The 2006 Colgate PWA World Cup Sylt, Day Three

Micah Buzianis (US-34 JP / NeilPryde) stays in pole position as a lack of wind prevents any further competition. Arnon Dagan (ISR-1, Fanatic / NeilPryde) and Ross Williams (GBR-83 Tabou/ Gaastra) sit in second and third place, while big name, pre-event favorites such as Antoine Albeau (F192 Starboard / NeilPryde) , Finian Maynard (KV-11 F2 / NeilPryde), Kevin Pritchard (US-3 Starboard / Maui Sails) and Bjorn Dunkerbeck (E-11 T1 / North) sweat it out after poor results in yesterdays first race.

Albeau at work

Ross gets ready

Bjorn Dunkerbeck

The waiting game today was briefly interrupted with a flurry of action when the wind briefly got up to contestable strength. Heat four of Race 2 was started but eventually abandoned as the shifting direction and light patches were judged to be unfair racing conditions.

Buzianis must be happy to sit on top for another day, but like the rest of the fleet, the big man would probably love to keep on racing.  Here’s what some of them had to say:

Ross Williams. 9th so far in 2006. 3rd so far at Sylt “The light winds suited me yesterday but today is a bit too light, even at my light weight! But we’ve got bright sunshine and loads of people on the beach here – I just hope we get to give them a show. So far I‘ve started well and I ‘m really happy with my gear. Finger crossed for more action!”

Antoine Albeau 1st so far in 2006. 45th so far in Sylt “I feel OK as I know I have good speed, and despite being heavy I’m not afraid of light winds. I use my 9.8 which goes really well. I am scared as the forecast is not that good, and I need wind to get the chance to earn a discard. Of course I’m sitting in strong position for the title still anyway, but I don’t want to finish the year like this!”

Bjorn Dunkerbeck 5th so far in 2006. 40th so far in Sylt. “Well everything is going quite smoothly here in Sylt except the wind is not playing the game. The gusts are OK, but the lulls are just too light for fair racing. It might be alright to for free sailing out there, but these types of offshore winds are really gusty and shifty. Hopefully tomorrow the wind will switch to the south and give us something to please the spectators by brining the competition closer to the beach. My target is still to win the slalom 42 here, and I think I’ll always have a good chance in a wavesailing competition. At my size of course I prefer the strong and medium strength winds for racing, but if it’s light I’m happy to race so long as it’s a contestable strength”

Bernd Flessner. First event of 2006. Currently sitting in 4th. “Well I’m happy with 4th, but that was just the first race! It’s always nice to get a good start to an event, but if I finish in 4th after more races I’ll really be happy! My target was to be in the top 10 here in this my 80th PWA event! I took a couple of years off the PWA tour to concentrate on the German circuit, and I got 7th here in the Slalom late year, but next season I’m going to do the whole Slalom 42 tour. My ‘locals’ prediction for wind is that it doesn’t look too bad for Wednesday with the wind maybe swing round to a more crosshore direction”

Be sure to check www.pwaworldtour.comthroughout tomorrow and each day for live updates, results, daily summaries and more. There‘s a German language event site at www.worldcupsylt.de and video podcasts available at www.worldcupsyltlive.de