La Torche PWA Grand Slam
The opening day of the 2016 La Torche PWA Grand Slam saw a relaxed start to proceedings with light winds throughout the day. First thing this morning the men’s and women’s wave fleets registered for their penultimate event of the year before preparing their equipment for the week ahead.
With light offshore winds and a long period swell quite a few of the competitors took the opportunity to sneak a few waves during the afternoon after being released after the skippers’ meeting at 1pm.
The Forecast
Tomorrow looks like another lay day with similar winds as today being forecast, but after speaking to event organiser Christophe Boutet it looks as though Saturday, which shows 15-20 knot winds and a 1.7m swell at 14 seconds, has the potential to allow the qualification round to begin with purely wave riding to count.
Meanwhile, Sunday predicts much stronger winds — 20-30 knots from the east-southeast — which could allow a jump to be included if the wind isn’t too offshore.
Qualification Round
As usual, the qualification round will be the first thing on the agenda and it will see the following 12 sailors battling it out for the remaining 4 places in the main draw:
Heat 1: Diony Guadagnino (AHD / Loft Sails / MFC) vs Alexandre Grand-Guillot (Fanatic / NorthSails) vs Justin Denel (Simmer / Simmer) vs Clement Bozec (Fanatic / NorthSails).
Heat 2: Julian Salmonn (Severne / Severne) vs Arthur Arutkin (Fanatic / NorthSails) vs Amado Vrieswijk (JP / Severne) vs Cedric Bordes (Tabou / GA Sails)
Heat 3: Martin ten Hoeve (Simmer / Simmer) vs Philippe Mesmeur (Tabou / GA Sails / Mystic) vs Kilian Du Couedic (Fanatic / NorthSails) vs Taty Frans (Starboard / GA Sails / Mystic)
*Winner of each heat progresses followed by 1 lucky loser, who will progress from a final heat consisting of the 2nd place finishers.
The skippers’ meeting has been called for 10am tomorrow morning with a first possible start at 11am (GMT+1). Make sure to tune into www.pwaworldtour.com to stay up to date with all the latest news from the event.
To see all the latest from the event — including the live stream, elimination ladders, entry list, images and live ticker simply click HERE and scroll to the bottom of the page.