17. september 2008
Shimuni extreme speed one hour slalom
Another weekend and another race is behind me. This time I went to Pag - an island in Croatia where the new windsurfing school in the Camping Shimuni (www.camping-simuni.hr) with the association of the camping organized a fantastic event with 64 competitors and good 30 knots of Bora wind. The first 50 inscribed competitors had free accomodation in new mobile houses. There was also free diner and lunch included in the 15 EUR inscription. I was really impressed by the perfect organization of the event.
An event that got the inspiration by the Defi wind started on Friday, but we had to wait for wind till Saturday afternoon when strong Bora kicked in. About 1,2 mile apart were two marks around which all 64 competitors should make as many turns as possible. The start was scheduled for 5 p.m. and I went to try my Stealth 6.4 and the SX S. The combination seemed to be perfect in quite flat water and gusty wind until the boom broke in my hand cutting it a bit as well. The life guard boat came to pick me up and the unexperienced driver drove over my sail and broke the mast with the propeller. I came back to the shore, just picked up my luckily rigged Stealth 7.0 and SX M and run to the start. In hope that the wind will drop a bit I had a good start and was approaching the first mark in the leading group. The guys were mostly on 6.3's. After a good jibe I took the lead, but the group was close behind. After 20 minutes there was only Zdravko Cerovac still breathing at my neck, but although I was very overpowered I would not let him pass. There was about 10 minutes to go and Zdravko tried to attack again, but this time he did not have enough power anymore and got a bad crash braking his sail. I had a comfortable lead, but had to take care not to crash as I was completely overpowered in gusts of up to 40 knots of wind. The last jibe and this time I made it!!!!
Zdravko went all the way down to the 9th place. Second was a yungster from Split Marin Siriscevic-"Sira" and surprisingly 3rd Andrej Kocjan. In the evening there was a nice price giving ending with impressive fireworks. After the closing ceremony there was a funny election for the mister of the Shimuni and I got elected after a spectacular ballet dance.
It was very tiering competition and after all that happened I was really happy to win the event.
