National Windsurfing Week are appreciative to advertise the aboriginal UK Premiere in a British cinema of The Windsurfing Movie.

 

"The Windsurfing Movie" at The Prince Charles Cinema abreast Leicester Square in London, on the black of Tuesday 29th April. This will be the first, and apparently only, befalling to see what abounding feel to be the best blur anytime fabricated about windsurfing on a big screen.

 

Tickets for the assuming are £10 each, and can be appointed in beforehand by calling the box appointment on 0870 811 2559, or purchased on the aperture accountable to availability.

 

All profits will be donated to the RNLI.

 

Doors accessible at 6.00pm with the blur actuality credible at 6.45pm

 

The Windsurfing Movie is assertive to be windsurfing's defining film. Directed by accolade acceptable cinematographer Johnny DeCesare of Poor Boyz Productions and featuring the best riders in windsurfing history—The Windsurfing Movie conveys the adorableness of Windsurfing in ablaze 16mm film.

 

How does an 11-year-old kid from a baby landlocked boondocks in Oregon become admired as the best freesailor in the world? The Windsurfing Movie activity follows Red Bull amateur Levi Siver in his decade continued advance to the top of windsurfing. Using never afore credible footage from Levi's childhood, The Windsurfing Movie will bang a bond with anyone who has anytime dared to dream—and watched that dream about-face into article more.

 

What will bodies bethink about Levi Siver's windsurfing career? Contest results, a Apple Title—we don't know. Siver likens himself to a artist whose music withstands the analysis of time. Every beachcomber credible in The Windsurfing Movie is a adventitious for Levi to appearance what windsurfing can be!

 

Jason Polakow's resume includes acceptable aback to aback Wavesailing Apple Titles in 1997-98. But those achievements are overshadowed by the access of Polakow's appearance on the action itself. Polakow revolutionized the windsurfing apple with powerful, tweaked aerials and is amenable for the actualization of the pin appendage as the appearance of best for windsurfing boards. But one moment can change everything—and no one knows that bigger than Polakow. After a abominable motocross crash, doctors said Polakow may never airing after a limp, let abandoned windsurf again. A year after Polakow won in the finals of the PWA Hawaii Pro adjoin Apple Champion

 

The Windsurfing Movie< activity is a adventitious for Polakow to analysis the boundaries of wavesailing. Polakow's sites are set on windsurfing the best able after-effects in the apple and Poor Boyz Windsurfing will be there to abduction the images.

 

At 12 year's old, Kai Lenny is windsurfing's beneficiary apparent. Not back the again 13 year-old Robby Naish won his aboriginal appellation has there been a added heralded adolescent windsurfer. The affiliation amid Lenny and his idol Robby Naish is undeniable—with identical accessory and absolute talent.

 

Lenny afraid assemblage at this year's Aloha Classic as he rode behemothic after-effects with a aplomb able-bodied above his years. Kai's accustomed adeptness is guided by a admiring ancestors and molded by the sailors he's developed up with. His appetence for windsurfing is catching and scenes from The Windsurfing Movie will draw kids to the sport.

 

Any acceptable windsurfing adventure charge accommodate Robby Naish. During the common bang of windsurfing in the 1980's, Naish was absolutely dominant. His account of achievements includes 24 apple championships and rivals any ability in sports history.

 

Naish's windsurfing career started in his, and the sports adolescence—his aboriginal titles happened in a time back windsurfing booms were fabricated of wood! Back asked to accompany The Windsurfing Movie project, Naish had one capital condition—that the blur isn't a attendant "Robby Naish Story." Robby capital an befalling to windsurf in the best locations and captain with his friends. After lugging accessory about the apple for two decades, area does Naish appetite to go? Mauritius, Cape Verde, Japan, and Tahiti to name a few…

The next stop of the PKRA Kiteboarding World Tour will be the city of Leucate, located in the southwestern coast of France.

 

From April 12 to 18th, more than 50 world-class kiteboarding athletes from all over the world will be competing at the renowned Mondial du Vent, the most prestigious kiteboarding event in Europe. This is the first time that the PKRA World Tour competition will be held in France and the addition of Mondial du Vent to the ever expanding realm of the PKRA solidifies the Tour's credibility as having the best kiteboarding events in the world.

 

More than 160,000 people are expected to grace the event with a full week of fun-filled and exciting kiteboarding and windsurfing actions.

 

The best kiteboarders in North and South America, Europe, Australia and other parts of the world will be battling it out for a chance at the €45,000 purse and will be competing in three disciplines - Freestyle, Course Racing and Long Distance.

 

Freestyle is an exciting kiteboarding discipline where riders are rated by a full panel of international judges based on technical difficulties and hard core style. Course Racing brings the best kiteboard racers in the world challenging each other in a series of racing events on a preconfigured course.

 

In the Long Distance event, riders start in a pack and race to the finish line in a format of 20 kms.

 

Reigning Freestyle World Champion Aaron Hadlow (United Kingdom) and last year's runner-up Kevin Langeree (Netherlands) are once again expected to give an all-out performance for a shot at this year's world championship title.

 

Also among the roster of world-class professional kiteboarders competing at the second PKRA tour stop this year will be Alvaro Onieva and Cesar Portas who both hail from Spain, Rui Meira (Portugal), France's own Etienne Lhote, Sebastien Garat and Florian Daubos.

 

Current long distance world champion Bruno Sroka, Kitespeed world record holder and French kitespeed record holder Alexandre Caizergues, as well as Fabienne D'Ortoli and Sjouke Bredenkamp will be competing for the Course Racing and Long Distance events.

 

PKRA World Champion Gisela Pulido (Spain), Jalou Langeree (Netherlands) and Bruna Kajiya (Brazil) are also expected to compete in the women's freestyle event.

 

The Mondial du Vent 2008 is organized by the Office de Tourisme de Leucate in partnership with the Professional Kiteboard Riders Association.

 

SOURCE: Extreme Elements

Good news and a campaign victory from Scotland! Following pressure from several environmental groups, including SAS, Forth Ports have made the decision not to allow Russian tankers to transfer oil in the Firth of Forth.

 

The decision came only a few weeks after Shipping Minister Jim Fitzpatrick told the House of Commons that the Government would be bringing forward a consultation on regulating ship-to-ship transfers of hazardous substances in UK waters – a move welcomed by SAS.

 

Because of its twin role as plc and harbour authority, SAS believed it entirely inappropriate that Forth Ports had been both promoter and regulator of SPT Marine's scheme to transfer up to 7.8 million tonnes of Russian oil into ultra large crude carriers en route to the United States and the Far East. They were also set to benefit financially from the contract.

 

The Russian export blend crude oil had been described as very dense, thick oil, making it particularly persistent in the event of a spillage and a big threat to the Firth of Forth.

 

A Scottish Green Party investigation had previously found SPT were responsible for spilling around 35,000 gallons of oil in the Gulf of Mexico - but failed to disclose the information when providing official evidence to the Scottish Parliament. In written evidence to the parliament the company, SPT Marine, claimed an "excellent" record on ship-to-ship oil transfers by only referring to incidents dated after the shocking oil spill in 1995.

 

SAS campaigners were involved in several actions against the proposal and were on hand to present a petition to Forth Ports at their agm last year calling for them to say 'NO' to the proposal. We also made a 'Star Wars' inspired campaign film called Forth Wars that was watched by hundreds of people including some of Forth Ports shareholders!

 

The Firth of Forth is an exceptional marine environment and is highly valued by its many recreational water users, many of which use the water all year round and all of whom will delight in this decision!

 

May the Forth be with you always!

 

SOURCE: SAS

The MauiSails team is now complete and ready for action with the recent signing of Dan Ellis from the UK. Dan has been part of the strong UK contingent for the past few racing season's, winning the Asian Windsurfing tour, and finishing strongly in the PWA Racing events.

 

Dan is now spending the majority of his time on Maui during the off season and will be assisting with testing, and will be able to join in the Team's vigorous training sessions on Maui.

 

Dan had this to say about joining Maui Sails: "I'm really excited to join the MauiSails Team. At the end of last season I packed up all my belongings in England and moved to Maui so I could train and be in the best possible environment for success.

 

At today's PWA events you need the best possible equipment to make it to the top, and MauiSails provides that. The chance for me to work alongside Barry Spanier and Phil McGain, two of the best race technicians in the sport is what excites me the most.

 

They have been making world beating sails for longer than I've windsurfed and I'm looking forward to joining them at the beach, testing and making a contribution to the development".

 

Dan's first event on MauiSails will be the DEFI wind long distance race in France, then after that he'll be off to Korea for the PWA racing event.

 

SOURCE: Maui

The 2008 Portugal Windsurfing Grand Prix will take place in Sines, between the 6th and 10th May.

 

This is an important year for windsurfing. The Formula Windsurfing Grand Prix series goes global. Where better to start the world tour than in Portugal, home of so many international events and championships.

 

At this years Sines-Portugal Grand Prix we will be unveiling our bid to represent olympic windsurfing in 2012: the Formula One-Design.
Overpower have consistantly delivered quality events; and we look forward to a long association with the municipality of Sines.

 

Check out the NoticeOfRace

 

SOURCE: IWA

Tarifa, often called the European capitol of windsurfing didn't disappoint us at all. What more an you wish for the first event in a new season? Nothing!!! Sure a second double elimination would have been great, sure a bit more stable condition would have made it easier but as windsurfers we're used to life with compromise and what we got here again was just perfect!!! No doubt…

 

Normen takes home a lot of points for the overall title, that's for sure. He is the one that the guys will be chasing now but as the young German is a pro he will handle the pressure for sure. Competing for many years on the tour, having a lot of experience he will take good care to stay in leading position.

 

Kevin Mevissen (RRD) on the second place is fully on fire, coming to Spain he had not much freestyle practise on his account, you might say none. His awesome performance on the water infected him again and its clear that we will see him on some other efpt stops as well.

 

Antxon Otaegui (JP/NP) takes the third place, amazing start for the Spanish rider. Coming from the cannaries you can't say that he's a local so it was not easier for him at all to compete here and the third place shows how well Antxon is prepared and motivated to go on tour this year.

 

The man of the event has to be Steven van Broeckhoven though, almost unknown to European riders he kinda appeared out of nowhere, eliminating big names all over the ladder. The Belgian magazine cant wait to get him close for some interviews and reports how he did but we can tell you straight away: GREAT!!!

 

The first event of a season is always a good place to see what to expect over the rest of the season. In this case Tarifa was amazing, the well known riders in the event have to watch out for the newcomers and also know now which moves they need to get in first positions.
so the next weeks before Podersdorf will be full of practising and preparing for that one, especially as it will be a combination with the PWA.

 

We sort of had a foretaste of what to expect, Raimondo Gasperini (Starboard), who was practising in Jeri this year started a project to support young talents and he brought some brasilian hotshots as well as Italiian styler to the Andalusian beach. The X-Ray project is fantastic; supporting riders to give them some event experience is just great. Although the brasillians cant become European Champion obviously they still improve their contest sills and push the level massive…

 

Wow, we had a immense competition fleet and its so hard to mention all riders, 35 riders from 15 nations hit the water leaving impressed spectators behind. Moves like double flaka, ponch, switch chachoos, super high shakas seem to become standard and if a rider is not able to do it at the beginning of the event he practises them between the heats and shows (or tries to show) it in his next heat. The excitement in this competition was amazing so if you have the chance to visit a event near you, that's definitely something you should do.

 

As the forecast for the last day was not good the complete (and it was complete) efpt family met at the "café del mar" in tarifa city. A super nice place, stylish as hell so it was just the perfect place to celebrate the start of the tour and the end of the event. The group went crazy all night and could only be stopped by the fact that the police shut down the place in the morning hours. Nevertheless the guys continued in tarifa downtown and surprisingly were all present at the today's super session at one pm. For the last time in this year they showed the crowds on the beach what first class freestyle is all about!!! Smiling faces all over the place showed once again that they're not just amazing competitors but a bunch of good friends who live for this sport, travel the continent and just want to know who will be the best in the end.

 

Hard to say our "good buys" once again to the friendly people who organize the event and support us with all we need to run the competition. But gypsies as we are we have to go and can only promise to be back next year…

 

As great and fantastic it was the stories told around the world about tarifa and the region of Andalusia will be just the best. We highly recommend this place to everyone in Europe and around the world. Every windsurfer and kitesurfer who wants to have a good time, great conditions and stay in a place which is fully addicted to water sport will be damn happy to come here!!!

 

RESULTS:

 

01 Günzlein Normen GER G-186 JP/NP
02 Mevissen Kevin NED H 79 RRD
03 Otaegui Antxon ESP E-169 JP/NP
04 Van Broeckhoven Steven BEL B72 F2
05 Roßmeier Michael AUT AUT 256 Exocet/the Loft
06 Popretinskiy Egor RUS RUS-11 JP/NP
07 de Weerd Remko NED H-23 Tabou/Gaastra
07 Paskowski Andre GER G-2 Fantic/North Sails
09 da silva danilo menez BRA bra 83 Fanatic/North Sails
09 Olandersson Andreas SWE S-66 Fanatic/Simmer Style
09 Stråhlén Niklas SWE S-4444 RRD/Simmer Style
09 Sumereder Michael AUT AUT-9 RRD/North
13 Akgazcyan Nicolas FRA F 400 Starboard/Gun Sails
13 Kosmowski Jakub POL POL 288 Tabou/Gaastra
13 souza de pedro edvan BRA bra 250
13 Žan Andraž SLO SLO 49 RRD/the Loft
17 De Rycker Roeland BEL B67 The Loft
17 Dixon Colin GBR k 99 Tabou/Gaastra
17 Forstenlechner Lorenz AUT Aut-7 F2
17 Janssen Kenny BEL B34
17 Kruse Stefan GER G 360 F2
17 Petrisie Ruben/Bang NED NB-50 Exocet/the Loft
17 Slabe Tine SLO SLO 6 F2/Naish
17 Spadea Nicola ITA I 44 Starboard
25 Alvarez Mauricio AUT AUT 86 Tabou/Gaastra
25 Caers Jelle BEL B 47 F2/the Loft
25 Caers Rolien BEL B74 F2
25 Pollet Arthur FRA BRA218
25 scheuble pete SUI sui 969 JP/NP
25 Seyss Alexander AUT aut-61 Naish/Naish
25 teixeira francisco samuel BRA bra 64 Starboard
33 Cervero Rafael ESP E-13 The Loft
33 Gasperini Raimondo ITA i 157 Starboard
33 Van der Eyken Dieter BEL B35 Starboard

 

SOURCE: EFPT

Kite Gen is pioneering a revolution on how to produce clean energy from wind, with the aim not only to compete within the current wind industry but, as still too rarely happens with renewable sources, to move the battlefield into the territory of fossil fuels.

 

Today's technology is just capable of scratching the surface, in few favourable points, of the enormous energy field contained into the wind (see Wind data). Wind turbines cannot reach higher and touch altitude wind, they are already close to their dimensional limits: difficultly hubs can be positioned at more than 100 m above the ground, the holding structure grows exponentially heavier, more unstable and above all more expensive with the height.

 

This situation may be compared with what happened in oil drilling, where only after having found better and better solutions it was possible to move away from the ground - downwards, in this case - and to reach the deepest and most profitable fields. To help visualizing the existing unexploited potential, just consider that the flight prohibited area over a nuclear power plant can easily get to contain 1 GW of wind power, equal to the power of the plant itself.

 

To reach altitude wind and exploiting its higher kinetic energy, the Kite Gen project starts from a radical change of perspective: no longer heavy and static plants like current wind turbines, but instead light, dynamic and intelligent ones. In the air, to subtract energy from the wind at an altitude of 800 / 1 000 m, power kites, semi-rigid automatically piloted high efficiency air foils. On the ground, all the heavy machinery for power generation. To connect the two systems, high resistance lines transmitting the traction of the kites and at the same time controlling their direction and angle to the wind.

 

SOURCE: Kite Gen