YEGOR POPRETINSKIY RUS11

WINDSURF VIDEO 2011

2012-01-23T15:49:00.002+04:00

My new freestyle windsurfing video with footage from 2011.
Spots: Maui (Hawaii), Dahab (Egypt), Podersdorf (Austria), Fuerte (Canary) and Mui Ne (Vietnam).
Filmed by Ivan Popretinskiy, Kerstin Reiger, Chris Pressler, Dmitriy Rasskazov.
Edited by me, Yegor Popretinskiy.
Music: Sebastien Tellier - Kilometer (Aeroplane 'Italo 84' Remix).
Thanx for watching!

NEW YEAR REPORT 2011-2012

2012-01-19T12:32:00.006+04:00

Aloha! I want to start with the Season’s greetings wishing all windsurfers, my friends and relatives happy New Year and New Season! Wish you all health, happiness, success and of course lots of wind, sun and waves! :)

photo by John Carter / PWA

And now I will brief you an all my news for the last several months. First comes the PWA event in Germany. Unfortunately the finals of the PWA World Cup in Sylt, Germany were lacking wind and the results as well. During all 10 days of the competitions the weather was sunny and still with small on-shore waves, what is not usual to the destination. The organizers decided to hold several tow-in sessions for the freestylers and waveriders. Each riders was granted 2 tricks, the best was taken in account. In the first session in both of my attempts I’d smoothly landed air funnel one handed and air funnel one handed into funnel, gaining high scores enough to be in the final and managed to take the 4th place – I was sharing the podium with Steven, Gollito and Tonky. It was exciting! Best weekend tricks were Steven’s air funnel into triple puneta and air funnel into burner by Gollito.

photo by John Carter / PWA

It was very interesting to watch the wavers – they were speeding up in the tide and they were trying to jump push loop and back loop. There was no chance to land these tricks without wind but even in such conditions it was very spectacular, especially jumps by Campello, Seadi and Browne.
I liked a lot the night tow-in session. That time I did not reach the finals but managed to jump very good air funnel one handed. When you are performing your trick in absolute darkness, with not a hint of wind, with spotlights shooting in you face and a crowd of people watching you in the beach you feel really special and remember it forever!

In PWA freestyle overall ranking of 2011 I keep the 16th position. The result is not bad, but I am sure that I perform better though the level of many of the new riders increased a lot. I hope to have lots of training before the next competitions start and get prepared to return to the top 10 in 2012.

After the PWA finals I came to St. Petersburg to visit my wife and to celebrate my birthday. And in the middle of October I had arrived to Dahab to train myself, to train my students in 5 Squares windsurf school and to have a photo-session for the new catalogue of Mad Wave clothing.

photo by Daniel Isichenko

In October and November the wind was blowing – we were able to windsurf every day! During this trip I had visited the Blue Lagoon for the first time. We’d spent there 5 days together with my brother and our friends from Russia and Estonia sleeping in Bedouins’ huts, cooking on bon-fire, playing guitars. The wind is always blowing in the Blue Lagoon stronger than in Dahab and there are no other windsurfers besides you and your friends. I like this place for the possibility to train tricks on both tacks and managed to learn a lot during these 5 days. Nothing can disturb you there and you are concentrating on your tricks only. I advise all who plan to go to Dahab to visit The Blue Lagoon to clear your mind and to concentrate totally on freestyle!

photo by Daniel Isichenko

In the end of November I returned to Russia to get ready to 3 months winter voyage to Viet Nam. And in the beginning of December my wife and I were in Mui Ne beach, where last year the first freestyle competition of the PWA World Tour took place. We settle at the camp of Surf4You international windsurfing school that belongs to our friends from Vladivostok in the Eastern part of the Mui Ne beach. In front of the station there is a spot with excellent conditions for freestyle, beginners and advanced training and no kiters at all. There is a big lawn surrounded by palm-trees perfect for Pilates classes under supervision of my beloved wife. That is why we had chosen it as our training base.

Mui Ne is an excellent place for surfing, windsurfing and kitesurfing. When the air is smooth great waves for surfing suitable for beginners and experienced riders are coming to local spots. And when the wind is blowing it is possible to practice freestyle and jump just in front of the station or to go to the wave spot where you can find excellent conditions for jumps with small board or wave riding. During December and January the wind in Mui Ne was blowing every day!

During NY and X-mas holiday I was giving windsurfing lessons to the guests of Surf4You school and as we have there the great team not only of friends but professionals in sports we decided to organize windsurfing, surfing and fitness camp SURF4YOU VIETNAM PRO CAMP.

The advantage of this camp is that you will not only learn surfing and windsurfing with professional instructors and sportsmen, but 2 times a day will be toning your muscles, participate in theoretical seminars, riding bicycles, in the evenings watch training video with live comments of the instructors on the big screen and lots more. Every participant will have individual training schedule based on their requirements and level. Participants will be able to choose lessons interesting for them and their own instructor. So the training in SURF4YOU VIETNAM PRO CAMP will be organized very sufficiently and fun.
All the further details you can find on www.surf4you.ru.
I was planning to leave Vietnam after the PWA contest that was supposed to take place here in the middle of March, but the organizes had postponed it to the end of November.

photo by Daniel Isichenko

Several days later after I had received these news on the January 14 the traditional slalom contest SURF4YOU VIETNAM OPEN CUP took place in Mui Ne. The organizers offered me to participate and provided me with equipment - a slalom sail NeilPryde 7,0 and a board JP Sport 118. About 15 riders were registered and 7 races were held. I had never participated in slalom competitions before and even hadn’t tested my equipment before the start. During the first 3 races I was adjusting myself to the new equipment and had finished 6-7th, but as the contest went on I was starting much faster and finishing 4th and even 3rd. Finally I share the 6-7 places with well-known sportsman Sergey Chaika, who had several times participated in PWA Slalom races. He was the favorite of the competition but was unlucky this time.
The 1ft place was taken by the Belgian windsurfer Chiga. For quite a long time he lived in Dahab working as a diving instructor and windsurfing. But later he had changed his profile, moved in Vietnam and began to train in Slalom and to work as a windsurfing instructor. The 2nd place was taken by Eugene Yurtaev – one of the best wavers in Russia who had gained a lot in his level during the last year. In 2011 Eugene won this competition leaving behind the best racers in Mui Ne, but this time he let his Belgian friend win. The 3rd was Alexey Trusov – sportsman from Vladivostok, who is not only strong in racing disciplines but can jump spock and ponch as well. Couple of years ago Alexey had participated in PWA Slalom competitions and was 20th – that is really good result.
In the evening there in the station was the Award Ceremony, music BBQ for the guests of the station and very positive crowd of people. I want to thank Andrey Zabalotny – the manager of Surf4You and organizer of the event. It was excellent contest, with excellent organization, excellent weather and vibes. My congratulations to the winners! It was great!

Now I have 2 month more in Vietnam ahead, than a trip to Hawaii for JP и NeilPryde new catalogues photo shooting and the 1st PWA Contest in Austria (I need to have my visas done for that at St.Pete)

I want to thank my sponsors JP-Australia, NeilPryde, 5 Squares, Mad Wave, Kontek, G-Shock, Continentseven, my new partners Surf4You and personally Dmitriy Bardadyn and Alexey Mamonov for support!

SUMMER 2011 FREESTYLE REPORT

2011-09-05T17:18:00.002+04:00

My summer European and world freestyle tour started with the second event of EFPT 2011 on Sardinia. The competitions were held in the Northern part of the island in Porto Pollo famous for excellent freestyle conditions in strong wind. Last year it made possible to have here 3 Double Eliminations!

photo by Gianni Petta

Most of the competitors arrived just after the first EFPT contest in Lefkada (Greece) and had the opportunity to train before the start of the event. The contest was organized well – the cheering music was playing and every evening we had supper all together in the local pizzeria. But the weather conditions were not very promising. From the first day there was no wind so it was decided to organize tow-in freestyle.

The winner was young Julien Mas from France who jumped Air Funnel into Funnel. Unfortunately I was not in the finals but gained the great experience landing Air Funnel and Burner. I want to note the high level of the local riders and hope to see them next year not only in the EFPT but in PWA tour as well.

photo by John Carter/PWA

Just after EFPT on Sardinia Steven van Broeckhoven and me went to the Caribbean competitions of PWA world tour that was held in Bonaire and Aruba. In the airport of Bonaire I was stopped by the Immigration officer who stated that I needed the special visa and had to be deported to Amsterdam. I was lucky that the plain was flying via Curocao where in 5 minutes before the departure I was allowed to stay to proceed my visa. The next day it was ready and I was able to fly to Bonnaire. I want to thank all who helped me in this matter, especially Lara Cherino, Bob Shmon, Steven and Taty Frans. Without your help I would never manage to do it!

photo by John Carter/PWA

It was strong wind in Bonaire and it was possible to have 2 Double Eliminations. The 1st place was won by Kiri Thode. It was impossible to anyone to beat him on his “native” spot where he is training most of his time and where he had invented most of his tricks. The second was Steven, the third - Taty Frans. The guys were performing their tricks on the highest possible level and the most remarkable were Flaka into Ponch, Grubby into Ponch, Flaka into Shaka, Future 900 and many more. The best of the girls was the invincible Sarha-Quita Offringa from Aruba who performed in the finals the unbelievable set of tricks including Switch Chachoo 900 and Shove-it into Spock.

photo by John Carter/PWA

On the first training day on the water I was unhappy to incise my forehead pretty hard. In the hospital doctor decided not to stitch it but glued it with Crazy Glue. I think that the hard trip and this injury took a lot of my energy so I was not able to show high result. But I managed to show the tricks that were not performed by anyone else - planning Chachoo One Handed and Meev into Flaka.

After Bonaire all the participants flew on 2 specially arranged planes to the next PWA contest destination – Aruba. The conditions were pretty difficult – fretful offshore wind and strong broken chop. Judges' platform was erected in the sea in 50 meters from the beach. It was not easy to perform the tricks in such weather conditions!

photo by John Carter/PWA

The victory in this contest belongs to Steven and Sarha-Quita! The result of final heat between Steven and Kiri seemed questionable for some ones, but Steven managed to take over with his high amplitude Konos, Air Funnels and Burners. And I want to notice the performance of the JP/NP team rider – Ksenia Kessler from Denmark, who won the 3^rd place!

I was not very successful at this event, as I was performing in the conditions that were very difficult and unfamiliar for me. Now it was very important for me to do my best in Canary Islands and Germany not to have the Caribbean results taken in the overall account and to be able to appear in the Top 16.

photo by John Carter/PWA

From the Caribbean we flew together with Dieter van der Eyken to Lanzarotte where traditionally the next contest of PWA World tour was taking place but the Good luck was again not on our side – we could not get our equipment on the arrival and only in 3 days 1 hour before the starts we were informed that our windsurf bags was in the airport.

We were lucky with the weather instead and the organizers were able to conduct 1st Single Elimination. Now it was time for Jose “Gollito” Estredo to show all he could in his favorite conditions and he was the winner performing his famous Air Chachoo, Push Loop and Burners practically in all heats! Steven was the second lacking a little in these wave conditions and Kiri was the third. I was 13^th.

photo by John Carter/PWA

From Lanzarote I moved to Fuerteventura where I was diligently training for 2,5 weeks together with my teammates. Every day we had very strong wind blowing for the smallest sails and boards and we were well prepared for the next contest - PWA Fuerteventura Grand Slam 2011.

photo by John Carter/PWA

The weather forecast was not very positive, but it was still possible to have the Double Elimination. In the Single Gollito was the 1st, but he was not able to support his leading position in the Double. As a result Steven van Broekhowen, 2 times European Champion, became the winner of PWA Fuerteventura and the PWA World Freestyle Champion for the first time in his career. My best and genuine congratulations to Steven and his family! I was 13^th again and managed to reach the Top 16.

I want to mention my teammates from JP/NP – Youp Schmit from Bonaire, Tilo Eber from Germany, Andy “Bubble" Chambers, Brayan Metcalf-Perez from America, Ian Mouro Lemos from Brazil, Loick Spicher from Swiss and Tony Mottus from Estonia. The guys showed excellent modern freestyle tricks in all competitions and everyone has his own style.

photo by John Carter/PWA

After Fuerte I flew to Dahab (Egypt) for training before the PWA World Tour Final event that will be held in Sylt (Germany) from 23.09 to 02.10 and I will have a chance to improve my position in the overall rating. The final of EFPT, where now I have the 9^th position, will be in Eilat (Izrael) on November 3-6.

I am planning to spend autumn in Egypt and for the winter to move to Vietnam. Besides training I am planning to give lessons and to conduct mini-camps for windsurfers of different levels.

I want to thank my family, friends and sponsors for their support!

And I am proud to announce that I got married to the best girl in the whole world Maria Alexeeva!!!!!

Yegor Popretinskiy RUS-11

(JP-Australia, NeilPryde, Mad Wave, Kontek, G-Shock, Five Squares, NPX, MFC)

Ranking of PWA Freestyle Overall 2011 before final in Germany:

1. Steven van Broeckhoven, Belgium

2. Kiri Thode, Bonaire

3. Jose “Gollito” Estredo, Venezuela

4. Taty Frans, Bonaire

5. Davy Scheffers, Holland

13. Ian Mouro Lemos, Brazil (JP-Australia, NeilPryde)

14. Andy “Bubble” Chambers, England (JP-Australia, NeilPryde)

15. Tilo Eber, Germany (JP-Australia, NeilPryde)

16. Yegor Popretinskiy, Russia (JP-Australia, NeilPryde)

20. Youp Schmit, Nederland (JP-Australia, NeilPryde)

23. Bryan Metclaf-Perez, America (JP-Australia, NeilPryde)

EFPT LEFKADA MILOS BEACH OPEN 2011

2011-06-01T02:01:00.001+04:00

The 1st contest of the European Freestyle Pro Tour with the prize money of €5000 took place on the Milos beach in Lefkada, Greece on 27-29 May 2011.
21 riders from 9 countries were registered and were settled in apartments of wonderful hotel Milos Beach Resort.

photo by Flora Bikich

The organizer of the event was the famous and respected Austrian windsurfer Tom Hartman, who also held competitions of Euro tour last year. The head judge was Marek Antol from Slovakia, who judged freestyle competition for many years.

The main favorites of the contest were Edvan de Souza from Brazil, Stam Pramponas from Greece, Adrian Beholz from Germany, Niklas Strahlen from Sweden, Adam Gavriel from Israel, Mattia Fabrizi from Italy and me - Yegor Popretinskiy from Russia.

photo by Flora Bikich

Forecast at the time of the contest looked quite poor, but the hot sun of Greece and clear sky helped the thermal wind to blow up in the right direction and it was enough to start heats. Riders used their biggest sails and boards to show all what they can do in these conditions.

Unfortunately the wind was not enough to completely finish 1st Single Elimination and heats culminated in the semi-final between four best riders – Mattia Fabrizi, Niklas Strahlen, Adam Gavriel and Gabriele Varrucciu. Lightweight and good luck of finalists helped them to pass through the strongest opponents in very difficult conditions.

photo by Flora Bikich

In my opinion, in some heats it was hard to understand who was better and athletes were just really surprised by results. For me the most interesting heats were between me and Adam Gabriel, Max Rowe and Gabriele Varrucciu, Mattia Fabrizi and Edvan de Souza.
Heat against English Max Row and Italian newcomer Gabriele Varrucciu was very close. Both of them pull grate tricks and I think Max had more variety and amount of moves but somehow Gabriele pass through with his ponch.
In heat between Mattia and Edvan was super light wind and Brazilian just cannot even perform all he can. Both of riders has a lightweight but for Italian was easier to bring here more and bigger sails by his car and he had more choice. Mattia was pumping full power and was able to jump something, while Edvan just stood in one place. To my opinion this heat could have been re-started.

My heat against Adam was really close in scores as the judges told. But when I checked judge’s lists I was really surprised and disappointed that not all my moves were counted or just named completely wrong and without my complications. I understand that it was hard to see tricks performed far enough in the beginning of the heat but… I was performing planning grubby sail 360, meev, e-slider 360, but in the list they were stated as \ just grubby without any plus, flaka diablo, puneta with minus and etc probably due to misunderstanding. Best move of Adam was air flaka and he made two moves more then me, but how can you make decision in some heats based on the number of moves but not the quality of performance and in another heats by opposite way? Yes, I was upset by my result and I know exactly that my jumps were not counted as expected. I can assume that with such drawbacks in judging there was the option to re-run the heat.

photo by Flora Bikich

Anyway competitions are competitions and it is very hard to judge freestyle. And I’m really glad for the winners and especially for Adam, who shared first place in this contest. He's a great windsurfer and I hope that this result will help him to find good sponsors to participate in all competitions of PWA and EFPT events in the future.
I also want to congratulate the team rider of JP/NP Tilo Eber from Germany with the prestigious 5th place! Good job Tilo!

Tilo Eber, photo by Flora Bikich

I want to thank Christos Stratos, owner of Milos Beach Resort for the hospitality and the fact that the EFPT event was held again here at north of Lefkada. It was a wonderful time on Milos and I congratulate the winners!

Next event of EFPT will take place in Porto Liscia – Santa Teresa di Gallura, Sardinia on 2 Jun – 5 Jun 2011.

Yegor Popretinskiy RUS-11

(JP-Australia, NeilPryde, MFC, NPX, Five Squares, Kontek, Mad Wave, G-Shock)

Results of EFPT Lefkada Milos Beach Open 2011:

1. Mattia Fabrizi, Niklas Strahlen, Adam Gavriel and Gabriele Varrucciu

5. Tilo Eber (JP-Australia, NeilPryde)

9. Yegor Popretinskiy (JP-Australia, NeilPryde)

17. Loick Spicher (JP-Australia, NeilPryde)

PWA SURF WORLD CUP PODERSDORF AUSTRIA 2011

2011-05-10T21:57:00.007+04:00

The 2nd contest of the PWA World tour with the prize money of €30000 took place on the Lake Neusiedler See in Podersdorf, Austria on 29.04-04.05.2011.

Photo by John Carter/PWA

This traditional and high scale contest is always organized on the highest possible level. 40 riders from 17 countries were registered, all of them were provided with free lunch and drinks, and the Top 16 were granted with free housing. Crowds of people came there not only to watch the best professional riders competing but to have fun on the famous Podersdorf surf parties as well.

First days were windless with shining sun, lots of music, lots of interesting people and plenty of stands, where it was possible to meet the representatives of windsurfing brands, shops, magazines and web-sites.

Event site from above. Photo by John Carte/PWA

Soon the Surf Magazine Tow In Night Contest with the prize money of €1000 was organized by EFPT and Surf magazine. The Top 16 riders were allowed to participate each having 2 attempts with the best one considered. Top 4 – Gollito, Steven, Taty and Tonky became the finalists automatically.

Freestylers ready to rock. Photo by John Carter/PWA

Qualification heats for the other 12 were scheduled for the evening and the final – for the night with spotlights for more spectacular effect. It was my first Tow in session and in my both attempts I was performing Funnel One Hand. It was quite difficult to speed up with jet-ski and to get into footstraps, but I'd managed it from the first time. I could not reach the Finals but gained priceless experience and excellent pictures. And the winner was the 4-times World Champion Gollito Estredo who jumped Burner 900 Diablo! 2nd was Steven with his Air Funnel 900 and the 3rd – Tonky Frans with Burner 360.

Funnel One Hand. Photo by John Carter/PWA

One day all the riders were invited for local wine testing with the Major of the city followed by the night tour to Bratislava on the Red Bull double-decker.

The wind started to blow on the last days allowing to have Single Elimination on 4.7 sails and Double Elimination on 5.3 m2 and more. The contest was won by 2-times Europen Champion Steven Van Broeckhoven! It is his first PWA triumph! Steven was jumping sick and high-amplitude Konos, Air Flakas, Ponches, Culos, Burners and Air Funnels not leaving any possibility to his competitors. Kiri Thode, who was not aggressive enough, was the second, but all his tricks were superb, especially his signature Kabikuchi. And the 3rd place was taken by the young Dutch Davy Scheffers who managed to defeat Gollito Estredo! He caught the drive and was able to perform all his best tricks that he learned and trained in Bonaire. My genuine congratulations to the winners!

Spock. Photo by John Carter/PWA

Russia was represented by me, Yegor Popretinsky from St. Petersburg, and Vladimir Yakovlev from Taganrog. Vova showed the praiseworthy level but unfortunately could not reach the Top 16. Most of the time Vova is training in Egypt and conducting surf-clinics around the world. He wins the top places in all Russian freestyle contests so I hope we will see him in other PWA and EFPT competitions this year.

Speed loop. Photo by John Carter/PWA

I was the 9th in Single winning over Sebastian Rama from France. My heats was pretty steady, I was performing my tricks with good amplitude and speed - Shaka Flaka, Double Flaka, Switch Chacho, Funnel, Ponch and Front Loop on both tacks – but was stopped by the Belgian Dieter Van der Eyken who had dramatically increased his level this year. In Double Elimination that started at 6.30 next morning I managed to defend my 9th position winning over the French Julien Mas and Brazilian Ian Mouro Lemos. It was very cold and very light wind, with possibility for planning only in wind gusts so in the battle for 7th place was defeated by Davy Scheffers, probably because 10 kg difference in weight was pretty important in this condition.

Ponch from Andy 'Bubble' Chambers. Photo by John Carter /PWA

I want to mention the other NeilPryde and JP-Australia riders – the German Tilo Eber and Brazilian Ian Mouro Lemos, young perspective riders, who shared 13th place in this contest, Andy 'Bubble' Chambers from UK and Bryan Metcalf-Perez from USA who were the 17th. Unfortunately #5 of the last year PWA event in Podersdorf Maarten van Ochten was not participating this time due to the injury. We wish Maarten the fast recovery and good luck in the next competitions to all NP/JP riders!

Ponch from Ian Mouro Lemos. Photo by John Carter /PWA

Now I have the 12th place in overall PWA rating and have a very good chance to reach the Top 10 this year again. I am happy with my result in Austria but I hope that my future results will be improved. I am looking forward for another 5 PWA and 4 EFPT contests as well. Thanks to my sponsors, family and friends for all support. It looks like I will be home in Russia only in the autumn.

Photo by John Carter/PWA

Now I am in Moscow, organizing visa and flights to EFPT Milos Beach Lefkada Open 2011 contest that will take place in Lefkada, Greece on the last days of May.

Yegor Popretinsky RUS-11

(NeilPryde, JP-Australia, MFC, NPX, Five Squares, Mad Wave, Kontek, G-Shock)

Results of PWA Podersdorf World Cup 2011:

1. Steven van Broekhoven B-72
2. Kiri Thode NB-61
3. Davy Scheffers H-311
9. Yegor Popretinskiy RUS-11 (NeilPryde/JP-Australia)
13. Tilo Eber G-414 (NeilPryde/JP-Australia)
13. Ian Mouro Lemos BRA-85(NeilPryde/JP-Australia)
17. Andy 'Bubble' Chambers K-540 (NeilPryde/JP-Australia)
17. Bryan Metclaf-Perez US-505 (NeilPryde/JP-Australia)
33. Vladimir Yakovlev RUS-99 (NeilPryde/JP-Australia)
33. Alexander Seyss AUS-61 (NeilPryde/JP-Australia)
33. Tijs Westbroek H-666 (NeilPryde/JP-Australia)

PWA Mui Ne Vietnam Grand Slam 2011

2011-03-07T13:18:00.008+03:00

First contest of PWA World Tour 2011 in freestyle and slalom took place in Southern Vietnam on Mui Ne resort beach on 25.02 -05.03 . 23 freestylers and 45 men and 25 women in slalom were competing for 85 000 prize money. Vietnam met the sportsmen with increditable hospitality and all were finetuned to one wave.

photo by John Carter/PWA

The contest started with freestyle. The wind was blowing nicely making it possible to hold 2 Double Eliminations and the winner was the PWA vice-champion 2009 from Bonaire Kiri Thode (NB-61) being the winner of the PWA contest for the first time in his life, In the final heat Kiri landed the trick that could be peformed by him only - Culo One Hand with Pirouette. 2nd place was taken by 4-times World Champion Venezuelan Jose Gollito Estredo (V-01) and the 3rd was the PWA vice-champion 2010 Taty Frans from Bonaire.
The level of the competitors was very high and it was very difficult to decide who was the best in every heat. The conditions were pretty challenging - hammering wind and broken chop equalized the chances of the competitors. All the riders were doing their best and were performing all the variety of the most recent tricks: Burner or Funnel 900 One Handed, Skopu Into Puneta, Air Kono, Spock Into Culo or Culo Into Spock, Air Flaka Into Flaka. And in the finals it was possible to see such tricks as Back Loop, Push Loop, Double Forward, Forward Flaka, Air Chachoo. Veitnam had never witnessed something like that!

Forward Loop photo by John Carter/PWA

JP/NeilPryde team was represented by Yegor Popretinsky (RUS-11), Andy “Bubble” Chambers (R-540), Ian Mouro Lemos (BRA -85), Tilo Eber (G-414) and Bryan Metcalf- Perez (US-505). Unfortunately Dutch JP/NeilPryde rider Maarten Van Ochten was not able to participate in this contest due to his injury. Andy and Yegor shared 11th place, Bryan was 15th, Ian - 17th, Tilo – 18th. The guys were performing great sets of tricks in the heats thus showing high level of riding.
The best tricks of the JP/NeilPryde team were Yegor’s Forward Loop Diablo, Andy’s Back Loop, Bryan’s Shaka, Ian’s Air Funnel and Tilo’s Skopu. In March Yegor is planning stay in Russia and to train in Egypt, Andy in South Africa, Ian at home in Brazil and in April all the guys will meet in Mauiii for photo shooting.

photo by John Carter/PWA

Second part of the contest was devoted to slalom but the wind was much slower so it was possible to have only 4 sessions both for men and women. In men’s contest the first place went to the Legend of Windsurfing – Bjorn Dunkerbeck from Switzerland (SUI-11)! The second was unbeatable JP/NeilPryde French Multi-Champion of the World Antoine Albeau (F-192), 3-rd Jimmy Diaz (ISV-11) who is the President of PWA. In women’s slalom the 1st place was taken by 2 times World Champion in freestyle Sarha-Quita Offringa from Aruba (ARU-91) for the first time in her life, second was 14 times World Champion Karin Jaggi from New Zealand (Z-14) and the 3rd –Alice Arutkin from France (FRA-111).

Our congratulations to the winners! photo by John Carter/PWA

The PWA World Cup competitions in Mui Ne were organized on the very high professional level and we hope that it will become a tradition.
We have 6 more contests in slalom and freestyle ahead. Next freestyle event will take place in Podersdorf (Austria) on Neusiedlersee lake on 29.04-04.05 and the slalom event will be in Korean Uslan on 14.05-20.05.

Yegor Popretinskiy RUS-11

(JP-Australia, NeilPryde, Vtsport.ru, MFC, NPX, Mad Wave, Kontek.ru, G-Shock)

Results of men`s freestyle:

1.Kiri Thode

2. Jose "Gollito" Estredo

3. Tati Frans

11. Yegor Popretinskiy (JP/NeilPryde)

11. Andy "Bubble" Chambers (JP/NeilPryde)

15. Bryan Perez (JP/NeilPryde)

17. Ian Muro Lemos (JP/NeilPryde)

18. Tilo Eber (JP/NeilPryde)

Results of men`s slalom:

1. Bjorn Dunkerbeck

2. Antoine Albeau (JP/NeilPryde)

3. Jimmy Diaz

10. Micha Buzianis (JP/NeilPryde)

13. Julien Quentel (NeilPryde)

17. Pieter Bijl (JP/NeilPryde)

28. Akihito Yamada (JP/NeilPryde)

29. Marco Begalli (NeilPryde)

31. Enes Yilmazer (JP/NeilPryde)

Results of women`s slalom:

1. Sarha-Quita Offringa

2. Karin Jaggi

3. Alice Arutkin

6. Delphine Cousin (JP/NeilPryde)

8. Fanny Aubet (JP/NeilPryde)

NEW SEASON, NEW SPONSORS AND NEW GOALS FOR 2011!

2011-02-15T01:48:00.008+03:00

Aloha! What`s up guys?
Now it’s high time to tell you how and where I’d spent this winter and to reveal my latest news.

Photo by Daniil Timofeev www.lifelab.be

In December and January I was in Dahab. This time of the year usually is not very windy in Egypt, but we were lucky to have wind quite often. I was training hard with my friends from Russia, Ukraine and Estonia. Our best Russian photographers were taking lots of shots of me for magazines and I had participated in the shooting of the trailer for the new Russian windsurfing movie “Made in Ocean” by Olga Raskina. And if you log in to the PWA website you can see my videoprofile filmed by Kevin Pritchard.
I also had conducted 2 of my windsurfing camps in 5 Squares Windsurfing School. But due for the situation in Egypt I had to leave back to Russia and I am not sure about the option of conducting another camp that was planned for March.

Burner One Hand 900 by Anton Volgin

The most important news – I was appointed to join the NeilPryde International Team! I was dreaming about it for long time and it is a great honour for me! I have been using NeilPryde sails since the end of 2005 and all my favourite riders were from this team. After I was the 8th in PWA Freestyle overall 2009 I was included in the JP-Australia International team. Together with Olga Raskina I took part in the JP Annual photoshooting in Hawaii and was absolutely happy about it. It was my dream in reality! In 2010 I proved my results again and I was invited to join NeilPryde International Team and to participate in the photo shooting in Maui. This is a great breakthrough and the achievement of the very important goal for me! And I will work hard not to let my sponsors down and will do my best to achieve the best possible results.

Burner by Anton Volgin

And now let me introduce my new sponsors:

Kontek – it is the Russian company producing, installing and reconstructing swimming pools and water parks. The company is constantly developing in different ways, one of which is giving support to sport, showing this way its high level.

Mad Wave – the first and the best Russian brand in equipment and clothes for water sports founded in St. Petersburg in 2003 They are my good friends and we are planning to develop the surf-style trend together. The broardshorts are already available!

This year I will wear NPX wetsuits. I like this high quality and colourful wetsuits, especially the fact that they are following the youth and stylish trends.

At the beginning of April my watch sponsors G-Shock will open their first shop in Moscow and I will do my best to be present at the opening ceremony!

Willy Skipper by Daniil Isichenko

So I had included in my plans for 2011 the participation in all PWA and EFPT events and to reach top 5-10 in the World and Europe. I realize that it will be not an easy year, as there will be around 12 main contests. I should work a lot and learn a lot, but I will devote more of my time to training and set very high goals. Now I am in my hometown St. Petersburg and soon will leave to Vietnam to participate in the first event of PWA Freestyle World Tour 2011 in Mui Ne.

Wish me good luck!

Mahalo and stay tuned!

Untitled from FrenchKiss on Vimeo.

HOW TO DO DOUBLE SPOCK

2010-10-29T17:07:00.000+04:00

"In a few short years, PWA Freestyle is now all about combination moves, one of the new standards being the double-spock – or technically, spock into bob. Exclusive to Boardseeker, master of the art Yegor Popretinskiy, RUS-11 (JP, NeilPryde, MFC), demonstrates and explains how to do them…" http://www.boardseekermag.com/features/windsurfing-action/double-spock.html
Filmed by: Alfie Hart

PWA COLGATE SYLT WORLD CUP 2010

2010-10-10T13:31:00.011+04:00

On 24.09 -03.10 the most awaited and mass contest of the year PWA Colgate Sylt Windsurfing World Cup 2010 took place in Germany on the North Sea shore in Sylt, Westerland. There were competitions in men Slalom and Freestyle, and men and women Wave. Registered more than 150 athletes and the total prize pool was 105,000 euros.

pic. by PWA/John Carter

Last year the organizers were lucky to conduct all the disciplines, but this year the luck was not on their side. Waves and strong winds came by and throughout the week of the contest. The wind was blowing on the angle from the beach, it was very gusty and disturbed, and so it was possible to have only one Single Elimination in Freestyle and 7 races in Slalom.

The victory in Slalom was taken by the legendary 35-times World Champion Bjorn Dunkerbeck, but in the PWA overall Slalom ranking the 1st place was taken by the French Antoine Albeau, who became the PWA Slalom World Champion for the 5th time! 3rd place in Sylt and in overall ranking Slalom Men 2010 went to another strong Frenchman Cyril Moussilmani. 4th place in overall took American Micah Buzianis, who lost to Cyril by only 33 points.

pic. by PWA/John Carter

I also want to congratulate the girls from Wave, Slalom and Freestyle disciplines. 1st place in Women's Slalom overall ranking 2010 went to 13 x PWA Windsurfing World Champion Karin Jaggi from Switzerland, who also took 3rd place in Wave. 2nd place was taken by the Slalom World Champ of 2009 Valérie Arrighetti from France. And 3rd place went to 19 years old Arubian Sarah-Quita Offringa, who also became PWA Freestyle World Champ for the 3rd time! In Wave discipline another World Title was taken by the Spanish Daida Ruano Moreno and 2nd place went to her sister Iballa Moreno.

Ricardo Campello tow-in session by PWA/John Carter

Due to bad weather conditions this time in Sylt the judges decided to organize Freestyle Tow-in contest – the rider is speeding up with the help of a jet-ski or speed-boat and performs his trick . Earlier in the year such action was taken in Podersdorf during the first leg of the World Cup and it was very successful as the riders were speeding up along the shore and were performing heartbreaking tricks just in front of the audience. In Sylt the judges chose the Top 8 World Freestylers and conducted 2 super-sessions in this discipline – the one at during the day was won by 2 times European Champion Steven Van Broekhoven, and the second at night with the beach lit by spotlights and lights of the cars was won by 4times World Champion Gollito Estredo. Riders performed the coolest tricks of modern freestyle, such as Funnel, Culo, Burner, Ponch, Flaka as well as double and one-handed elements. Thousands of spectators came to see this event!

Ricardo Campello night tow-in by PWA/John Carter

FREESTYLE PART:
The conditions of the Freestyle Single Elimination in Sylt were super hard – very light side-offshore wind allowing the riders to run up only during short gusts. The judges decided to run the heats for 12 minutes and 3 best tricks on each tack were counted. Thus every competitor had a chance to catch the wind and perform several tricks. Even in these conditions the riders managed to show not only basic elements (Willy Skipper, Spock, Grubby, Flaka, Ponch, Front loop and tricks in switch stance) but technically complicated tricks (Burner, Kono, Culo, Toad) as well.

Yegor Popretinkiy grubby by PWA/John Carter

Venezuelan rider Gollito Esterdo won the contest proving out his 4th World Champion title gained during the summer leg in Fuerteventura. 2nd place was taken by Freestyle Vice-Champion 2006, Sylt winner 2009 and Podersdorf winner 2010 Taty Frans from Bonaire. These results helped Taty to become the Vice-Champion 2010. The 3rd place was won by the Belgian 2-x European Champion Steven van Broekhoven, but in overall ranking the 3rd place went to Dutch Kiri Thode who was 4th here in Sylt. 5th place was shared by Dutch Tonky Frans, French Nicolas Akgazciyan, Canadian Philip Soltysiak and British Andy Chambers.

Pic. by PWA/John Carter

I, Yegor Popretinskiy, Russian windsurfer, shared in Sylt the 9th place that allowed me to attain the 8th place in PWA Freestyle overall ranking 2010. I am in the Top 10 of the best World freestylers again, repeating my result of the previous year. Also once again I became the best freestyler from JP/NeilPryde International team and and hopefully my sponsorship will be better due to this result and I will be able to reach Top 5 in PWA Freestyle tour in next year. I am very glad with my result, especially because I was not able to train productively for 18 months being in my graduating year in the Uni. I have to mention injuries gained in Hawaii in spring and Canary Islands in summer and followed by 2 months of recovery with special treatments and diet in St.-Petersburg. This year I met my professional coach, very experienced Alexey Kashin, coach of the Kitesurfing World Champion KPWT 2009 Peter Tyushkevich. We were working on the Internet and my success of this yeat is due to our hard work.

Pic. by PWA/John Carter

I need to show my deep gratitude to all my sponsors – Vneshtreidservice Company, windsurfing school and travel agency Five Squares, JP-Australia boards, NeilPryde sails, MFC fins and my new sponsor - the extreme watches G-Shock!!! Thanks to my family, my friends and all those who support me and believe in me!

Freestyle results of PWA Colgate Sylt World Cup 2010:
1 Gollito Estredo
2 Taty Frans
3 Steven van Broekhoven
5 Andy Chambers (JP/NeilPryde)
9 Yegor Popretinskiy (JP/NeilPryde)
9 Maarten van Ochten (JP/NeilPryde)
17 Ian Mouro (JP/NeilPryde)
17 Antxon Otegui (JP/NeilPryde)

Results of PWA Freestyle Overall Ranking 2010:
1 Gollito Estredo
2 Taty Frans
3 Kiri Tode
8 Yegor Popretinskiy (JP/NeilPryde)
9 Maarten van Ochten (JP/NeilPryde)
16 Andy Chambers (JP/NeilPryde)
17 Antxon Otegui (JP/NeilPryde)
20 Ian Mouro (JP/NeilPryde)
23 Levi Lenz (JP/NeilPryde)

PWA FUERTEVENTURA WORLD CUP 2010 REPORT

2010-08-10T11:40:00.004+04:00

The 3rd freestyle event of PWA World Tour 2010 was held on Sortavento beach in front of windsurfing centre Rene Egli and Melia Gorriones hotel in Fuerteventura. This traditional and large-scale competition was held in this place for 25th time already and included PWA Slalom competition as well as PKRA kite-surfing competitions in freestyle and course-race.

poster of the event

44 freestylers were competing for 30 000 Euro. Famous super strong Canarian wind was blowing every day thus giving the possibility for organizers to finish 2 Double eliminations. All riders were using their smallest sails (from 3,7 to 4,5) and 89-98 liters boards. The judging system was the same as in the previous event – 3 minutes for the start, 7 minutes for a heat, 7 moves on each tack maximum and 4 of the best on to be counted.

As expected, the 1st place was taken by Jose Gollito Estredo, 3 times World Champion from Venezuela. In the 1st Double he was too relaxed and took only the 2nd place, but after the 2nd Single and Double elimination he was not giving his competitors any chance as he was performing such tricks as Gozzada into Burner, Air Chachoo, Push Loop into Flaka, Skopu 900. This victory gave him the 4th World Champion Title before the final event of the year.

willy skipper, photo by John Carter/PWA

The 2nd place was taken by the World’s vice-champion Kiri Tode from Bonaire, who had won the 1st Double but could not keep his position in the 2nd eliminations. Kiri is well trained on the flat water and was performing amazing new school tricks Kono into Spock, Spock into Kono, Spock into Culo, and combos with Burners and Air Funnels. But it was not enough as during the second Double elimination huge waves came and the glory came to those who were able to perform big air moves like Push Loop, Back loop and Air Chachoo.

Unexpectedly the 3rd place was taken by the Belgian Steven van Broekhoven, the European champion 2009 and 2010. It is his second time on the PWA podium this year. Steven is performing all the latest freestyle tricks in a very technically strong, high amplitude and stylish manner. He can easily jump Burner One Hand into Flaka, Air Funnel 900 or Push Loop, which one he learnt in South Africa this winter.

The 4th place was taken by the Style Icon in Freestyle from Bonaire Tonky Frans with his high amplitude Bongkas (Forward Loop into Flaka), Push Loops, Back Loops and Air Chachoos. And his brother Taty who performed Triple Spock One Hand, Double Forward Loop and Burner varieties was the 5th.

shaka, photo by John Carter/PWA

Young German waverider Phillip Koster, the winner of Pozo 2009 and 2nd in PWA event in Pozo this year was also competing here. Here he took only 23rd place as he was not lucky with the waves in his heats, but he was performing good freestyle moves like Toad, Shaka, Shaka into Flaka, Air Flaka, Double Flaka, and some switch tricks including Burner. By the way – in one of his last heats he managed to find a launch pad and performed his famous Double Forward Loop.

I would like to mention 15 y.o Youp Schmit from Bonaire who managed to take 17th place in his first ever PWA contest. He is very steady on the water and can perform practically all new school tricks. I’m sure that soon we will see this guy on the top.

I’m, Yegor Popretinskiy, rider from Russia, in this event shared 11th place with Dieter van Eyken from Belgium and Max Row from UK.
I came to this event straight from Lanzarote, where I took the 5th place in PWA event. I was very serious about the next contest and was training practically every day for 3 weeks. I’d polished some of my tricks - Toad, Switch Kono, Ponch One Hand Into Flaka, Spock into Culo, Burner into Flaka, and was ready to fight for 100%.
But unfortunately in a week before the start I had seriously injured my right ankle landing Ponch. I even thought that I’ll not be able to participate, as at the first stage I could hardly move. Slowly with the help of creams and exercises I managed to develop it, but could go on the water only wearing the surgical sock that I’d borrowed from Robby Swift. This sock was pretty “tired” and was rubbing my foot and hindering movements allowing to perform only easy tricks with high amplitude - Shaka, Air Flaka, Forward Loop, Ponch One Hand, Double Spock One Hand, Shove-it into Spock, Double Puneta, Double Flaka.

JP-Australia International Team, photo by John Carter/PWA

This time JP Australia team-riders were allowed to use new freestyle boards from 2011 collection that I was testing last autumn in South Africa with JP shaper Werner Gnigler. These boards can work well in the hard conditions, they are very strong, it is a pleasure to perform tricks with them and they have beautiful colorful graphics. All riders of JP team were taking part in this contest Andy “Bubble” Chambers from UK, Ian Mouro Lemos from Brazil, Maarten van Ochten from Holland and European champ of 2008 Antxon Otegui from Spain, who unfortunately had been seriously injured the day before the competition and was unable to compete. The Guys performed the excellent show on the water, but could not reach high positions as the competition this year is very hard and tight – very often 0.5 point was crucial for the result of the heat.

Results:
1 - Jose Gollito Estredo
2 - Kiri Thode
3 - Steven van Broekhoven
11 – Yegor Popretinskiy (JP-Australia/NeilPryde)
14 – Andy Chambers (JP-Australia/NeilPryde)
17 – Ian Mouro Lemos (JP-Australia/NeilPryde)
23 – Philip Koster (NeilPryde)
29 – Maarten van Ochten (JP-Australia/NeilPryde)

I am quite happy with my result as even being injured could show the worthful performance to the audience, judges and sponsors, being the best from all JP and NeilPryde team again. Now I’m 21st in the overall PWA 2010 ranking but I have a good chance to be in the Top 10 if I show good results in the final event which will take place on September 24- October 3 in Sylt, Germany.

I want to thank my sponsors - Vtsport.ru, JP-Australia, NeilPryde, MFC, windsurf school Five Squares, and also my family, friends and all who support me and believe in me!

portret by John Carter/PWA

MY BEST RESULT EVER!

2010-07-05T17:40:00.005+04:00

So the great wind blew at Lanzarote, where PWA Freestyle World Cup 2010 was held.
We had fully completed the Single Elimination of both men and women fleets. And we had only several heats of Double Elimination before the judges have decided to cancel it.
The 1st place in men’s was taken by Gollito Estredo, the 2nd by Kiri Todd, the 3rd by Tonky Frans and the 4th by Philip Soltysiak. And the 5th place was shared by Steven van Broekhoven, Bjorn Saragoza and João "Janjão" Henrique and ... me!!!!
I want to congratulate everyone with the results, and especially Sarah-Quita Offringa, who became Freestle World champion for the 3rd time!
I almost did not train this winter and spring as there was no wind in Egypt, I'd injured my knee in Maui and also had missed the first freestyle event of PWA in Austria. But now I've got a good chance to climb on top of the overall ranking of PWA Freestyle World Tour 2010!
Now I`m in Fuerteventura to train there for 3 weeks in hardcore conditions of Sotavento beach before the next event that will take place here.
So keep in touch and wish me best of luck!!!

THE 2ND DAY OF PWA COSTA TEGUISE WORL CUP 2010

2010-07-01T23:53:00.003+04:00

Today great wind blew in the afternoon and organizers started the first single elimination. The judges decided to appoint 7 minutes for a heat. We have to do 6 moves on each tack and 3 of the best of them will be counted. Also, we can fall 3 times on each tack. We were lucky to have heats up to the semifinal and the spectators were lucky to see what the modern freestyle is.

I had a really good day, as I managed to pass two rounds and now share the fifth place. In the first heat I was against the Frenchman Damien Potier and passed quite easily with my Shaka, Culo, No hand Flaka and switch moves. In my second heat I had to deal with freestyler from Aruba Quincy Offringa (№ 11 PWA 2009). I managed to win as made a few of good tricks - Shaka Diablo, Double Spock, Planing Forward, Flaka Diablo and a few tricks in switch stance. Than I had to sail against Gollito Estredo, but the miracle did not happen and he won our heat with his new crazy move Matador (Bob jumping back to the sail).
I am satisfied with my performance today, and I think that it compliles with all the goals i'd set.
Also I want to note excellent sailing of Brazilian João "Janjão" Henrique who passed through 2 heats as well. And of course I want to congratulate my Canadian friend Philip Soltysiak who's sailing was unbeleivable today and who managed to reach the semifinal. Good job, Phil!
Tomorrow the skipper's meeting will be at 09:30 with a first possible start of 10:00.

THE 1ST DAY OF PWA COSTA TEGUISE WORL CUP 2010

2010-07-01T01:47:00.001+04:00

The second event of freestyle World Cup PWA Costa Teguise 2010 in the Canarian island Lanzarote started today.
34 men and 9 women had registered and elimination ladders are posted on the information board. I have a good chance in the first single to go through two rounds, but then Gollito Estredo is on my way. There was only slight wind today and we had no way to start the first heats. But everyone had an excellent opportunity to practice and to get some photos from official photographer of PWA John Carter. So tomorrow the skipper's meeting will be at 09:00 with a first possible start of 09:30.
Be ready for more news tomorrow!

THE LAST CHANCE TO PRACTICE

2010-06-30T01:27:00.006+04:00

It was the last opportunity to practice a little and to compare the levels of riders today. Especially interesting it was to check how Jose "Gollito" Estredo rode - all recent tricks he performed on both sides and on the style, and also he tried to jump Bob, Kono and Culo staying back to the sail. That was realy cool!
In the evening it was dinner for all riders at our hotel Sands Beach Resort, as well as watching together the football match - Spain against Portugal. My congratulations to the Spaniards, who won with the score of 1-0.
So tomorrow the second event of the PWA Freestyle World Cup will start in Lanzarote! All riders had arrived and are ready for the battle. By the way, Olga Raskina, who will represent our country in the women's fleet, arrived today too.
I wish everyone good luck and a fair fight!

2ND DAY IN THE ISLAND

2010-06-29T13:10:00.008+04:00

Yesterday it was a great day in the island too!
It was cloudy but the wind was blowing in the afternoon. And again I was a first rider on the water. The wind was weak and gusty but I was able to accelerate by pumping and do some tricks like double spock, shove-it spock, shaka flaka, switch moves and willy skipper variations.

Soon came Steven van Broekhoven and he showed what the champion of Europe can jump in such conditions - quick burner puneta, dry and aggressive culo, I even saw how he did shaka cana brava with interception in the air. He is a very cool and strong rider!

Then all the others went on the water. I want to mention Brazilians Levi Lenz and João "Janjão" Henrique. They greatly increased their level of freestyle adding style and aggressiveness, and I think this year they will take very high positions in the ranking.

Now it is cloudy on the beach, but there is some breeze and may be we will sail in the afternoon. Today is the last chance to prepare, as soon as tomorrow morning registration and the first heats will start

Nos vemos en el agua!

WINDY AT LANZAROTE

2010-06-28T14:01:00.009+04:00

Yesterday was a strong wind!
Despite the fact that in the morning was cloudy, in the afternoon the sky began to clear and the wind began to blow. I was the first on the water, except one of the local racers. I sailed at my 5.3 NeilPryde Firefly and 98 JP Freestyle board and had a great time on the water. After a long period without sailing I felt fine. My knee did not hurt and I was able to jump all the tricks out of my program.

Soon all the other freestylers came on the water and started some kind of madness. The level of all riders has grown enormously since the previous year and everyone landed tricks of the new school like switch and regular Konos, Burners and Culos. What can I say about the guys from Bonaire except that they sail just amazingly? All the latest and most complicated tricks that we have seen in recent movies are just peanuts for them. Looks like the fight for the first place will be on the edge of fantasy.

Today is cloudy again but somehow there is a breeze. So we hope that later we can sail a little.
Stay in touch.

THE BEGINNING OF THE JOURNEY

2010-06-27T13:41:00.014+04:00

The 2nd freestyle event of PWA 2010 will be on Lanzarote – Cost Teguise, which will be held from the 30th of June till the 3rd of July. I'd already arrived here yesterday and ready for the competition! I flew here from Moscow by Airberlin airline with a stop in Berlin and for my 2 bags full of equipment I paid only 50 Euros – I like it!

Forecast for week does not look very good. But we hope that the wind will start to blow full power in the coming days and event will take place. Maybe we will get a chance to train a little bit before the competition but now the sky is very cloudy and there is no wind.

I had not trained for several months and missed the first PWA event in Austria. Also in the last week of JP photo shoot on Maui in April I'd injured my left knee. Then I spent 2 months at home trying to cure my leg and meanwhile finding time for graduating exams in the Uni. I hope that I have completly recovered and able to show all my best on the contest.

Most of the riders already here and all basically live in the same hotel - Sands Beach Resort. The hotel is very cozy and located 5 minutes walk on the beach to the competition area.

My plan for the nearest future is to train for entire July in Fuerteventura and I hope that there will be a great team of freestylers training together.

By the way, last week I’d passed the driving tests and had finally got Driving License! I hope I will be able to drive the car in the Canary Islands and someone of my friends will give me a couple of lessons.

See you later!

I GRADUATED!

2010-06-04T17:02:00.003+04:00

Finally it happened - I graduated from Saint-Petersburg National State University of Physical Education, Sports and Health named after P.F. Lesgaft!
Two days ago I passed my last exam and defended my diploma (theme of my diploma called "improving the training process in extreme sports with the involvement of extra-budgetary funds»).
Now I am a specialist in physical culture and sport. Uuuuhu! Freedom!

No PWA Podersdorf World Cup 2010 for me...

2010-05-01T09:31:00.002+04:00

Unfortunately I must inform you that I can not come to Austria to compete in the PWA freestyle World Cup at Podersdorf. My flight from Maui, Hawaii (where I`ve been for JP photoshoot) to Los Angeles was canceled, because the damage found in the plane. Plane was canceled twice. And I was not even been able to buy a ticket on another flight because the airline did not give any baggage to the passangers. So I flew to Maui only on the next day and I missed my flight to Moscow and then to Vienna. Now I`m in LA and I changed my ticket to Moscow on 1st of May. So I miss the first event of PWA freestyle World Cup. I`m very upset about that. I hope that another 3 freestyle events will take place. And I wish to all athelts good luck on the competitions and I hope that there will be strong wind.

My first magazine cover!

2010-04-26T21:58:00.002+04:00

Aloha, everyone!
I would like to inform you that I got on the cover of the new issue of the Russian magazine about extreme sport "All extreme". Main theme of the magazine is Windsurfing. Also you will wind there my interview and a lot of photos. Sweet!
I redesigned my website and I hope you like it. In the near future I will write the story as I spent the winter time.
Now I`m on the island of Maui, Hawaii. We recently finished JP-Australia annual photoshoot 2011. I flew here with Olga Raskina and we spent an unforgettable two weeks together with the best windsurfers in the best place in the world. Dreams come true!
Tomorrow we'll be gone back to Russia and I immediately go to the first event of PWA freestyle World Cup in Podersdorf, Austria. Wish me good luck!
Cheers!

DAHAB FREESTYLE CAMP

2009-12-24T20:29:00.005+03:00

First Russian freestyle training camp “Dahab Freestyle Camp” conducted by me, Yegor Popretinsky, and Vladimir Morozov was held in Dahab windsurfing school “5 Squares” from 21.11.2009 till 05.12.2009.

5 participants arrived – the youngest 11 years old, the oldest - 47. All of them were “self-trained”, that shows that freestyle is available to all who is eager to learn and spend valuable time on the water. We found all the usual mistakes of self-learners, for example “Peters Stand” when the rider’s body is twisted as if he is in pain all just to get into the wind flow. We had corrected same mistakes with all riders that will help them to learn many turns and jumps in the future. After correction of mistakes we started to learn new moves. 2 participants wanted to learn jibes and succeeded in it. 4 of the participants desired to train freestyle. We had to change their individual plans every day. In a fortnight we had 5 windy days during which the guys learnt to slide “in the nice way”, planning jibes and jumps. We “analyzed” all the basic elements (Vulcan, Flaka, Speedloop, Gecko) and developed proper movements. In slow wind days they were practicing light wind freestyle and even learnt such moves as helicopter one hand, upwind 360 diablo, switch duck tack, reverse one hand sail 360 and other difficult light wind tricks. We were starting every day with exercising, yoga and qigong that helped the participants to feel their body and to avoid injuries. In addition we used different “sail machines” which help to developed correct freestyle movements.

We had lots of theoretical studies, discussions of videos and our explanations, followed by the performance on the water. Every day we were filming the participants and in the evening everyone could see the mistakes on the large screen and have our recommendations how to avoid them in future. At the end of Camp every participant received the individual “home task” – list of exercises and tricks for individual work.
As a result we have “almost” speed loop, flaka and vulcan from Dima and Yura, “volcanism” from Igor, secure jibes from Roma and Sasha and heartbreaking freestyle from Russian young gun Kostya. You will be able to watch it in the video that will be placed on website www.go-dahab.ru. Certainly we would like to have more windy days, but we managed to do most possible on the shore and on the water, transferred the huge amount of knowledge and all this information will develop in the new quality in course of individual training and practice.
See you in our next camp that will be held on March 15-28 in Dahab “5 Squares” windsurfing school!

INTERVIEW ABOUT MY SEASON

2009-11-03T12:49:00.013+03:00

special for www.windsurfjournal.com

How and when did you start windsurfing?

I was born in St. Petersburg on Vasilevskiy Island. This is most eastern island of the Baltic Sea. When I was 12 years old I got the first time on the board and after that spent on the water 20-30 days every summer. Many times I took part in race competitions at the Black and Azov Seas. And I traveled twice with my district windsurfing club «Drive» to contests in Egypt as well. Then I understood what I wanted to be engaged for the next ten years. In 18 years I went for training for six months to Dahab and El Tur. There I met my friends with whom I grew up into professional windsurfer.

Why did you choose freestyle discipline more than slalom or Formula ones that a lot of people practice in the east of Europe?

I like sailing sport because I lived by the sea, and windsurfing is the top of the sailing sport. And by technology, by sailing and by tactic. In my childhood I like everyone raced in many races, but only in Freestyle and Wave disciplines I feel enjoy of the game and the dialogue with the powers of wind and sea. Besides I love freestyle on a skateboard too. In freestyle I think it is another life-philosophy than in the racing.

2009 was your second season on PWA World Tour, what do you think about your 8th overall place in freestyle discipline?

I think that the eighth place is a quite big success, because there are many sailors who ride at a very high level, and I was somewhat just more lucky. In my plans it was to stay in 10^th position this year. However it seems to be even better. Now I need to approve my results by my future achievements.

Can you explain us how is windsurfing in Russia? Is it a growing sport?

I think it’s just beginning to develop. Previously, windsurfing and sailing had no social base, as in our country at that time there was no even middle class yet. Moreover, there were no rules, how the middle class had to live. Now people have got some money and some experience. Now they started to choose sailing style for their lifestyle. Quite many wealthy people start to come in windsurfing from stations in Africa and South Sinai. By the way these people give me money for my training and competitions. While windsurfing in Russia develops slowly and only as a low budget old-school fan.

Russian windsurfing centers in Egypt made their bet on wealthy and middle-class family audience with children. Only last years these people started to open up Europe. In Dahab last year worked 5 big windsurfing stations with Russian management.

You are the only Russian who is a professional windsurfer, any chance to see other guys like you on the tour in the future ?

All the riders from our country, who ride well enough, work as instructors at the Russian windsurfing centers in Egypt. And they plan to remain there for long. I just wanted to grow further in the sport and all my time and energy put into training.

It seems I was born and grew up in a country with undeveloped sailing infrastructure, no government support for the sport, few conditions for windsurfing... Any my result would be successful. I really wanted to perform well. Now I can say that I really did everything I could to perform well. And I was lucky. And many people around me like my campaign and my style of work. I want to thank my sponsors JP-Australia, NeilPryde, MFC and Five Squares for support.

We are proud of Olga Raskina in the women's freestyle. This year she finished in 8th place, which is also quite high result. More time of her life she spends in Dahab working as an instructor on Russian windsurfing school “Five Squares” and training with another nice girls.

How do you do for training during winter time when it s difficult to sail in Russia because of wintertime?

Last two years I trained in Venezuela on island Margarita. However this year I will not be there because I need to prepare for the exams in the University and receive a diploma.
In the winter time I will practice in Dahab. I think I have many reserves to add. I understand where my reserves are located. And winter training in Egypt will lay the groundwork for next year.

Wish me good luck!

JP-AUSTRALIA & NEILPRYDE TEAM @ PWA WORLD CUP SYLT 2009

2009-10-15T12:24:00.000+04:00

NeilPryde and JP-Australia video from Sylt, Germany, PWA 2009. Camera and editing by Heidi Clawson and Robby Swift. www.robbyswift.com www.jp-australia.com www.neilpryde.com

COLGATE WORLD CUP SYLT PWA 2009 FREESTYLE FINAL

2009-10-01T13:55:00.004+04:00

Sylt, the spot that was hosting the last freestyle contest of the year, is the sandbar in the very north of the Germany connected to the mainland by the 10 km jetty with the train going on it. This is the very popular local resort and the island seemed to me to be covered with villas, hotels, restaurants and clubs. The easiest way to get there was via Hamburg, where I put my equipment to the supplied by the organizers transport in the airport and 200 km and 3 hours later was there myself. The prize fund for the contest is 30K EUR (same as in Lanzarote and Fuerteventura) and 29 male sailors were registered this time.

Unfortunately 2 JP sailors - British Andy “Bubble” Chambers (K-540) and Dutch Maarten van Ochten (H-73) were not able to come over. I wish them fast recovery and more luck next year.
I had many reasons not to participate in the final contest. At the same time there were 3 Russian tours – 2 on the Black Sea and one on Azov Sea and my Russians sponsors were twisting my arms to force me to promote their sales instead of reaching results in the sport.
Most fortunately for me Russian off-shore business represented by “5 Squares” windsurf school in Dahab helped me with my trip.
But I still had big troubles with equipment – I had no board. So I have to thank Normen Gunzlein (G-186), Ian Mouro Lemos (BRA-85) and especially Antxon Otegui (E-169), who helped me here and provided me with his “lucky” 2010 JP Freestyle board for competition. These chaps are not only my team-mates but true friends as well and I was very happy that they gave me all support to overcome the trouble. By the way, now I know that the boards of JP-Australia 2010 are really amazing!))))

Besides that I was not very self-confident as because of common problems I came to the competition without proper training for the first time. I was not on the water since JP Young Gun Camp in Rhodes for 1,5 month and was just skateboarding and jogging with my friends.
Difficult conditions of Sylt demand corrections in tactics, but I was lucky to know it and was ready to fight.
In my heats I was doing most simple tricks, but in the nice manner and was trying to plane on the water surface. My program was simple: port tack - flaka, shaka, front loop, spock, shove-it into spock, grubby, willy skipper, and on starboard tack – e-slider, switch chacho, funnel, front loop and willi skipper.
Being not in the best form and using unfamiliar equipment you can perform only easy tricks not to be in danger, but in conditions of Sylt only top-riders can afford to go for difficult ones and I was targeting the following- I was the 10th, if I will not go to Sylt I will be only 20th, and if I go, the worst possibility was to become the 12th.
First heats of the day had to be restarted due to bad wind conditions. But later I managed to win over Brazilian Levi Lenz (BRA-91). He was he 13th in rating, so it wouldn’t be good for me to be defeated by him, but I was lucky and Levi “forgave” me.

Antxon Otegui (E-169)could not start the heat with me as his injury did not allow him, so I managed to get into the final eight without any struggle.Next heat was against Franch Nicolas Akgazciyan (F-400) for the place in the semi-finals. Nicolas gained a lot this year – he was very good in our heat landing lots of beautiful tricks, nails many trick in switch stance, shakas and many more… and I was falling a lot… But the fact that I was in the final 8th meant that I will stay in the PWA Top Ten.
Unexpectedly all my friends from the North Sails Team Andre Paskowski (G-2), Marcilio “Brawzinho” Browne (BRA-105) and Jose “Gollito” Estredo (V-01) became the losers of semi-finals like me (most probably that was the team Spirit ;)) The release of “the Four Dimension” was so successful the day before but they still could not separate.
I can seriously consider that that day God was speaking Netherlandish. Frans brothers were really inspired and Kiri Thode (NB-61) just reminded that not only the World Champion could be the best. Why the Bonaire style was so successful in Germany and in entire PWA? I would dream to go there in spring and check it. Steven van Broekhoven (B-72) benefited from Bonairean Shaolin and probably I should go to discover some Caribbean secrets as well.
Feeling very high I aced in the Double Elimination against boss of the ultimate windsurfing bible and dvd "Tricktionary"Austrian Michael Rossmeier (AUT-256) and won over. I can’t say that I was perfect in my next heat with van Broekhoven, but most probably the Windsurfers’ God realized that Steven is not exactly Dutch or just remembered some Russian, but my port tack program was better and…I appeared to be on the 6th place.

Next one was Gollito, who is objectively more strong than I. And I found out later he was already having the crown of the World Champion of 2009, but neither he nor me knew it at that moment. Should I tell him it before? Motivation is a very interesting matter… In the beginning of the heat I tried out whether he wants to give me some “presents”… No presents were prepared for me – the World Champion was rush and highly motivated, and the chop was not allowing me even sail in switch. I failed some trick on starboard tacks and my last tacks were just to entertain the audience who helped me to gain my best achievement ever.
And as the result – I planned to stay the 10th and finished as №8, so my plans were achieved and exceeded. That’s it!
Normen Gunzlein and Ian Mouro lemos were less lucky. In the first heat Normen was defeated by the Michael Rossmeier. Nobody knows what happened to him but he was failing almost all of his tricks. In the Double Elemination Normen gathered himself together and won three heats but was defeated by the World Champion of 2007 Marcilio Browne in the fight for the 7th pace.
Ian Mouro was struggling very hard. He passed German Johannes Witte (G-687) without any problems but failed in the next heat against Brawzinho and was defeated by Rossmeier in the fight for the 9th place in the Double.

So, three Antillean brothers became the winners of the contest – it was their Moment of Glory! Finally Elton “Taty” Frans became the Winner, Kiri Thode – №2, Everon “Tonky” Frans – №3. To watch them on the water was just amazing and I really glad for their victory.

Official results of PWA Sylt Freestyle World Cup 2009

PWA overall ranking Freestyle Men 2009

The Elimination Ladder for second Single was posted on the PWA Website, but according to the forecast I do not think that it will happen. The strong storm is forecasted making ideal conditions for the wave competitions and there are still more slalom heats to go. It looks like the Freestyle season is over and it is time to review the results.

I can say that I am very happy with it. Please find the charts provided by my friends who are analyzing the results of PWA competitions. Now they are trying to find out how to calculate the individual ratings of the sailors with consideration of every performance. This is how my performance chart looks like.

In the following months I am going to actively work on gaining more finance in my participation in the competitions. My first personal project will be the organizing of Russian windsurf camps in Dahab in the “5 Squares” windsurfing school together with Vladimir Morozov, organizer of the contest “Dahab Freestyle Week”.

This evening one of my friends reminded me how I was raising money to go to the one of my first Russian freestyle contest “Russian Wave in Africa 2003” by selling beer near the Metro station. I think that during last 4 years I not only learnt to windsurf … Please wish me Good Luck!

Great thanks for the support to my sponsors – JP-Australia, NeilPryde, MFC, www.vtsport.ru, windsurfing school “Five Squares” www.go-dahab.ru, my friends, relatives, all my fans!

Cheers!

AUGUST REPORT

2009-08-31T13:20:00.008+04:00

Since the wind was switched off after 2 days of the Fuertaventura contest of the PWA World tour, I became pretty grilled during 4 days of the African heat. As a result, I did not reach my goal for Fuerta just sharing 13th place but unexpectedly managed to get on the 10th place in the World rating what is my highest ever result.
I can agree with my friends that things could be better, but after we looked through my plans for 2007 we found out that our highest expectation was to get into the World Top Ten. This plan was realized and the fact that we are not happy with it, shows that we want more thus indirectly but convincingly certifying the success.

After Canary trip I spent one night in Moscow and flew straight to Greece where spent a week in the JP Young Gun Camp at Parsonisi beach, island Rhodes. The Young Gun Camp is organized every summer on the Pro Center of Christof Kirschner. Though the name of the camp sounds like the name of Korean communist, it is very welcoming and warm. It was very pleasant to meet Kauli – watching him on the water really inspired me as to be alongside the best helps a lot to progress. It was very pleasant to see this progress in our trainees. Kauli’s energy conquered me and as a result I almost lost half of my ear like Evander Holyfield – you can see it clearly on last video from Greece - Rippin by sofa-movielab.com.

Following the strange tradition I had problems in the Airport with Immigration Control. The problem was solved with the help of the former leader of Unity of Right Forces party Boris Nemtsov who by chance was there. I thank him very much for his help and support.
After Rhodes I had spent a week in hometown St.-Petersburg, then a week in Moscow meeting with my friends, spending random days skateboarding, waited for good forecast for sailing, discussing with the sponsors preliminary results of the year, founding out what was wrong and what changes should be made in our plans as well.

As a bonus here are some diagrams where you can watch the statistics of the results of Freestyle sailors for the last years:

RIPPIN - THE WINDSURF MOVIE

2009-08-28T16:42:00.006+04:00

starring me and Kauli Seadi
spot: Prasonisi, Rhodes, Greece.
video by sofa-movielab.com
watch also the website: www.frommondaytillsunday.com (upcoming Windsurf DVD)
thanks to www.prasonisi.com and www.jp-ausrtalia.com

JP FREESTYLE TEAM AT PWA FUERTEVENTURA 2009

2009-08-28T16:40:00.003+04:00

starring: Normen Gunzlein, Ian Mouro Lemos, Olga Raskina and Yegor Popretinskiy
camera: Robby Swift and Kevin Pritchard
editing: Heidy Clawson and Robby Swift
music: "Everlog" by Foo Fighters www.bmi.com
thanks to: Pro Center Rene Egli www.rene-egli.com
www.jp-australia.com

REPORT FROM PWA FUERTEVENTURA FREESTYLE WORLD CUP 2009

2009-08-03T17:24:00.015+04:00

The PWA Fuerteventura Grand Slam is the central and main event of the windsurfing year. It is the 24th time the World Cup in slalom and freestyle is taking place here. Sotavento beach is famous for steady winds and perfect waves. The judges tent, stands, huge tent for riders and supporters and a special tent for evening events are situated on the shore, facing the famous European windsurfing center Rene Egli, Handy TV-screen results announcement system, funny and witty announcer, lots of sideliners, reporters, photographers and of course unreal tricks performed on the water by best sailors of the world. Most of the riders train specially for this event through the whole year. This year the competition started on July 27 and finished on August 1. Prize fund is the same as in Lanzarote – 45K. This time there were 37 male and 10 female registered participants.
Unfortunately 3 JP-Australia riders will not participate in this competition due to injuries – Anxton Otegui (one of the favorites of the contest, #3 in Lanzarote), English champion Andy “Bubble” Chambers (11th) and Dutch Maarten van Ochten (15th). 3-times Freestyle World champion Ricardo Campello, since this year will participate only in wave events. Injured French Nicolas Akgaziyan and Anthony Ruenes could not come as well, but other strong sportsmen had registered – rider JP International German Normen Gunzlein (Vice-Champion of Europe and runner-up of many EFPT contests), Dutch Davy Sheffers (17 year-old boy who is very successful in EFPT this year), Jakub Kosmowski (Polish Freestyle Champion who did not participate in the competitions due to injury this year), Bjorn Saragoza (rising star from Bonaire ), and newcomers from France, Austria, Denmark and Czeck Republic.

During first two days it was low tide, frequent chop, practically no waves, wind really strong and everybody used only smallest boards and sails. It was possible to conduct men and women Double Elimination but on the day 3 wind was switched off totally and over +40 heats started. Local people call it Kalima.
So, preliminary results: 1st place is taken by 2-times World Champion Venezuelan Jose “Gollito” Estredo. 2nd is Everon “Tonky” Frans from Bonaire who was passing all his competitors easily thanks to his unique style and who invented two new tricks - Front Loop into Flaka and Flaka into Shaka into Flaka this year. 3rd is the World Champion 2007 Brazilian Marcilio “Brawzinho” Browne. 4th – Steven van Broekhoven from Belgium, this year European Champion, who surprised all with his steady sailing and aggressive style. JP International prorider Normen Gunzlein was good enough after long break without training and competitions to share 7th place. His individual style and ability to perform practically all modern tricks on both tacks made all his competitors pretty nervous. Another JP rider Ian Mouro Lemos could not move up above 17th place though he was sailing on a very high level.

I, Yegor Popretinskiy , now share 13th place and Olga Raskina – 8th. In my first heat I was facing Slovenian Andrazh Zan. The wind was very strong and I was using my NeilPryde FireFly 4.1 sail and JP-Australia Freestyle Pro Edition 90 board. I was very concentrated on my heat, immaculately performed my program and landed majority of my tricks without loss of speed. Double Puneta, Double Spock One Hand, Culo, Air Flaka, Shaka into Flaka, Planning Forward Loop on both tacks, Ponch – this was enough to pass my rival without any doubt. My second competitor was 2-times European Champion Andre Paskowski. I performed even better then previous time. No one in the contest could not exceed my Double Spock One Hand and Double Puneta in perfection and speed. But after long discussion judges gave the victory to the German who managed to perform with his 2 best tricks -Toad and Double E-slider. I lost by 0,5 score. All viewers, participants and supporters could not believe that I had not advanced. In Double Elimination I had easily won over Rafael Cervero Climent from Valencia and then found myself facing Elton “Taty” Frans, very strong competitor from Bonaire, who surprisingly lost his first heat and should be in the first 8. We were fighting for all it is worth. I performed all my tricks, including faultless Burner and my favorite combo Double Spock, which I landed in strong windblast close to the shore between the waves – all around was in white froth and splashes – judges and viewers were excited! But as a result Taty advanced and I was 13th.

Olga Raskina also showed a good set of tricks in her heats – Spock, Grubby, Clew1st Spock and Puneta. In her first heat she lost to the newcomer PWA German Hayke Reimann. But in the Double Elimination Olga passed the favorite of this contest Laure Treboux, who did not show up, as she injured her arm in the Single Elimination competing with Iballa Ruano Moreno. And in the next heat Olga lost in a very difficult competition with Spanish Nayra Olonso. The heat was really close, but unfortunately our sailor did not advance and now sharing the 7th place.
Without any doubts best of all girls was the World Freestyle Champion Sarah-Quita Offringa from Aruba, who did not leave any chance to others by performing such tricks as Ponch, Air Flaka, Switch Chachoo and Kono. Daida Ruano Moreno is on the 2nd and the 3rd place is taken by Yoli de Brendt from Venezuela.
I`m, Yegor Popretinskiy, as an entire result of the 2 event of the PWA Freestyle World Cup, took 10th place in the overall ranking and Olga Raskina – the 8th!!!
After this contest Olga will fly to Egypt for training and work as an instructor in the “Five Squares” windsurfing school in Dahab. And I will fly to Rhodes, Greece, where from August 6 to August 13 JP-Australia Young Guns Freestyle Camp will take place and where together with the 3-times World Wave Champion Brazilian Kauli Seadi we will teach the kids freestyle moves.

Great thanks for the support to our sponsors – JP-Australia, NeilPryde, MFC, www.vtsport.ru, windsurfing school “Five Squares” www.go-dahab.ru, our friends, relatives, all our fans!

Results of PWA Fuerteventura Freestyle World Cup 2009:
Men:
1. Jose "Gollito" Estredo (V-01)
2. Everon "Tonky" Frans (NB-7)
3. Marcilio "Brawzinho" Browne (BRA-105)
7. Normen Gunzlein (G-186/JP/Neilpryde)
13. Yegor Popretinskiy (RUS-11/JP/NeilPryde/MFC)
17. Ian Mouro Lemos (BRA-85/JP/NeilPryde)
Women:
1. Sarah-Quita Offringa (ARU-91/NeilPryde)
2. Daida Ruano Moreno (E-64)
3. Yolanda Freites de Brendt (V-26)
7. Olga Raskina (RUS-14/JP/NeilPryde/MFC)

PWA overall ranking Freestyle Women 2009:
1. Sarah-Quita Offringa (ARU-91/NeilPryde)
2. Daida Ruano Moreno (E-64)
3. Junko Nagoshi (J-11)
8. Olga Raskina (RUS-14/JP/NeilPryde/MFC)

REPORT FROM PWA LANZAROTE FREESTYLE WORLD CUP 2009

2009-07-15T19:18:00.018+04:00

PWA windsurfing World Tour on Canary Islands was traditionally started on Costa Teguise beach in Lanzarote. The Opening ceremony was held in Sands Beach Hotel on July 29 in the evening. This year 32 male sailors and 11 female were registered for the contest.
So, the heats started. Japanese sailor Hiroumi Yoshida was appointed to be my first competitor, but he reported sick, so I passed my first heat without any troubles and appeared in the best 16. As a matter of fact it was found out later that he did not arrive at all and it was a miracle how the organizers added him to the list of participants. In the next heat I faced Antxon Otaegui – European Champion 2008, team rider of JP/NeilPryde International. I wanted to win very much! We competed equally well – we both performed several tricks in switch stance, front loop, shaka and ponch, but the Spanish landed high air chacho thus ruining all my efforts. There were some chances, but to defeat Antxon in his home island, in the first heat, in front of his sponsors and fans you should be at least twice better than him. The results of the 1st Single elimination did not surprise anyone. There was only one “new face” – Belgian Steven Van Broeckhoven, leader of the European Tour, all others are as usual Jose “Gollito” Estredo, Kiri Thode, Marcilio Browne, Antxon Otaegui, 5th position was shared by Steven, Frans brothers and Nicolas Akgazciyan.

Double Elimination started immediately. My first competitor was Francisco “Sassa” Teixeira from Brazil, who is now #7 in the European tour. I had not my best heat, fall several times, but managed to perform 4 tricks on every tack and passed to the next round. In my second heat I faced the champion of Italy Mattia Pedrani. Mattia is a very serious competitor especially in strong and disturbed wind. The heat was not easy, but the luck was not acting for Mattia. I performed very clear, being very confident in my tricks, no falls, good amplitude and high speed. I had advanced to 9-12 and had another opportunity to forward through the heat with Nikolas Akgazciyan, one of the best European freestylers. I was very focused, had several tricks in switch stance with diablo, air flaka, ponch, shaka one hand and culo, but the judges were very impressed by high table top into forward loop, great shove-it into spock, and spotless one handed Chacho performed by Nikolas at the end of the heat. Later on the shore he said that it was his best performance ever.
Our best Russian female freestyler Olga Raskina was not lucky in that day. In her first heat she had to face the famous Nayra Alonso. The wind was disturbed, with serious chop on the water, making the conditions very difficult. Nayra were falling a lot. Olga had a chance to advance if she had performed her program clearly, but Nayra was more successful. In the second round Olga was stopped by one of the favorites of this season Yoli De Brendt from Venezuela.
Just after that the second series began. I started in the first heat. And by chance again facing Teixeira, whom I defeated again. In the second round I had to compete against bonairian Tonky Frans. I was pretty confident with my moves, but Tonky landed spotless triple spock… it’s a shame… After second single elimination I am 9-16.
Olya Raskina competed with Nayra Alonso again and was very close to victory. Japanese Junko Nagoshi showed fantastic result advancing to the final and being defeated only by Sarah-Quita Offringa, Yoli de Brendt was 3rd, Laure Treboux – 4th.

Men’s heats were in the logical order. Anthony Ruenes (here he goes!) with his beautiful no-hand funnel pushed off Taty Frans and advanced to the best 8. In the third round both of my first day “bullies” - Otaegui and Akgazciyan were facing each other . This time the French was more successful - tweaked table top into push loop seemed to be a Roland for an Oliver against Antxon’s double flakas. The Spaniard was great but the judges had used all the reserve of the sympathy towards him in the first series.
Kiri Thode looked absolutely awesome: air funell into funnel, burner into flaka, planning kono, spock into culo. In the second semi-final 2 strongest sailors of 2009 were competing; Brawzinho against Gollito. Browne started with air chacho, Gollito replied with tweaked push loop, both were performing stylish and beautiful tricks of the top-level, but the judges put the style of the Brazilian ahead of slightly crumpled but somewhat more complex sailing of the World’s Champion. Bbrowne and Thode are in the final. Brawzinho had a total victory - double air funnell, air shaka, air chachoo, back loop were stylish and confident.
The last 2 days of the competition were exhausting. On July 3 wind was over 20m/s and the waves were the size of the mast. The contest started from early morning, at 10.30, but after first 2 heats the safety boat was crashed and judges’ cabin was almost demolished by the wind. Organizers called the maintenance, but the repair works took about 3 hours.
In the second Double Elimination when I was competing against Maarten Van Ochten after high ponch and high speed puneta my mast base was broken. My sail was fixed only by 2 safety strings designed just for emergency return from the water. I was falling, but still performing tricks - shaka, e-slider, front loop... Eventually Maarten landed air chacho that he just learnt and thus advanced from the heat.
After that I was staying on the beach waiting for the 3rd single. My heat was the last and again I had to compete with Teixeira. The beach was almost empty, the wind was disturbed, waves were frequent and broken, and sun was not very bright… Conditions were very complicated – I was using my JP freestyle 99 lt. and NeilPryde FireFly 4.1. I managed to land shaka only from 3rd attempt, then planning e-slider, flaka, front loop, spock, funnel and again, for the 3rd time defeated the Brazilian.
Olga Raskina competed with Iballa Moreno. Olga performed excellent spock on NeilPryde Zone 3.2, front loop on the starboard tack and fall down, then she tried on the port tack from the wave, but in the air decided not to close the sail and as a result wiped out having a half-mourning.
The next day wind was slightly weaker but the waves still 3-4 meters high. To be able to accomplish 3rd single and have 3rd Double judges appointed the skippers meeting at 9.00. At 9.30 the girls started the heats. Olga was facing Iballa Moreno, performed couple of tricks – spock, front loop on both tacks, tried other tricks and overpassed Iballa, who managed to land only front loop. Then Olga was competing against Sarah-Quita Offringa, who was brilliant as usual - shaka, switch kono, e-slider, flaka. In the first heat of 3rd Double Elimination Olga defeated Xenia Kessler from Denmark, but could not go through Yoli van Brendt from Venezuela. As a result Olga Raskina gained the honoured 9th rate in this competition.

In the 3rd Single I had to face Jose “Gollito” Estredo – 2 times World Champion, who was defeated in this contest only once by the eminent Marcilio Browne, but he did not show up to the heat. It seemed that he wanted to sleep and rest as after his 2 triumphs in 2 Double eliminations it was clear that he was the winner. It’s a pity but then I lost against Andre Paskowski who amazed the judges landing spotless high back loop highly valued in this competitions. 3rd Single closed with the victory of Kiri Thode in male contest, Tonky Frans 2nd with his new trick Bongka (Front loop into flaka) and in female - victory of Sarah-Quita Offringa, Junko Nagoshi is 2nd.
Single was followed by the lunch break and 3rd double started immediately after. I was competing with my room-mate Phil Soltysiak. We were equally - we both landed high shaka, I performed culo, he – toad, couple of good on handed switch moves, front loops, I - air flaka and high shove-it, he – switch flaka and flaka diablo… After long discussion judges decided that Phil advanced. He was very happy, I was glad for him as well. I was slightly disappointed of course, but finally I was 13th and he was 14th, which cheered me up.
Never the less, taking into consideration that I was not participating in any competitions for the entire year, my first start after long break was pretty successful. I repeated my best result in the PWA tour and think that I had impressed judges and competitors by the level of my sailing.
As for tradition the last day was closed with the victory ceremony on the Las Cucharas Beach. After the contest some of the sailors moved to Pozo for Wave World Cup contest, some - to Fuerteventura for training, some will go home to pass their tests in the Uni.
Olga, her boyfriend Andraz Zan from Slovenia and myself went to Fuerteventura for all August to be well prepared for the second leg of the PWA Freestyle World Tour - PWA Grand Slam Sotavento Fuerteventura 2009 that will be held on July 27 – August 1. Our good friend Anton Volgin joined us.

Thanks to all our sponsors (Vtsport/JP-Australia/NeilPryde/MFC/FiveSquares), fans, judges and PWA organizers! Aloha!

Results of PWA Costa Teguise World Cup 2009:
Men:
1. Jose “Gollito” Estredo
2. Kiri Thode
3. Antxon Otaegui (JP/NeilPryde/MFC)
11. Andy “Bubble” Chambers (JP/Neilpryde)
13. Yegor Popretinskiy (JP/NeilPryde/MFC)
15. Maarten van Ochten (JP/NeilPryde/MFC)
Women:
1. Sarah-Quita Offringa (NeilPryde)
2. Junko Nagoshi
3. Daida Ruano Moreno
9. Olga Raskina (JP/NeilPryde/MFC)

PWA COSTA TEGUISE WORLD CUP 2009

2009-06-28T20:37:00.006+04:00

A couple of days ago I arrived to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. In a few days this island will host to the first freestyle contest of the PWA Tour 2009 – The Costa Teguise World Cup.
I managed to catch 2 nice windy days on the water with my team mates Olya Raskina, Antxon Otaegui, Ian Mouro Lemos and Andy 'Bubble' Chambers. First start is in 2 days and now the wind is not strong enough, but forecasts are pretty promising. I share a room with Philip Soltysiak from Canada – he is the most Northern participant from the West, I am the same from the East, so we are forming together Northern Sail Unit. :)
Yesterday the local windsurf shop Windsurf Paradise organized a Rookie Cup, a fun race for all. We formed a team of some of the freestyle competitors including Andy Chambers, Leo Ray, Phil Soltysiak and myself. We ended up finishing in 3rd place behind a team of old school English sailors and a team of kids who enjoyed rubbing it in our faces. At least we each got a 2 hour spa session as a prize to relax before our competition. :)
Canary Islands is a special place having plenty of wind throughout the summer, that’s why it hosts many free independent people from all parts of the world enjoying windsurfing.
Moreover – Lanzarote was the place where suspects and prisoners were sent to exile (remember canary-bird?;)) that is why the attitude towards freedom, wind and sea is very special.
Nowadays it is the tourist paradise inhabited by crowds of free positive people from Europe and today most of them are the freestyle fans including my close friends.
After the competition most of the sailors will move to Fuerteventura for training before the second PWA contest.
Every time the lead up to World Tour contests is like the day before X-mass. I am absolutely happy to be here. YIPPEE!!!!!

Keep your fingers crossed for me!!!!!

BACK HOME AND NEW VIDEO ON-LINE

2009-06-03T00:31:00.009+04:00

My spring training is finally over.
I have finished one and half month training in Dahab, Egypt for almost every day. It was windy and we had shot a lot of pictures and video there. Andre Paskowski was shooting in Dahab his new video with Gollito Estredo and Marcilio Browne. And 3 Brazilian chaps were sailing there too what finally makes Dahab favorit spot for Latinos as well. Looks like everybody was training super hard and the levels grow really high, so the competition this summer would be very interesting!
This year I am planning to concentrate in PWA events only. Last year gave me good experience about training, travelling and competing. This year I would be better at Canaries.
Now I`m in Moscow for some weeks – I need to make my visa, meet my sponsors, organize my trip to Canary Islands for competitions and training, work with my pictures and video and to spend the remaining time at hometown St.-Petersburg.
My Russian sponsors are optimists. Yesterday we were talking for two hours that windsurfing industry is the best investment in the time of world financial crisis and global warming age :)).
So, now you can see my new action video, some of my latest pictures and the new beautiful video profile of Olga Raskina.

See you!

BACK TO LAGOON

2009-04-26T16:35:00.013+04:00

Hi guys and chicks!
For three days already wind is "switched on" in Dahab, and just the smallest sails are on the water. Now I moved from Assala to Lagoon and sail here with my friends. Here I`m using my JP-Australia 99 liters Freestyle board. In the morning I use my NeilPryde Firefly 4.5 - 4.9 and then sail on Firefly 4.1 for the whole day.
My team mate Olga Raskina is training and working here since winter and she is sailing on The Fly 3.6 and 90 liters Freestyle board. I know that her new video profile is coming soon. I can't wait to see it.
Laure Treboux - #3 in the world is here as well (btw - Happy Birthday Laura, though it`s a couple days late) - she is in good form and her tricks are of the top level. I saw her attempt of toad and burner - Sick!!! I was shocked already with her double spock that I saw in one of her latest video.
Niklas Strahlen is training also here - Swedish guy with very high level of windsurfing and his on style.
I would also mention our Russian riders-instructors from our windsurf centers - Dima Rasskazov, Vova Morozov, Sveta Martynova, Anton Kuptsov, Roma Hrutskiy, Dima Chertyshniy – we are training together and I see how their level is improving day by day. Well done!
Cheers!

DAHAB - ASSALA - THE ROCKS

2009-04-18T22:54:00.018+04:00

Hello friends,
I`m in Dahab , Egypt for one and half weeks already and just sailing in the new spot in Assalah called “the Rocks”. This place was discovered by my friends Daniel Isichenko (RUS-411), John Yutaev (RUS-211) and Shamil Ageev (RUS-17) and I had heard a lot about this spot during Dahab Freestyle Week 2009. After trying to sail here for the first time I would like to surf only there - excellent conditions for freestyle practics and really cool waves in high tide. I am sure that this spot will become very popular and I am proud to invite everybody to enjoy it.
Thanks to Valera Pistriy for the pictures.
Cheers!

WELCOME TO MY OFFICIAL BLOG

2009-04-04T15:22:00.009+04:00

My name is Yegor Popretinskiy, I am from St.-Petersburg, Russia. I windsurf already for 9 years. In the beginning I was competing in Russian national race events only but 5 years ago my life changed to freestyle. I had being training a lot in Egypt and became best Russian freestyler. In 2006 and 2007 I took first place in Russian national freestyle event in Egypt “Russian Wave in Africa”.

Last year I took part in all events of European Cup (EFPT) and World Cup (PWA). In overall ranking 2008 I am 6^th in EFPT and 12^th in PWA. This winter I already spent for training 2,5 month in El Yaque, island Margarita, Venezuela. Now my body, brain and spirit are on “rehabilitation” in Moscow. In next week I have a flight to Dahab, Egypt and I will stay there till the middle of May. There I am planning to train full power again, make a lot of photos and film new video for my youtube channel.

Enjoy my last Venezuelian video and photos.

See you soon at the water!