Austria Surf Worldcup in Podersdorf - 5th again

“There is a lot of partying going on during the Surf Worldcup in Podersdorf. But all parties except the mandatory events (Riders Presentation and Award Ceremony) are voluntary!!! Please take into consideration, that if northwesterly winds are blowing in the morning we will start at 9am sharp when the wind is strong enough” Quote PKRA Riders Schedule of Events. Floowinf two photos by Roberto Foresti - Canon







The best thing about this event is that it really is a world cup. They go to town with the organisation and they take no short cuts or half measures to blag the event. £1,000’s and £1,000’s go into the preparation and on arrival you see 2 huge party tents, paintballing courses especially set up, large outdoor cinema size televisions, bungee jumping, sound systems, food halls the lot. It really is a festival and half of Austria hits podersdorf for the duration of the events (windsurfing and kitesurfing world cup).

The event was blessed with just one day of wind, but we were lucky for this as it wasn’t forecasted. It was on the first day. Sunny skies and 15-18 knots cross from the right was our treat. It wasn’t forecasted but it was from a non-gusty wind direction (not many of those on this lake) and it lasted the entire day and saw riders with full power on 14m and 12m kites. With the wind lasting the duration of the day it was possible to complete the entire single elimination and even begin with the doubles.

Here is a quote from the press release from Extreme Elements the official media for the PKRA who you can visit on www.extremeelements.com.

“Next, the women took to the water again with Jo Wilson (Naish, Protest UK) drawing the short straw in both today’s single as well as double eliminations. Wilson first faced off against Gisela Pulido (Slingshot, Spain), giving her a big scare when she nailed a huge, powerful downloop/front loop and kiteloop/backloop and was close to winning until Pulido busted out a big front mobe to seal the win. Wilson then went on to perform in the only first round double elimination heat, which she will have the pleasure of re-doing as it was postponed late in the evening due to lack of wind.”

Hopefully you will understand that I was not exactly the happiest with this. There are certainly easier ways of going about things… or at least easier sides of the draw for the competition, but if you want to be the best I guess you have to beat the best and with this girls level of riding – trust me when I tell you I’m not there yet!!! A few more training sessions in order and a more productive training method is also a good plan. Hindsight is a great thing. Having worked mega hard on back and front mobes through South Africa I now see that perhaps I should have focused on a broader spectrum of moves. If I could land these moves for competition then may be that would be well and good, but at the moment I can’t and now I shall go away and work on some other moves that may come a bit more naturally to me.

(Blatently that is not in Austria. Thanks to Progression and Fatsand for that pic. Taken by Will Milne)

Well that was it as far as the kitesurfing action was concerned, but there was plenty more activities to get involved in. On the third day we organised a mass war in the paint balling area. The first game I had it all going on – low level crawling, accurate shooting except unfortunately there was no Gizella to get my own back on… instead I took down Jalou Langeree. I managed to make my way to a good hide out not far from enemy lines and I took a couple of the baddies down, but after game one it becamse obvious that it was beginners luck and Jalou even managed to get me back by shooting me in the head! Ha! Great game.

The following days involved watching Austrian strippers, more paint balling, eating a lot, table tennis, partying, but still no kitesurfing which was a shame, but get this. The event was a week long. We had wind on day one and then not a breath the rest of the time. Then on the final day the competition was called off around 3pm and as sods law would have it by 5pm it was windy and everyone who hung around long enough to find out hit the water on 10m – 12m kites!! Isn’t that always the way.


Now I am back home in Plymouth. The forecast looks great so tomorrow I will head to kite with my fellow UK Naish Team rider Mark Hill and we are going to rip and slash the waves at Gwithian. I hope it’s a good day… I will take my little camera.

Next trip for me will be a sacrifice of the next PKRA. I think I will head to Egypt to train. Nothing is booked or decided so am not certain, but that is the plan and then in early June I will be off on the Protest Clothing photoshoot of the 2008 collection. The location is not decided but I hope its somewhere tropical. Fingers crossed.