I entered following 2009 PWA Slalom events in Austria, Korea, Costa Brava, Pozo, Furteventura and Turkey and is currently in 18’th for the overall PWA Slalom ranking.
 
I will miss out on the last event in Sylt (Germany), so I might drop a few places.
 
Every year the competition is getting stronger. Most sailors sail unbelievable fast in a straight line. But in the slalom racing the experience counts a lot to get the perfect start and place yourself in the right position at the first mark etc.
 
With the no rules concept, there is a lot of interesting fighting around the marks, where sailors is pushing very hard to get around in a good position, and often you can get knocked of your gear by other sailors.
 
In the heats it will be half of the numbers of sailers that is going through to next heat. So for example if you are 12 in the heat, then 6 sailors are through to next heat.. If you were in the 5-6 spot then you would take it “pretty easy” as you just want to qualify. On the other hand if you are 7,8 or 9 then you will sail like there is no tomorrow and gamble everything in the jibes in the hope of getting through. This comes to a lot of exciting racing and is very thrilling to be a part off and even sometimes watch from the beach.
 
I would say that the top 20 sailors have the chance of during good in the finals, but often you see the good ‘old” and experienced sailors as Bjoern, Albeau, Micha, Kevin, Steve Allen, Finian sailing more consistent and get the better result.
This clearly shown that it is the knowledge that counts a lot.
 
Personally I had a very good year with making more finals than any of the other years. So it is going forward. My realistic goal for this year was top 16 and next year I want to try to step it up even more.
 
Now there is a long summer to look forward to here in WA :)
 
Jesper Orth
AUS 10
 
Starboard, Severne, Flying Object, Aeron booms, Vector fins