Some Racing and Industry news

Hi
You will probably have noticed from the Tabou and Gaastra sites that Ross Williams won the 2014 Formula Windsurfing Championship in the Azores.  His equipment is clearly working properly - the new Vapor formula board, his Elk fins and the new GA Vapor sails and masts.  Nice one Ross and impressive work Peter and Fabien.  I read that the conditions were really tough with vicious gusts interspersed with lulls.  Unpleasant but Ross just squirted along with each gust and powered through the lulls, taking everyone else to school.

IFCA also ran their 2014 slalom championship in the Azores.  Ben van der Steen won easily on his Manta 116/GA Vapor 8.6 and iFins Streetracer 40cm fin.  If you go to Continentseven they have a video of the final race.  This performance has to dispel any doubts about the potential of the new GA Vapors and Tabou Mantas.  I have a slight reservation because Antoine, Bjorn, Peter Volwater, Micah, Finian etc did not compete but there were plenty of other hot racers.  Only Matteo Iachino (Fanatic and North) managed to hang with Ben for a while but by the last leg was way back.  Everyone else was simply not in the race!  I await the first PWA slalom races with real interest.  The performances of Ross and Ben have me excited about the new GA/Tabou lines.  The new softer top GA race masts (I have been crying for this for years!) have resulted in beautifully manageable sails.  Add the fantastic new Manta shapes into the mix and you have a potential for something very special.

Eric Kamminga e-mailed me about Chris Lockwood's new fin line.  The first models are all G10 at this stage but he says that carbon fins will follow.  Here is the link to the site for Tribal Windsurfing - Chris's company  http://www.tribalwindsurfing.com/   I note that the slalom shapes appearing on the site are his Series One fins.  I like his Series Two fins with their shark fin plan form.  Very cool and highly rated by the guys who sail them.  Chris, as you are probably aware, is one hot designer and is also one of the fastest guys on the water so I have huge respect for his designs.

Hopefully these blades find their way into the Tribal range soon

Talk to you soon