. Yes, all the work is going in the right direction, but I’m desperate to break through into the very top positions! Thanks to all my sponsors.”

Robby Swift (JP / NeilPryde): “So far this year we have had some of the toughest windsurfing conditions I have experienced. Amazingly windy in Pozo and now extremely light and unpredictable in Sylt. I managed to make it to 5th place in the single elimination and now we have to wait and see what the weather provides for us over the next 8 days. Big congratulations to Alex Mussolini for winning this event again! Also thanks to Thomas Traversa, Jaeger Stone and Victor Fernandez for their great performances.”

Lina Erpenstein (Patrik / Severne / Maui Ultra Fins), who finished joint 5th in the single: “What a day yesterday! The event had barely started and we were already out on the water competing! The conditions were difficult, the wind was up and down. I’m bummed as I lost super close against Sarah-Quita [Offringa] in the quarterfinals, but still I'm happy to be sitting in joint 5th place now. Fingers crossed we get conditions to start the double elimination!”

The forecast for tomorrow looks as though it will be windy in the morning with 15-17 knot winds from the south-south-west on offer. With this in mind the skippers’ meeting times have been called for as follows:

- Freestyle - 8am - 1st possible 8:30am
- Slalom - 8:30am - 1st possible 9:30am
- Wave - 10am - 1st possible 10:30am

Make sure you tune into www.pwaworldtour.com to follow all of the action live via the PWA live stream.

To stay up to date with all the latest developments from Sylt — including the live stream, elimination ladders, entry list, images and live ticker simply click HERE and scroll to the bottom of the page.

Result Foiling Exhibition Race:

1st Alexandre Cousin (Patrik / Sailloft Hamburg / Mystic)

2nd William Hupert (Fanatic / NorthSails)

3rd Maciek Rutkowski (Tabou / GA Sails)

4th Gonzalo Costa Hoevel (Starboard / Point-7)

5th Mateus Isaac (JP / NeilPryde)

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