PWA Podersdorf Surf World Cup - Soltysiak 13th in season opener

by Sail-World Canada on 15 May 2013 The 2013 PWA Surf World Cup Podersdorf took place 26-30 April in Austria and now Canadian sailor Philip Soltysiak brings us up to date on his performance in the Professional Windsurfers Association’s season opener.

So we opened up the PWA World Tour season again with the first spring event of 2013 in Podersdorf, Austria. It was great to see all my friends from the tour again after a winter where everybody seems to train in different spots.

We were lucky to have one long good day of south wind on the Saturday of the event, and the PWA ran a full single and double elimination from beginning to end. I don’t remember the last time we managed to do something like that, especially with a massive fleet of 46 riders. They managed to finish the last heat of the double, and if there was a re-sail between the event winner Gollito Estredo and runner-up Steven Van Broeckhoven I don’t think there would have been enough light.

My single elimination started off well with a heat against Frenchman Adrian Bosson in the second round, and then losing out to Tonky Frans from Bonaire in the third round. He landed a backloop right in front of me during the heat, while I crashed my spock culo and skopu in the heat, so I knew the result before it was announced.

In the double elimination I had to advance two heats in order to keep my ninth place or do better, but it wasn’t to be. First I was up against Yegor Popretinskiy from Russia, against whom I sailed a good heat and moved on to sail against Amado Vrieswijk from Bonaire. Amado did some good tricks against me, and without sailing a top heat against this young gun from Bonaire left me without a chance to advance further. Without enough wind to run more competition the next days it meant I would finish the event in 13th place.

It’s my worst result here in three years, but in 2010 I finished 17th, and then went on to finish the next PWA stop in fourth in Lanzarote, so that’s what I’ll have on my mind now when I’m training and preparing for the next contests.

Meanwhile my buddy Max Matissek is working on editing our clip from Egypt which will also include second place finisher from Podersdorf Steven Van Broeckhoven, so my understanding is that clip should be online within a week. I got my final two university exams coming up at the end of the month, one which I write in Russia on the way to the EFPT stop in Eysk, and the other in Vienna before heading home for a few days to Canada.

More soon and keep your eyes peeled for the clip from Egypt!

http://www.philipsoltysiak.com/