Tiberias PWA World Cup

A Look Ahead to the Tiberias PWA World Cup with Arnon Dagan

The 2021 Tiberias PWA World Cup is now just a week away, which will be the first 5 star PWA event in over 18 months, so there is plenty of anticipation to watch the world’s fastest sailors battle it out again on the biggest stage. We recently managed to have a quick catchup with Arnon Dagan (Future Fly / NeilPryde), who has a wealth of experience competing on the world tour and the Israeli has played an integral part in bringing the PWA to Israel. 

Hey Arnon, how are the final preparations for the event going?

“Everything is going very well! The beach is being prepared, a lot of work is being done to welcome everyone. Organising a PWA event is not easy and now with covid regulations even harder, but everyone involved is doing an amazing job and I'm sure the event will be fantastic.” 

This is a totally new stop for the world tour… can you tell us a little bit more about Tiberias - especially how the wind is working there? And what kind of strength it normally is and what size equipment you expect most people to be on?

"Tiberias is a cool city close to the famous lake of Galilee where Jesus first windsurfed on the water (-: The PWA coming here is like a breath of fresh air and one of the projects which are meant to use the biggest asset of this place which is the lake.

The lake is a thermal wind machine, which works for about 4 month a year nonstop with very good and strong winds.

We expect to have 18 to 30 knots every day during the event from the west direction. Dekel (palm tree) beach is located close to the city.  The wind hits it from side off direction from the left. It is very hard to predict what gear will work since we are going to have the foil vs fin battle and it is something totally new.

Sometimes the wind is a bit further from the beach and sometimes it comes closer. So, depending on where the course will be set, I think we can even find ourselves using foils with strong winds small sails. I do not expect people to be using 8.0 and 9.0s' here, not with fin and not with foils. It is going to be super interesting and even with my vast experience I just don't know what to expect. I would not be surprised if someone like Goyard will show up and clean up on his small sail, small foil gear. On the other hand, there are many days with 5.8, 6.6m full power slalom fin here. Again, mega exciting and interesting to see how things will unfold. Ah last thing its mega hot here so bring your speedo’s."
 
It’s been over 18 months since the last Slalom World Cup - how are you personally feeling about the event and competing again?

"Yes, it's been a long time not competing and my focus has shifted to other directions being my family, running Future Fly boards, bringing back the Storm rider wave event, which was a great success, making some music and now working on the PWA here. I was very active. 

I have mixed feelings about competing, I'm not ready and didn't train much at all so I'm definitely not happy about it. The lake is not my home spot as well.  At the same time, I feel fast and strong, so who knows. I'm just going to enjoy this very big moment where the legends of the PWA and my friends are going to show up and rip it up here like nothing else!”

Thanks, Arnon. Best of luck with the rest of the preparations and the event!

The 2021 Tiberias PWA World Cup takes place between 21st-25th June and you’ll be able to follow the action as it happens via the livestream with Ben Proffitt (Simmer / Simmer Sails) back behind the mic to guide you through the racing.