After 30 days and after driving for around 7000 kilometers Dacia Surfing Trip is finished. It was a great thing to see new spots which, however are famous but I never sailed on them like Leucate in France. On the other hand we sailed some totally new spots in Costa Brava or in Tarifa. We gathered a lot of footage and very soon there will be a movie released which will tell the whole story. Since March me, Kuba Kołakowski and Wiktor Kitzman are in an official Dacia Surfing Team. Behind the camera is Bart Binder. More information’s about that on www.dacia-surfing.pl

Right now I’m at Hel Peninsula in Poland. We have a good forecast for the next days and it will be good chance to prepare myself before next PWA events.

pics: Bart Binder

What was impossible happened! None of the weather forecast predicted more than 4 knots for Wednesday. That’s why all the riders were not happy about the decision to make the skippers meeting at 5:30 in the morning. When I woke up at 5:15 I knew that I was wrong about the judges and went really fast on the contest site. The wind was weak but enough for the contest. I was starting with my 5.7 and for a while I was a bit overpowered. In the first heat I was against Domink Kovarik from Czech Republic. I won that one and went on to go against Tonky Frans. Unfortunately the wind was dropping fast and it wasn’t as good as in the first heat. I had advantage over Tonky on starboard tack but on port tack close to the beach the wind was really light so I did only one flaka which of course was not enough. There was no chance for the double elimination that’s why I didn’t think about the next heats and I finished the event on the 17th place.

In the final it was Taty Frans and Steven van Broeckhoven which was a big surprise. Both of them sailed awesome trough the whole contest and landed perfect Culos, Ponches and Shakas in the wind around 12-15 knots. In the end it was Taty who was better and he won second PWA event in a row.

Third place went to Gollito Estredo and fourth to Kiri Thode.

Few word have to go to Maarten van Ochten from Holland who landed a perfect chachoo in one of his heats and in general was sailing great in those tricky conditions. In the end he became 5th.

I’m quite happy about the event. These were not my condition at all and still I was close to Tonky who is number three in the world from last year.

 pics by: Gosia Kosmowska

First event of the PWA tour is on going on. Unfortunately since Friday we couldn’t start at least one heat. The forecast is changing all the time so still there is a chance to finish the event. Tomorrows start is scheduled on 6:15 so let’s hope we can finish the single elimination. The event is finishing on Wednesdays. Meanwhile you can check the clip of Tow-In session with Gollito Estredo. Steven van Broeckhoven ruled the Tow-In event doing tricks like: ponch, shaka, air flaka and he won the unofficial Tow-In event with a perfect Culo. Unbelivable! More news soon!

It’s already half way through my training time in Tarifa. Until now we have really different conditions. First week was something that Tarifa didn’t see in a long time. Levante wind blew up to 67 knots. Well, 90 liters freestyle board and a smallest sail like 4.0 is not the best choice but when the wind dropped a little bit I could go in a straight line.

Second week was a little bit more close to what we are used to. Most of the time I was using my 4.5 and a 5.1 sails.

Now we are going to the second half of the trip and hopefully the wind is back cause last few days we had only waves.

My scheduled arrival in Poland is for the 27th of April but I don’t know if I can go back to Poland if the whole cloud situation in Europe stays on. This is not the best option because the first event in Podersdorf starts on the 30th of April. 

pics by: Bart Binder, Gosia Kosmowska

I would like to wish you all a great and windy Easter holidays!

After a very long physiotherapy after an injury I’m back on the water. I’m in Tarifa for the first training session before the season. I will stay here till 27th of April. It looks great for tomorrow with Levante up to 45 knots. I will post pictures and videos up to date so stay tuned.

Freestyle Podcast with wave single elimination from Jakub Kosmowski on Vimeo.

Freestyle Podcast with Four Dimensions from Sylt from Jakub Kosmowski on Vimeo.

On the second day of the contest in Sylt we had only rain and no wind. On that day we didn’t run any competition.

Third day is a different story. Since morning we had wind and good weather. In the beginning it seemed that the wind was strong but shortly after going on the water it was different then I thought. All the riders were on their biggest sails which was quite difficult with those choppy conditions. A lot of the riders had some problem that day. Fabian Weber broke his mast before his heat. Philip Soltysiak dislocated his shoulder, Antxon Otaegui couldn’t compete because of his injury from Fuerteventura and I broke my fin in the middle of my heat. Rough conditions messed up the plan of some top guys. Marcilio Browne and Gollito Estredo were stopped by the Frans brother in the quarterfinals and they finished the single elimination on the fifth place. The winner was Kiri Thode who sailed most consistently in Sylt waves. Second place went to Taty Frans and third to Nicola Akgazian from France.

In the afternoon wind didn’t stop to blow so the decision was to run double elimination. All eyes were on the fight between Marcilio Browne and Gollito Estredo. The guys were fighting for a place in the top 5. The young Venezuelan came up with a victory after sailing a great heat. Marcilio couldn’t find his rhythm and you could see he had some problems with those difficult conditions. Gollito won that heat and a next one against Nicola Akgazian but then he lost against Tonky Frans who was sailing very well. In the battle between the brother it was Taty Frans who went into the final. At that point Taty was on fire. He was landing all the moves higher and with more power than Kiri. Kiri couldn’t do much about that. He lost twice in the final and it was Taty who came up with his first double elimination victory.

My run in the double was average. I was against Mattia Pedrani. In the whole heat I didn’t had enough power to do my tricks. The competition was on hold but unfortunately two heat after mine. Too late for me. The forecast for the next days is very good but we still have to run wave single and double elimination so there is no big chance to run another freestyle elimination.

It was only slalom racing on the fourth day in Sylt. The wind was light and the best rider on that day was Antoine Albeau.  

Today starts the last PWA event this season on a German island Sylt. Yesterday we had a registration day and all the riders prepared their equipment. This event will show who will win the overall freestyle world title this year. The big favorite is Gollito Estredo who is in front of Kiri Thode and Tonky Frans. There are few more riders who will fight for the top spot like: Steven van Broeckhoven and Marcilio Browne.

It looks like we will have an interesting final in waves as well where Josh Angulo is in front of Kauli Seadi just with 33 points. Definitely all eyes will be on Phillip Koster who won the event in Pozo in front of Victor Fernandez who didn’t lose a heat there in three years.  

This will be a second event for me after Fuerteventura where I can check my form after the injury. This time it will be completely different. We can have wind for big sails or 30 knots and a huge beach break. The forecast looks very good for Monday. Stay tuned…