The wind and waves finally arrived on the North Shore of Fuerteventura yesterday . All the riders were ready to go sailing at 10:00. At first the wind was a bit shy, but it quickly came in and the organisation saw the opportunity to run the first heats. All day the wind was quite offshore, blowing from 13 to 20 knots, with good sets of 2m waves. The riders prepared their bigger board and sails from 4.5 to 5.3m for the heaviest, and they were all well powered during their heats. There were only few guys and girls on the water at any one time, and this was great for riders to take full advantage of the break. The heat duration was 25 minutes to give everybody enough time to express their talents, and two waverides were taken in account into the judging process. Heat 1 was judged by competitors from heat 3, heat 2 by heat 4 and so on, so that the notation relies only on every rider’s point of view, based on the general impression they got on every surf. The only rule is that you can’t judge your team-mate!

On the water, the girls were really good, and they impressed more than some of the guys! Nayra finished 3rd in her heat, beating one guy, Nicole took some of the best waves of her heat and finished 3rd with as many points as 2nd, and Iballa went 3rd! Jules, the french young talent, sailed very well during the contest by landing some big aerials and riding nice waves. As ever, Thomas was very good in these light wind conditions, with radical aerials that lead him to win his heat. Nice moves from Dario, Martin, Albert, Stephan, JB and Fabrice notably. Jonas always tried to push the limits, and quite a few times the end was unlucky but still he was hardly looking to rock the waves! Alex, or ‘Musso’, showed up with some of his sick rollers, scoring to the maximum. Great action in La Caleta, a taste of what North Shore Fuerteventura can offer waveriders. The forecast is good for today with some stronger wind and bigger waves, stay tuned to fuertewaveclassic.com/2010/ to follow the action.

The teams were all very close:

1) 14.5 points, Iballa / Albert / Musso / Jules / Patrick

2) 14 points, Stephan / Martin / Nicole / Jonas / Eleazar

3) 13 points, Nayra / Fabrice / Ilya / Adam / Dario

4) A bit far way behind, but haven’t said their last word yet: Thomas / Corky / Antony / JB / Daida