The 2007 season brings exciting new changes and challenges to the competitive scene, such as the new specialist wave event, The Cape Verde PWA World Cup in February. Plus, following on from last years AGM at Sylt, there will be a few changes to the way things are done at PWA events.

Wave events will now have a 48-man fleet in the men’s division. This will save considerable time at contests giving a better chance of getting good results and successful events, especially if suitable conditions are only brief during the holding periods allowed.

Under the new format, the top 16 seeds will be seeded through to the second round, creating a round of qualifying heats in the first round that will give upcoming sailors more opportunity to pass through heats and gain competition experience.

Based on the overwhelming wishes of the racing fleet, it has also been decided that Slalom 42 will now be run on a “no rules” basis, meaning that technically anything goes on the slalom course. The removal of the current direct refereeing system, will eliminate any difficulty or inconsistency in refereeing calls, and will create a self policing situation whereby any sailor infringing another will be more likely to cause themselves hindrance than anyone else.

We have already mentioned Cape Verde, which will kick  the 2007 tour off, but the PWA is also proud to announce the confirmations of Alacati, after a successful inaugural event in 2006, Pozo, Fuerteventura and Sylt. There are plenty more venues awaiting confirmation of dates or status, so watch this space!