Since the wind was switched off after 2 days of the Fuertaventura contest of the PWA World tour, I became pretty grilled during 4 days of the African heat. As a result, I did not reach my goal for Fuerta just sharing 13th place but unexpectedly managed to get on the 10th place in the World rating what is my highest ever result.
I can agree with my friends that things could be better, but after we looked through my plans for 2007 we found out that our highest expectation was to get into the World Top Ten. This plan was realized and the fact that we are not happy with it, shows that we want more thus indirectly but convincingly certifying the success.

After Canary trip I spent one night in Moscow and flew straight to Greece where spent a week in the JP Young Gun Camp at Parsonisi beach, island Rhodes. The Young Gun Camp is organized every summer on the Pro Center of Christof Kirschner. Though the name of the camp sounds like the name of Korean communist, it is very welcoming and warm. It was very pleasant to meet Kauli – watching him on the water really inspired me as to be alongside the best helps a lot to progress. It was very pleasant to see this progress in our trainees. Kauli’s energy conquered me and as a result I almost lost half of my ear like Evander Holyfield – you can see it clearly on last video from Greece – Rippin by sofa-movielab.com.

Following the strange tradition I had problems in the Airport with Immigration Control. The problem was solved with the help of the former leader of Unity of Right Forces party Boris Nemtsov who by chance was there. I thank him very much for his help and support.
After Rhodes I had spent a week in hometown St.-Petersburg, then a week in Moscow meeting with my friends, spending random days skateboarding, waited for good forecast for sailing, discussing with the sponsors preliminary results of the year, founding out what was wrong and what changes should be made in our plans as well.

As a bonus here are some diagrams where you can watch the statistics of the results of Freestyle sailors for the last years:

1 week was over with light speed, so it’s time for new move. This time I present you double eslider. It is perfect done if you do it on flat water. Anyway… the wind is blowing every day since 10 days or more and the forecast looks even better for the upcoming days. My level is improving so stay tuned for new hardcore moves in couple of days.

starring me and Kauli Seadi
spot: Prasonisi, Rhodes, Greece.
video by sofa-movielab.com
watch also the website: www.frommondaytillsunday.com (upcoming Windsurf DVD)
thanks to www.prasonisi.com and www.jp-ausrtalia.com

starring: Normen Gunzlein, Ian Mouro Lemos, Olga Raskina and Yegor Popretinskiy
camera: Robby Swift and Kevin Pritchard
editing: Heidy Clawson and Robby Swift
music: “Everlog” by Foo Fighters www.bmi.com
thanks to: Pro Center Rene Egli www.rene-egli.com
www.jp-australia.com

This year’s Harry Nass Slalom Clinic in Dahab was an undeniable success. 

The whole group were shattered by the end with many holes in their hands and exhaustion etched on their faces but every face bore a smile and it was an absolute pleasure for Micah and I to have helped teaching such an enthusiastic and attentive group.

I personally had a fantastic time in Dahab. The conditions are so good for freestyle that I learned loads of new tricks in the four days I was there.

In the end, Josef won the coveted prize of a 2010 JP board of his choice and he selected a Freestyle Wave 85 after trying all of the boards at the centre.

Heidy and I had one last chance to get out sailing the morning before we left and on only her 5th day of windsurfing ever, she planed around for about an hour, which just goes to show how easy it is to learn in Dahab.

I would like to thank Harry and Elke for their wonderful hospitality. We really were sad to leave and can’t wait to go back next year.

Many of the group have said that they would love to come back again for next year’s camp so we are looking forward to trying to make it an even bigger success.

For information on Harry Nass’s centre in Dahab, please go to www.harry-nass.com and I will post information on next year’s camp here on my site as soon as we have confirmed all the details.

The Slalom Clinic is almost over now and I have to say I don’t think that it could have gone any better.

We had one afternoon of light wind for practising sail and board handling on the big beginner boards and the rest of the time, I was powered up on my 4.7 or 5.4, so the wind was around 18-25 knots every day.

We practised everything from starts and race gybes to tacks, duck gybes, carving 360s and backwind gybes.

I rekindled my love for freestyle and spent my time perfecting my flat water Shakas which are a move I have wanted to be able to do consistently for ages. I can Funnell now and do switch stance Chachos as well as Shoveit Spocks, so I really came on in the 5 days of sailing we had here.

The water is so perfectly flat that it makes learning anything an absolute pleasure because you progress so quickly.

Heidy has had four lessons with one of Harry Nass’s instructors, Marco, and she has gone from being scared and basically a complete beginner to beach starting and planing in the harness and the straps in just four sessions. It was amazing to sail upwind today to find her there planing around faster than me on my big beginner board!

Tomorrow is my last day here in Dahab so I will be getting up early to continue my Shaka practice and to try to get some photos of Heidy planing!

Best Action Picture off the DK trip now in full size!!

See You out there,

The Lamp