It was time to loose some weight after the PWA Tiberias in Israel to switch from the slalom- to the IQ Foil- and freestyle discipline. Instead of staying in The Netherlands, I decided that no better place to bring down my weight was on home on Bonaire. Together with my coach in the gym and the balanced diet I could loose 8 kilo’s in 16 days to return back to Europe to focus on the new Olympic discipline in windsurfing : IQ Foil.
Coach Alison Maria of the Voyage of Succes Fitness Corner Bonaire
With a stop at my grandparents in Bavaria, Germany where the brand new Future Fly IQFOil boards were delivered and I could continue to Lake Garda to join TeamNL and many others to train on the foilmachines.
As Bonaire is a part of The Netherlands, and NB is not recognized by Worldsailing I had to register a NED – sailnumber to compete in the Worldchampionship IQ Foil at Lake Silvaplana in Switserland.
Apart of the NB20 , I will sail under NED-2020 in those events where NB is not valid.
As a huge amout of riders registered for the event in Silvaplana , I decided to be there early to get a good spot for my van and prepare the last details. A massive thanks to the Albana Hotel & Arsa Lodge and Christian Mueller ( event-organiser) for the complementary room. This was the 5th year in a row for me in Silvaplana and everytime I’m amazed by the scenery and the beautiy of the mountain-scenery.
I was invited to sail at the exhibitiorace in Sint Moritz on Sunday August 15th and out of the 12 selected riders I could earn a 2nd place. It was a good warming up for the big event…..and big it was. 157 men and 72 women at the start.
Besides the IQ Foil Worldchampionship, I also registered for the EFPT Tow-in competition .
Tow in freestyle is not my favorite discipline, but it’s always great to entertain the audience and it was great to see some of my freestyle-collegues again after some time as due to COVID-19 many events were/are cancelled.
Monday August 16th was registration day and get the equipment ready with stickering etc.
Tuesday and Wednesday unfortunately not enough wind for racing.
Thursday August 19th right after the skippersmeeting we could start racing. I can tell you it was crowded on the water and at the startlines. 6 races (Course-racing) were done and I had some good results and by the end of the day in a top 10 position.
I was unlucky someone crashed in one race and from there I got acquainted with the process of protests and redess in this format of windsurfing. Not really my thing but a nessecitity to keep or get your scores right.
My equipment was excellent. With the Severne Sails, the brandnew Future Fly IQ Foil-board and Starboard Foil I had a perfect set of gear.
Friday Augustus 20 we continued with some course racing and also slalom. Again some good and very bad results, a disqualification and a redress but still in the top and happy about that.
Saturday the wind picked up on time and the big fleet headed out again for the battle. I felt a bit tired from the day before as the redress and protest from the day before took a while , missed dinner and had a bad night sleep I resigned for the Tow-in final to have my energy and focus for that all important 12th or better spot to get into the medalrace . Sailing top 10 again in the last races of that day and fought hard, you can image how disappointed I was to learn by the end of the day that I missed out on the medalrace by 0.8 points. Knowing that I need some more training, coaching and competition experience in this format this was a huge bummer but on the otherside a 13th place out of 157 men is something though.
The last day , the medal race was exciting to see and a congratulations go out to the new IQ Foil Worldchampion Nicolas Goyard and Helen Noesmoen both from France.
As for the EFPT Tow in : 2 days of qualifying runs and could reach the final of which I had to resign due to the tight schedule and focus for the IQFoil Worlds. I ended therefore in a 5th place. It was fun and a pleasure to have given the audience a good show.
A massive thanks to my sponsors, the event-organisers especially Christian Mueller, TeamNL coach Koops, family and friends for all the support. It was a week full of action, excitement , new experiences and for all fun.
Next up is Photoshoot time with the Future Fly team on Lanzarote, adrenaline at the Formule1 in Zandvoort , to Rhodos for the EFPT Freestyle-event and back to IQ foil train at Lake Garda before heading to Marseille for the next European Championship IQ Foil in Marseille.
A full agenda but passion pushes one to reach all goals.
I will keep you up to date.
Cheers and once more thanks for you confidence in me and support.
Amado
NB20/NED2020
Pictures by : John Carter – SailingEngergy – Emmanuela Cauli Photography
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