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| The Gran Canaria Vargas, Aguimes PWA Wave World Cup 2003 | | Posted On: 30/04/2003 | |
| The Gran Canaria Vargas, Aguimes PWA Wave World Cup 2003 Registration Day
Tuesday April 29, 2003
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Setting the stage for an awesome forthcoming event, the forecast for the Gran Canaria – Vargas, Aguimes PWA Wave World Cup 2003 is for strong winds and big surf! As a low pressure system tears northern Europe apart, a huge swell is pumping south due to hit the north east coast of Gran Canaria right on cue for the start of what is potentially the most exiting year in PWA Wave history.
This year’s title race is wide open and the opportunity for a new world champion has never been stronger since the ‘young guns’ of freestyle have matured into hardened and experienced competitors over the past two seasons.
And there’s big news and upset for this event and for the whole season as last years world champion, Kevin Pritchard (Starboard / Gaastra) and regular top three ranking sailor Nik Baker (Mistral / North) are both absent from Vargas with broken feet, the almost trend setting, trade mark injury of modern windsurfers going for double loops and contorted freestyle tricks.
Also, the Wave Champion of 2000 Francisco Goya (Fanatic / Arrows) has taken a step back from competition for 2003. With these guys wiped out of the picture, the opportunity for other sailors to take the title is so greatly increased, there’s a distinctively more professional and enthusiastic push from all the world tour sailors, both the old guard and especially the new school of wave sailors.
This new wave crew are the radical generation, from Robby Swift (JP / Neil Pryde) the hard core competitor and freestyle power man from England, to Ty Bodycoat (Starboard) and Luke Walmsley (Starboard) the laid back west coast Australian rippers, and the tricky South Americans Kauli Seadi (AHD / Naish) and Ricardo Campello (JP / Neil Pryde). But the man to look out for this week has to be Jonas Cabellos (Fanatic / Gaastra), the born and bred Gran Canarian local famous for his mind blowingly high back loops and his gravity defying tweaked table tops known now as ‘Ninja Kicks’!
The old guard can’t be ruled out either. There’s the serious chances of Bjorn Dunkerbeck (Proof / Neil Pryde), another local and the undisputed king of windsurfing taking back a world champion title that eluded him for the first time in over a decade last year. Married with kids now though might have taken the edge off his hard core competitiveness, opening up chances for Vidar Jensen (North), another Gran Canarian local to pounce on the world title that he’s come so close to before but never owned.
This time last year, one of the main contenders for the world title, Jason Polakow (JP/ Neil Pryde), missed this event due to injury and therefore his chance to fight for world supremacy. Despite a series of horrific injuries he’s staggering back this year and has a serious chance of ripping it up on the water, despite hardly being able to walk on land.
Scotty McKercher (Starboard) is known to his mates as ‘Gramps’ having to wear both a back brace and a knee brace just to hold him together, neither of which will hold back his aggressive gauges and all round sick wave riding though, which has got him the number three seed here at Vargas, just behind the Hawaiian Josh Angulo, who’s not been out of the top four here in Gran Canaria for the last few years.
And there’s more, in fact there’s so many wave sailors now who could potentially take the world title this year either through double loops, getting tricky busting out new school moves or just hard core lip smacking gauging wave riding, this years title truly has no favorites.
The women’s championship is up for grabs too as both Karin Jaggi (F2 / Arrows) and Anne-Marie Reichman (Naish / Naish) have been in serious port tack training this winter in Australia, stepping up to the insanely high pace set by the Gran Canarian local twins Daida and Iballa Ruano Moreno (Mistral / North).
This week will set the trend for both the men’s and the women’s 2003 world titles and there’s a seriously good forecast, so tune in tomorrow for the first day of PWA Vargas and see the PWA action live and direct on www.high.tv with ground breaking broadband technology bringing the speed, the height, the wipe outs and the power of wave sailing right to you online daily. Bring it on!
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