As the DTM track of Zandvoort is just behind the dike it is a perfect place to do the first steps with the kite and the race is always very exciting as the track goes through the sanddunes.

The weekend being with lots of wind and rain squalls and showers was super interesting and full of action. Dirk took a taxi ride with last years Thomas Sabo Racecar in order to feel the real speed on the race track. Then being guest of Mercedes Benz Team he had the chance to visit the Box of the team during warm up and pitstop.

The walk right before the start of the race through the grid and a meet and greet with Garry Paffet, leader of the current DTM championships, was as exciting as watching the thrilling racing.

Unfortunately the Fotoshoot of DTM racecar meets Kitesurf did not work out because of to many rainshowers and a too tight schedule on the racetrack. To be continued at one of the next venues.

photo Mercedes-Benz

Making off ARD and DTM TV

Pitstop of Garry Paffett

In the windsurfing Team it was 41 world title holder Björn Dunkerbeck, Karin Jaggi 15 times PWA world champion and windsurf speed world record holder together with Patrik Diethelm the fastest shaper in the Windsurf world.

Foto Engadinwind/Marc von Swoll

In the kite team it was Steph Bridge 4 time course race world champion, together with Dirk Hanel, course race production master class world champion and German outright speed record holder und former nautical mile world record holder. The kite team was decorated with Ueli Kestenholz snowboard world champion and X-games winner, who is a passionate kiter and full on crazy extreme sports man! Also young gun Olly Bridge, son of Steph was in the kiteteam!

In the sailing team the strong Moth specialists Mathis Renker , 4 times Alinghi Swiss Tour Match Race winner and 7 time Swiss champion as well as Phillip Käsermann. They where joined by the German two champions in Moth sailing Markus Steeg and Nina Zühlke.

Every Team was also joined by local Heros and Riders in the different sports categories.

Sunday after the 35 th Engadin Wind Marathon was finished with a sensation as for the first time ever the two Kitesurfers Olli Bridge and Dirk Hanel where faster then the Windsurfers the start for two slalom races of the best of three was done.

foto Engadinwind/ Marc von Swoll

As all sailors already had the 42 km Marsthon in the bones two slalom races where started. In the first one the windsurfers with Björn Dunkerbeck,  Nicklolas Warenbourg and Patrik Diethelm where dominating, but there was a small incident on the starting line of slalom 1 that slowed Dirk Hanel down massively and he could only catch up to position 4.

Second slalom then all good a good and clean start and Dirk was right in there on the first jibe mark with Björn and Nicklas. Then on mark three dirk overtook the Windsurfers in the jibe and with having same or maybe even a bit faster downwind speed he held on to the victory in the second slalom. This was a great success for Dirk being able to beat Björn who is also currently leading the Slalom Tour of the PWA this year and also Karin Jaggi leading the tour in slalom it was great for Steph to beat her in the direct comparison. Then a big rainstorm came and with a good forecast for day 2 we all called the day.

foto Engadinwind/ Marc von Swoll

Day two of the Best of three started out with 4 CourseRaces where again Olly Bridge and Dirk Hanel dominated the races taking all wins and three of the 2^nd places in all races.

The starts where always really exciting and sometimes close calls! Then the complete fleet was literally flying towards the other side of the lake. Most races the kiters where faster and still had a very good upwind angle, while the Moths had an incredible upwind angle the combination of angle and speed gave the advantage to the kiters. So after 4 races Olly was in first and Dirk in second followed by Mathias Renker in the Moth in 3^rd place.

Last but not least was the discipline speed. All athletes where going for it. The judging tower was equipped with a speed gun and communication display for all of us to see the maximum speeds! The wind was getting a bit gusty and with big holes so it was hard for all athletes to line up perfect and get the fastest runs in! In the end it was best speed by Björn Dunkerbeck with 60,3 km/h followed in second place by Patrik Diethelm, the fastest shaper in the world with 59,3 km/h and Kitesurfer Dirk Hanel and winner of the speed last year with 57 km/h. unfortunately the kites which performed so well in racing and also slalom just where not perfect for the speed due to an to flat profile.

After the speed discipline the organizers where happy with all the action and called it the event. Team Kitesurf took a great Victory in the team category for sure also because of the great performance of Steph Bridge beating Karin Jaggi in each discipline and also Kitersurfer Dirk Hanel taking the win in the Individual Ranking.

At the end of the two days everyone had such a great time and we all agreed this has to be repeated in the next year with some more refined rules, maybe also at other places and in different conditions  but for sure the same fun and enthusiastic teams like this year!

Final Results:

Team BEST of 3

1. Kitesurf Team
2. Windsurf Team
3. Sailing Team

Individual BEST of 3

1. Dirk Hanel                       8 points
2. Patrik Diethelm          10 points
3. Björn Dunkerbeck      11 points
4. Olly Bridge                    12 points
5. Steph Bridge                 26 points

11.  Karin Jaggi                    30 points

Foto Engadinwind / Marc von Swoll

In the end, both the Marathon and the “Best of 3″ competition (a combination of Speed, Slalom and Course Racing) were dominated by the kiteboarding fleet.

It has been the battle for the past years to finally win the Marathon over the windsurfers and this year it was about time. With a two minute ahead Start the Windsurfing Fleet went on the course followed by the Kitesurfers and then the sailors. Throughout the complete 4 laps over the lake it was Dirk Hanel (GER, North) that was always a bit ahead of 15 year old Oliver Bridge (GBR, North) and Martin Mike (SUI North/Ozone). Finally in the last upwind Dirk Hanel did two small mistakes running into a wind hole and giving away the lead to Olly who then won the 35th edition of the “Engadinwind Surfmarathon” in 46 minutes and 27 seconds ahead of Dirk Hanel (GER, North) and Martin Mike (SUI, North/Ozone). Best Windsurfer was Nicolas Warembourg (FRA, JP/NeilPryde) in 48.31 minutes, best Sailor on his Moth was Philip Käsermann (SUI, Mach2/KA). Also Steph Bridge (GBR, North) with a finishing time of 52 minutes and 29 seconds was the fastest lady on the lake.

“It was a great match and battle between Olly , Mike and me throughout the race, but when I realized that we had passed the fastest windsurfers that had started 2 minute ahead of us the win was almost secondary for me. I knew we had finally beaten the windsurfers on this lake and in this fantastic race! I was here for the 4^th time to reach the goal and Olly, Mike and me where finally faster then the Windsurfers.” Hanel commented after a successful day at lake Silvaplana.

Foto Engadinwind / Marc von Swoll

Foto Engadinwind/ Marc von Swoll

Together with testimonial Nico Rosberg and World Champion Snowboarding Amelie Kober the night in Berlin was alot of fun. The musical high light of the night was  life act  Pat Appleton with the band ” De Phazz” .

To be continued at the Inhorgenta 2012 in Munich in February.

The main event was Saturdays Downwind Race where 204 Windsurfers and 82 Kitersurfer have been registered for a rabbit start to go on the 5 exhausting long downwind legs over the fjord. The Start was in front of the event side in Hvide Sande and the finish across the fjord in front of the city of Ringkobing. The course was a good 30 to 35 kms long and all athletes started together behind the two jet skis running the starting line! Soon there was a battle going on of the fastest windsurfers and the fastest kiters. The race was followed by a camera crew in a helicopter which made it really exciting. Only bad part of the day was that the weather did not give us sunshine. It got almost foggy and it was hard to see where the next mark was. But the organization played it perfect and had a powered speed boat leading to leading pack of windsurfers and kiters to the next marks!

In the end it was the windsurfers again that won the race overall but there has been some close and great fighting for the places. In the Kitesurfing it was Björn that we could not stop! He had a slightly smaller board that was for sure more relaxed to rider then the course raceboards that the NKB Team was on, but he was then followed by James Johnsen Team NKB and Dirk Hanel in the Master category. In Juniors Florian Gruber was killing it and won by a good distance!

I had a bit of bad luck the dayof the race just 10 minutes before the start I picked up my bar on the beach and a bee stung me right into the inside of my hand! So everytime I wanted to really power up my kite on the racecourse my hand felt like it was exploding so I was sailing two of the five legs with almost just one hand! Crazy how a little creature can handicap you for such a race!

 A lot of the athletes then used the organized shuttle to get back to the event side while the top kiters all decided to race back up wind through the fog. It was amazing to see amateurs and pros competing together in such a format and having so many athletes on the water. For sure I will go back there next year and hope for even better weather!

In the windsurfing Team it was 41 world title holder Björn Dunkerbeck, Karin Jaggi 15times PWA world champion and windsurf speed world record holder together with Patrik Diethelm the fastest shaper in the Windsurf world.

In the kite team it was Steph Bridge 4 time course race world champion, together with Dirk Hanel, course race production master class world champion and German outright speed record holder und former nautical mile world record holder. The kite team was decorated with Tanja Frieden Olympic Gold Medalist snowboarding and Ueli Kestenholz snowboard world champion and X-games winner, who are both passionate kiters!

In the sailing team the strong Moth specialists Mathis Renker , 4 times Alinghi Swiss Tour Match Race winner and 7 time Swiss champion as well as Phillip Käsermann. With the Tornado on the starting line where Tom Rüegge and Jörg Steiner both with sailing experience in the Olympic Games of 2000 in Sydney!

 Every Team was also joined by local Heros and Riders in the different sports categories.

Sunday the wind forecast was looking insane and so the BEST of 3 could be launched for the very first time.

First discipline was the Speed! All sailors where charging down the speed sector towards the spectators on the beach and the tower which was equipped with a radar gun measuring the top speeds of all athletes. The speed strip was open for one hour allowing everyone to go as many times as wanted! Soon it was a battle between the windsurfer Patrik Diethelm and Dirk Hanel always topping their fastest speeds. 15 minutes to go Björn entered the speed run and with his first trial he equalized the current top speed of 63 Km/h  which Patrik was leading at this time! Dirk saw the new top speeds and with 61 km/h only 2 Km/h behind he was going for all or nothing! Finally Dirk got a really nice and fast run where for one second the water was smooth and flat allowing him to go the incredible top speed of 65 Km/h and then winning this speed discipline in front of the two windsurf speed guys!

 In the slalom it was great starts with the windsurfers and the moths charging full speed towards the first marks. It was a battle between the three top windsurfers, such as Björn, Patrick,  Sebastian Kördel and the Kiters Dirk Hanel,  Daniel Rey,  Patrik Koller and Ueli Kestenholz. When approaching the marks it was always a bit critical as the windsurfers where leaning with the sails into the jibes not really allowing fully clear water to the kiters! But that was the interesting part of the game. In between the marks when everyone was going full speed downwind the speed of both sports categories where almost identical! Therefore we saw some very close and great finishes of the slalom; winning in the end was Björn who had also just won his 41 world championship title in slalom the week before! The kiters had a bit of bad luck when Daniel Rey and Dirk collided in the last slalom and Dirk having to jump of his board to not endanger Dani!

Having no throw outs this bad slalom result cost Dirk the chance of winning the BEST of 3 individual awards!

Last discipline of course racing was then launched in winds that where dropping more and more seeing all competitors out there with their biggest sails and kites! This was the show of the moth pilots that where together with light wind specialist Sebastian Kördel , who had also just won the 34 Engadin Surf Marathon, beating everyone! But also Dirk Hanel was showing his course racing skills being in front of Björn and equal with Patrik in this discipline!

At the end of the day everyone had such a great time and we all agreed this has to be repeated in the next year with some more refined rules but for sure the same fun and enthusiastic teams like this year!

Final Results:

Team BEST of 3 

1. Windsurf Team
2. Kitesurf Team
3. Sailing Team 

Individual BEST of 3 

1. Sebastian Kördel          7 points
2. Patrik Diethelm          10 points
3. Björn Dunkerbeck      11 points
4. Dirk Hanel                 12 points
5. Dani Rey                    19 points

3 IKA World Championship Titles go to NKB Team at the Y & M World Championships in Douarnenez.

Dirk Hanel (GER) got the World Champion Title in the Master Class Production Boards and finished on a 3^rd place in the Masters Class open category!

So the last three Days in Douarnenez saw 13 exciting races with wind varying from 8 to about 20 knots! The North Team was racing with the new Dynos and the new 2011 Race LTD 69 version to succeed with these great results! It could not have been a better event, with perfect weather, great racing conditions and also very tight and good competitive races on the water. The turnout for these Championships was also really great with over 60 people coming from places such as Canada, Denmark, South Africa, Germany, England, Spain, Italy and of course France to compete for the first for World Titles to be given away in 2011 by the IKA.

Maxim Nocher (FRA) has taken the World Title in the Youth class and was followed by Oliver Bridge (GBR) in third position to round of that great result!

In the Women Masters Category Steph Bridge (GBR) got her next World Title by winning 11 out of 13 races during the last 3 days of competition.

So lets see what is going to happen at the next events!

Due to the hig altitude though the wind has not the same power as on sealevel! Friday the first day had an amazing good wind and the organizers went for freestyle. The racers went out for some training and fotosessions on this amazing location! We where all fully powered with 14 square meter kites and even in the end 12s could have been used. Unfortunatly after the singles the call was for completing the doubles instead of doing some races!

Saturday morning the weather looked really promissing for another strong thermic day of wind, but as we where in the mountains it can also be completly different and weather changes in split seconds are quite common and therefore also really dangerous! we tried to start one race but had to abbandom it one minute before the green flag as out of the blue a thunder storm came over the corvatsch! So no races!

Sunday looked really bad for wind and just a few minutes before the official starting time was over the startboat meassured 10 to 12 knots on the water and we did one race , once again in really light conditions to get a result!  I got 5th and started my journey back home!

Last event in Poland will now be interessting and lets hope for more luck and more win so also the racers can have some races in strong winds like we had in Podersdorf!

But unfortunatly we did not get those strong winds but only light winds which most of the days where barely enough to get going and go racing! Nethertheless we have had one day with in totall 7 races in very light winds and a racedistance of the the water of over 58 km meassured on a gps! So all riders got quite some challenging there.

After 14 races in total

Just hoping for the next events to come with some racing on stronger winds!

By Reemedia