I had my last race for the season last Saturday in Pelzerhaken/Baltic Sea at the Naish Pro Center. It was the last tour stop of the German SUP Challenge and it was held together with the SUP Festival over there. In very challenging 25knots plus wind conditions I was able to secure my overall German SUP Challenge tour-title with another very clear start-to-finish victory in that final sprint competition! We had a 400m T-course with two buoy-turns where you could decide whether you want to go left or right (with the wind or against the wind first) so it was a tactical race as well and I was super happy how good my Naish Javelin LE 12´6´´ worked in the 14´ class… 

I collected another title on Fehmarn/Baltic Sea at the German Technical Beachrace Championship by Deutscher Wellenreit Verband using my 12´6´´LE Javelin (in the 14´division).

On the tight 5 buoy beach course including a beach run I had no problems keeping the competition behind me in a comfortable lead. :-)

As I really gained physical strength I now have a lot of confidence no matter what the conditions and situations are like.

At this competition I didn´t want to finish anything else but 1st or share the victory… I won all three races in convincing manner with comfortable leads on this 900 meters 7 legs M-course set up into a little shore break …on my 12´6´´ Javelin LE - which performs really great at buoy turns!!! - in the 14´fleet. 

My brother Maui finished 15th of 40 competitors in the men´s division.

This event also has a very good location to present SUP to the public and the media. The wave contest stretched over 3 days with 3 separate competition elimination rounds. The first two days were dominated by the typical North Sea wind created bumps with rather short rides in difficult conditions. I won on the first day using the Hokua 8´5´´GT (my brother Maui´s board), 

finished second on day two on my Raptor 7´0´´x 28´´ (I was convinced that I won and felt very confident on it, but I guess the judges had to get used to the different shape of the board …). 

On the 3rd day the judges could´t find agreement of who won, so we sheared 1st place for this day and the entire contest. This time I used the Hokua 8´3´´in rather mellow and easy swell waves without disturbing wind and also felt comfortable on it.

My brother Maui finished 14th of 30 competitors in the men´s division.

This event drew a lot of public attention by the visitors who attended the "Tegeler Hafenfest" and the television and press media.

In the female sprint competition on Saturday I easily made it to the finals. After a rather good start another girl bumped into the stern of my board and I unfortunately lost balance for a moment so I lost my inside position at the first buoy. As the legs between the race marks were rather short it was hard to pass and it took me to the second last mark until I found a gap. Unfortunately a little bit too late, even though I was able to catch up onto the tail of the leading girl and finished 2nd (made up about 50 meters…). I was really happy, that I used my 12´6´´ Javelin  LE on this tight sprint course (in the up to 14´ fleet).

On the next day I promised to turn my frustration from the day before into good propelling power for the long distance ( 8 km).

For the first part of the course I controlled the toughest competition (Carol Scheunemann- 4th Lost Mills) and waited for my chance to get away. After the wind picked up a lot (stormy and rainy conditions),  I started my grinding upwind setting my pace to leave the girls behind and catching up on the paddlers of the mens fleet who had started 2 min ahead of us. So it turned out that I finished 2 minutes ahead of Carol Scheunemann on my 14´ x 23´´Javelin LE. What a satisfaction :-)

My 14 years old brother Maui won the first ever held German Youth Championship of the sprint event in convincing manner and made it onto the first page of the Sunday edition "Berliner Morgenpost" (250.000 readers…).