Sorry about the delayed report but we lost internet connection for a night. Here's the last couple of days.

Reunion - Day 4
Once again it was back to Ravine Blanche for groundhog day of 4.0 weather, but the difference being that the swell picked up to be over mast high in the sets. It was pretty gnarly with some cherry looking waves, but also ones that were contorted equipment crushing mutants. The thing is, it wouldn’t be that gnarly here if it wasn’t for the
coastline. Sure there’s some big size waves out there, and yeah, there’s no beach to actually come in and out of. But that’s not the issue. The issue is sea urchins. Never have I sailed anywhere where they are such a menace. And it’s for that reason that the place is so intimidating. I really don’t mind getting smashed up and dragged up the beach onto rocks, but jeez I fricken hate urchins. And they are everywhere. And it looked kinda heavy this day too. No one was in a hurry to get out there, still kinda beat up from the two previous days, but once it was decided to go, it was heads down to work.

There’s a bit if a mantra going on amongst the young frenchies in heavily over-accented French of, “I Don’t Care”. It kind of came from Julien Taboulet and is reflective of how he approached this day. He just went for anything and everything, even if it wasn’t exactly the brightest thing to do. He made some and then others he didn’t. But he won the charging bull award for sure this day. What was reflective of the day was also if you got the right waves. What seems to quite often be the case at Ravine is the waves are very different. Some are peaks with no walls, some are perfect air sections with walls and some are death closeouts. This was the case for Thomas Traversa who sailed twice to cover for his team-mate Mikey who couldn’t sail due to his stitches. In his first heat he got the good sets and nailed it with massive airs and smooth gouges in clean bowls. And then in his second heat he got the contorted ones with the same go for it approach and got punished.

It’s got to be said that French wavesailing is looking pretty strong these days. Camille was also punting large airs with style gouges, as is Colin Sifferlin. Pierre Godet also managed to get away with lunging at some pretty big sections and Robin nailed a pretty impressive 360. Klas Voget went really hard. It was pretty impressive. Nice rail work combined with some serious commitment at some chunky sections. Unfortunately more disappointment for 'moi' and my team. Went down on my second wave and got dragged into the bay which there’s no escape from, so it was a trip over the rocks for another re-launch, which takes a while, and then as I jumped off the rocks I sheeted in to realize that my boom had snapped. C'est la vie. All in all it was a hell day and I was pretty impressed. Everyone’s approach of “Not Caring,” which quite often meant not thinking, but that’s what it takes.

Day 5 - Reunion
Everyone had had enough of Ravine at this point and was down the coast to Etang Salle. Smaller waves and gusty wind had a lay day of just freesailing which was pretty good fun and a kind of mellow relief after the last few days of getting blown off the water.

Results and photos at www.reunionwaveclassic.com!

Maui windsurfers send love and support to Baptiste Gossein who suffered a horrific crash while surfing at Teahupoo, Tahiti. Here is the original report on the accient:

The community of surfers and windsurfers, as well as relatives of Baptist Gossein are still in shock from the accident in the last week surfing at Teahupoo (Tahiti). They give us (Wind Magazine, FRANCE) more details:
 

Translation:
"It is Tuesday, September 8 at 7 am on a rising south-west swell that Baptiste missed his take-off and was projected directly onto the reef from Teahupoo. That day, many waves had a strong dominant west, which has the effect of accentuating the effect of the 'horseshoe' of the bowl and makes the wave very dangerous. Baptist fell to his full height on a reef that was almost dry at low tide . The impact was so violent that he immediately felt a big pain in his back and no longer had sensation in the lower limbs.
Teiva Happy and several other surfers rescued him and brought him back into the channel and to shore. Baptist also had minor cuts to the feet and head. He was transferred urgently to the CHT Mamao in Papeete by firefighters.

He will undergo an operation a few hours later in the service of neuro-surgery. He suffered 2 broken vertebrae and of compression of the spinal cord. Physicians are dedicated to the consequences of this accident.

Baptist Gossein should stay in Tahiti in a center of re-education time to organize his transfer to France to a specialized center of St Raphael or Cape Breton. Baptist keeps morale surrounded by his friends and is willing to fight to recover quickly."

Click here to view more photos of love and support sent from Maui.

The crews from Starboard and Severne arrived in Hood River to run a 2-day dealer meeting before the huge AWSI dealer demo this weekend. The wind was light for day one making SUPing the call...but come back tomorrow for initial reports on all the cool 2010 gear from the designers (Starboard's Tiesda You and Severne's Ben Severne).

Here are some photos of their impressive "warehouse" setup:

Phil Soltysiak just sent us a brand new video of his trip to San Carlos, Baja with sidekick Matt Case. Check it out!

FD Team: Peter how are you this days? Happy, because itʼs almost done or tired because you edit day and night?
Peter: Well, actually as I am writing this, I am exporting the final movie! And I cant believe that we are done. Its been the only single thing I have done for 5 months straight, every awaken minute, normally 16-17 hours aday the last 2 months. It actually crazy to think about it. Today Andre leaves Gothenburg to go back to Hamburg with the Master DVD, and it goes straight in to production. That means my job is over!:)

FD Team: How actually you started with Editing Windsurfing Movies?
Peter: I bought a camera at university to film our student parties. After some beers you forget the camera, and it was not used at all. Then I brought it to Jericoacoara on a windsurf holiday back in 2005. Then I realized I was better to film windsurfing, then to pull the moves myself. I messed around with the clips on my computer and put some Beastie Boys songs behind it, and hey… this is fun. And thatʼs basically the way.

FD Team: You new Project – the Four Dimensions Movie – how came to this idea?
Peter: After my latest movie “life” I thought to take time off from windsurfing films for a while. Then Andre asked if I was interested to fly double helicopters filming the best guys. I thought; well, this is probably the time to do it for real, once and for all. The project grew and we where planning new trips in the middle of the shootings, and the first 3 months we didnʼt know where we was going the next week. This is just 1,5 months ago, and now the movie is done :=)

FD Team: Besides new angles and sickest action we might find some new editing techniques inside the movie? How much time you spend to learn this techniques?
Peter: Yes. I thought that there was time to try some effects I have been working on for a while now. They have been used before by other editors, and I was amazed by them. I spent some late nights behind After Effects, trying to figure them out. Lots of trial and error, but in the end I think we started to get them right. I think there will be some pretty cool moments in the final movie, and I hope it brings another dimension to our film.

FD Team: You have done now 5 Windsurfing movies in a little more then 2 years. How you find your motivation to keep being creative?
Peter: Iʼve been doing nothing but windsurf movies straight for 30 months now. But the movies have been very different in terms of goal and customers, and I do feel a need to keep moving. If I would get stucked doing the same movie over and over, then I will stop. But as Four Dimensions went so big and we had a thight deadline, Sebastian Dörr has been a co-editor throughout the editing, and the motivation and ideas defiantly increase with two editors.

FD Team: Will you be the most nervous person, once the movie starts to play inside the cinema on Sylt?
Peter: Yes, I would like to hold hands with someone down there. Or Iʼll sit on the toilet throughout the show. To be honest, I am very proud of the final movie, and I think I will be able to enjoy the premiere.

FD Team: Tell us the best moment of the whole production process?
Peter: When me and Andre took off in 2 helicopters one afternoon filming Victor and Marcilio jumping at Camp one, Maui. The two best jumpers (not thinking of Köster for a while…) and two helicopters, all up in the air at the same time. Best hour by far.

FD Team: Any Final words?
Peter: Hmm. Yes, clean your ears. The Four Dimensionsʼ soundtrack will rock.

Thanks
FD Team

The Toucan Open 2009 had great wind and weather and Windsport was there to enjoy in the party. I wish I had more photos of the on-water racing action, but I was too busy trying to keep up with the competitive folk from Colorado, Nebraska and elsewhere to get those photos (BUT...I'll post some later as I get them sent to me).

Here is the offical results from Karen at Larsons Ski and Sport:

Thanks for coming!  The 2009 Toucan Open was a blast! 

We had great wind on Friday out of the north-west for awesome flat water sailing for everyone who was smart enough to take Friday off work.  Saturday was a light wind day - but we did manage to get in two course races for the open fleet who were on longboards of every era. A late day thunderstorm threatened to ruin our bbq, party, raffle fun - but the skies cleared just in time to fire up the grill and light the bonfire.  Everyone who entered the race won a raffle prize and the Toucan pot-luck dinner had an amazing selection of great dishes.  Five course races were run on Sunday in lots of wind and then we ran the first ever Toucan Open Enduro.  If you stayed home because of the forecast - you missed it!  It might have been the best sailing of the whole year!

Results (top three in each class)
Sport:
1. Zane Wewerka
2. Matt Volenec
3. Chuck Mawhinney

Formula:
1. Steve Hicks
2. Caren Craig
3. Al Schoenfelder

Open Men:
1. Steve O'Brien
2. Jim Buderus
3. Doug Whitman

Open Masters:
1. Randy Wight
2. Bill Morris
3. Mike Charbonneau

NOT GETTING INTO THE FOOTSTRAPS HAS NEVER BEEN SO COOL!!!

It sounds like when Starboard's design team isn't windsurfing they are having fun throwing down wakeboard tricks at a local Thai cable park...well, at least until they discovered wakeskating. Riding strapless is a trend that has been hitting all action sports beyond just wakeboarding... even some snowboarders are doing it. Why not try it with windsurfing? So Starboard introduces the brand new concept shape: the Atom 99.

The Atom is designed to be an incredibly rangy freeride board that can be riden in many different ways. Designer Tiesda You likes riding it with a 8.5-meter no-cam freeride sail or ride it powered down to a moderate size sail with the straps placed outboard for a fun and reasonably fast ride. The inboard straps allow for more control and a slashier freestyle or freemove ride (stay tuned here and we'll dig up a smaller tuttlebox fin to run it through some aerial freestyle moves). Finally, you can remove all the straps and have fun learning how to sail in a completely different way.

We'll post a full test report later in the week...but for now here is a video rundown of the Atom for designer Tiesda You:

And here is some strapless action:

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Starboard designer Tiesda You and North America's top freestyler (8th overall in the PWA) discuss changes to the Flare 98 freestyle board from 2009 to 2010:

Sailwork's designer Bruce Peterson runs through their lineup for the Columbia Gorge Windsurfing Association's Katie Crafts:

It is done. The Four Dimensions Movie is ready now for one week. A week which was crazy! Lets have a look back at what happened:

1: After filming on last time again 2 weeks ago in brazil, sending 20GB of footage with a 10KB/S line to Sweden and then driving from Hamburg to Sweden 9 days ago, I meet Peter. He looked tired. Together, we managed to stay awake for almost 3 days to finish the last part of the movie.
 
2: Then last Monday i drove full speed back to Germany with 3 harddrives to give the movie to Sebastian who is in charge of converting all files to NTSC. The first results were not making us happy and the pressure got even more intense.

3: Last Wednesday... A perfect version arrived to my house and we sent it straight to our production company. They now need some day to print all the copys, covers etc.

4: Gollito, my Mother & Father, Gunnar Asmussen and myself drove to Lake Garda to compete on the Ion Man Award. That was great fun. We were starting off good and leading for the first half of the contest. But in the End "only 3rd". Anyway... more important was Saturday for me. After 9 month work, stress and all the good and bad moments... We had a little Sneak Preview in Torbole. It was a great test for Sylt. Now i know that i am going to be very nervous and emotional. The audience of around 200 people seemed to love the movie, which released some pressure.

5: Now after returning to Hamburg last night we expect the copies to come on Wednesday. Then we will ship to all Shops and Pre Orders! Then Gollito, Antxon and I drive in my car to Sylt and will compete.

And then the real pressure is on. 26.09 & 02.10. The Big Premiere inside the Kinowelten Cinema in Westerland. I am looking forward to it.

Have Fun
FD Team

The Four Dimensions Official Trailer from Robert Bates on Vimeo.

Let's get this straight right from the start, the Atom is NOT just another "interesting concept" from Starboard. This board is a super-fun freeride shape that is accesible to a wide spectrum of the windsurfing population. However, the idea of riding the Atom "strapless" may be a fad to put this board on the map... so the windsport test team decided to take it to the next level as you will find out below!

The Ride #1: Straps Outboard with large stock fin

This setup give the Atom a more classic freeride feel. It allows it to track well in a straight line and haul upwind like a champ. Speed lovers would prefer the faster ride of a Futura but the performance in this setup definitely exceeded our initial expectations. The ample width and large fin allows it to plane up pretty quickly for the 99-litres of volume. This is the ideal setup and an ideal small board for sailors who typically use big sails and live in lighter wind areas.

The Ride #2: Straps Inboard with small wave fin

Moving the straps inboard and sticking a small wave-shape fin in the box (although we found a Tuttlebox wave fin to be quite difficult to track down these days) loosens up the ride remarkably. Freeride becomes "freemove" as the Atom transforms into a classic freestyle wave ride. The flat deck and low-nose ride allow for a confidence inspiring freestyle feel that will impress anyone looking to throw down old or new-school tricks.

The Ride #3: Strapless with large stock fin

At first you may be a little nervous heading out "strapless" on the Atom with a big upright fin driving your ride...well there are a ton of benefits. The stock fin allows you the ultra-cool sensation of moving your feet around to various places on the board while you're riding: keep them close together on the rail and hike upwind; move the back foot back against the foot-pad ramp to push against the fin for more drive upwind; centre your feet slightly more forward and inboard for a loose and carvey ride. The large fin allows you to ride stapless with a larger sail (7.5 no cam for sure and maybe even up to 8.5-metre) and vastly improves the early planing. The only downside to riding strapless is it isn't for amateurs or the faint of heart. You have no straps to give you a confident attachment to the board through chop; however, we found that your brain tends to make you automatically sheet out and not surpass a sensible speed.

The Ride #4: Strapless with small wave fin

Throw in a small wave or freestyle fin and gain a ton of confidence when riding strapless through chop. However, you lose any hope of spinout recovery (although you will still stay dry as the board is pretty big and wide)and quite a bit of early planing ability. The Atom is still fun to ride this way but you do lose the need to move your feet around on the deck...you'll find that simple toe and heel pressure is sufficient to carve the board through ultra loose maneuvers.

Bonus Ride: SKYHOOKS

Designer Tiesda You challenged us to see how far we could push the limits of the Atom so we grabbed some "foam skyhooks" off an AirRush kiteboard (finally those kiters can give something back!) and screwed them into the front and back inserts to  try the first ever strapless aerials. Head tester, Derek Rijff (pictured), found the experience of Willy Skippering with skyhooks to be, "scary as hell but amazingly fun." Because the "hooks" screw into only one insert you can twist them to however you need. Now, we challenge Starboard to come up with the perfect add-on accessories for the Atom!

The Atom Bomb (Strapless Free Willy) by Derek Rijff:

JIBING:

The most innovative thing about the Atom comes when carving it strapless. Without footstraps you loose the ability to have any upward pressure on the windward strap to help set the leeward rail into the carve. Instead, you need to place both feet on the leeward side of the centerline and carve either toe-side or heel-side like a skateboard or snowboard. This feeling is most dramatic when using the big stock fin and it allows you to play around with different foot positions and stance-widths to affect the way the board carves... endless fun!

With straps, the Atom jibes in a typical freestyle wave manner. It is easy to set the rail start the carve and this board is very capable of planing all the way through the jibe rewarding better technique with more exit speed. Anyone learning to jibe will find that the Atom still can tolerate a fair amount of back foot pressure but more speed is maintained when weight is kept forward.

JUMPING & FREESTYLE:

The Atom displays freestylewave-type or better pop. We found it to be capable of new-school aerials  and this gave us the idea to try taking the footstraps off and screwing in the skyhooks.

The Windsport Women editors stopped by the Mystic booth at the AWSI demo event to check out their new line of women's harnesses:

Checkout Jake Miller's latest videos from his production company (Snakebite Films). Here is a slick online channel where you can watch a cool new video released for SEPTEMBER:

Windsport's head tester lands the first strapless aerial on the Starboard Atom: a skyhook assisted Free Willy 540. We knew the first trick would be a Willy Skipper but everyone watching on the beach wasn't sure which combo he would spin into. You can tell by the smile on his face that this in a brand new and fun challenge for any freestylers!

The Skyhook Setup:

Two nice days of wind and plenty of gear to try was the call for the Industry Demo Event held Sept. 17-19th this year in Hood River, OR. Here are a few photos:

The ION MAN Event just went off in Torbole, Lake Garda to a mix of conditions allowing for competitions in the following disciplines:

- highwind freestyle windsurfing, lightwind freestyle windsurfing, standup paddleboard racing, swimming, darts, climbing, partying

(Photos by Fotofiore.com)

RRD's new North American distributor Tony Kardol, based in the Gorge, gives us the run down on their newest multi-fin wave boards:

The sound is in German...but at least you can get a glimpse of what this place is like before the action begins!

The Royal Military College Windsurfing Club was a busy spot on the Lake Ontario shores as competitors and volunteers gathered for the 3rd annual Kingston Freestyle Jam on the weekend of September 19th and 20th.

Saturday morning the moods were tense as competitors eyed each other wondering what moves their competitors have been perfecting leading up to the event. The wind was light and fingers were crossed for an afternoon thermal breeze. Australian longboard freestyler, Pierre Coupal, who currently resides in Montreal, broke the ice by providing free instruction to competitors, volunteers and on-lookers.

The RMC dug deep and broke out their retro rigs and longboards to give people a chance to try some new skills. Sailors could be found inside the booms, sailing using their feet and even rail-riding. Though the wind was not looking promising, event organiser Phil Soltysiak could not watch a day go by without sliding some new-school moves. The RMC rescue boat made wind seem irrelevant as Phil managed a few flakas and grubbies in no more than 5 knots of wind. An informal lightwind freestyle best move competition was held shortly afterwards to finish off the day. Pierre Coupal managed to edge out Bert Breuvart for the best move.

After a classic late night in the university town of Kingston, competitors returned to another beautiful, sunny, but windless day. An aerial freestyle clinic was held by Phil Soltysiak.

Unfortunately the wind failed to co-operate throughout the day and the event came to a close after a tasty BBQ with tonnes of prizes for the competitors and volunteers. Bert Breuvart was the lucky winner this year of the Sailworks 5.2 Revolution. We expect him to show us some new moves at next year's competition with this world-class freestyle sail.

Thanks go out to RMC Windsurfing Club and Windsurfing Canada for making this event happen as well as our sponsors that support this annual windsurfing event: Sailworks, Starboard, Dakine and Streamlined. See you all next year.