Slalom surf at the PKRA Pingtan China
( prokitetour.com )
Updated: 2013-10-28
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The first day of slalom racing delivered some very exciting and surprising finishes. A total of six races were run with Bryan Lake winning three races, Ariel Corniel on a twin tip winning two and Julien Kerneur winning one. On the women's side it was Paula Novotna who dominated the fleet winning five out of six races. The course was very simple with four reaches, what made things technical were the 2 to 3 meter waves coming through the course. All the races were very exciting and tomorrow should be no exception with more good wind forecasted.
The course was set up with the starting line outside, coming into the beach break and going back out and finishing in front of the beach. This meant that the riders had to come through the beach break twice and once back out. The timing of when to go over waves and when to jump over them was critical and narrowed the gap between the twin tip boards and the slalom boards. This was shown in the results with Ariel Corniel winning two races on his freestyle twin tip. The conditions were also very rough on the outside with a 20 kn breeze and strong chop. It was challenging for the slalom boards to keep their fins in the water and to clear debris form the large swell of the previous day. All the girls opted for their twin tip boards and the full fleet made the races very competitive and fun to watch.