PWA – Ulsan, Korea – 2018 – DAY 4

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Published on May 22, 2018 by Windsurfing.TV

Day 4: A Day of Rest After 3 Frantic Days in South Korea

The fourth day of the 2018 Ulsan PWA World Cup turned out to be a lay day after an eventful start to the event, which saw 3 consecutive days, of what was probably some of the best racing ever here – with winds gusting over 40 knots and a decent sized swell running to create some testing conditions.

With zero to very little wind for much of the day the beach cut a very different scene to the opening few days. During the afternoon we had a quick catch up with Antoine Albeau (RRD / NeilPryde), who is currently two points behind Matteo Iachino (Starboard / Severne / Shamal Sunglasses) in the slalom event rankings:

Antoine Albeau: “It’s definitely up there with some of the best racing we’ve had here, but I can also remember a few years of good racing with wind from the right. In the end its one of the windiest and most hardcore conditions that we have on tour – except for Fuerte, which can be super windy, but more flat.

I really like the conditions that we had here. I was on my 7.0m and 6.4m and they are both great sails. It was not that hard, it was good, but I did fall on one gybe… actually I didn’t really fall I just buried the nose into a piece of swell and that was the end of that.”

What’s your thinking about yesterday’s racing? Some sailors were questioning the decision to run because of the seaweed and plastic in the water…

“I touched on this the other day with you you know. I was lucky on the first two days because I didn’t catch any seaweed or plastic, but yesterday I got weed around my 20-30 seconds before the start of the final and I couldn’t get rid of it to get going. I took the first gybe and then caught a big bit of weed around my fin again, so I had to jump to get rid of it again. At that point I was last, but then 3 guys fell in front of me so I moved back into 4th, so both happy and unhappy you know. For me it’s just part of the competition, but for sure some people will take more and be unlucky more than some other guys. Of course it’s better if there’s nothing in the water. The real problem is that you can hit something big enough to make you take a massive catapult, which can then cause serious injury and I think this is what most people are the most worried about.”

Looking at the forecast for the final day – Thursday 24th – it looks like there could be a chance of a thermal… what do you think?

“I think for the slalom it’s finished because now the focus is on foiling and if we can do 4 foil elimination it would be great both the ranking and then event as well. The slalom event is already counting full points after 4 eliminations with the discard, so that is a fair ranking.”

If things were to end as they are now a 1st and a 2nd place would be a good start to the year…

“Yeah, but the points that we get for Japan are lower because it was just one elimination, but Matteo [Iachino] was behind me as well, so we will see. I think it’s better to be 1st than 2nd in Japan (smiling). “

Thanks Antoine.

The forecast for tomorrow doesn’t look great with light offshore winds currently being predicted. However, the forecast for the final day – Thursday – looks much better with the wind turning back to the southwest for the first time this event, which should hopefully see the thermal kick in and results to be gained in the foiling. The skippers’ meeting has been called for 9am tomorrow with the action commencing from 10am (GMT+9).

You can stay up to date with all the latest developments from South Korea — including the live stream, elimination ladders, entry list, images and live ticker simply click HERE and scroll to the bottom of the page.

Current Ranking 2018 Ulsan PWA World Cup – Women’s Slalom
*After Six Eliminations

1st Delphine Cousin Questel (FRA – Starboard / S2Maui)
2nd Lena Erdil (TUR – Starboard / Point-7 / AL360 / Chopper Fins)
3rd Maëlle Guilbaud (FRA – Patrik / Loftsails)
4th Marion Mortefon (FRA – Fanatic / NorthSails)
5th Esther de Geus (NED – Fanatic / NorthSails)

Current Ranking 2018 Ulsan PWA World Cup – Men’s Slalom
*After Four Eliminations

1st Matteo Iachino (ITA – Starboard / Severne / Shamal Sunglasses)
2nd Antoine Albeau (FRA – RRD / NeilPryde)
3rd Pierre Mortefon (FRA – Fanatic / NorthSails / Chopper Fins)
4th Mateus Isaac (BRA – JP / NeilPryde)
5th Jordy Vonk (NED – Fanatic / NorthSails)
6th Pascal Toselli (FRA – JP / Loftsails / Chopper Fins)
7th Cedric Bordes (FRA – Tabou / GA Sails)
8th Ross Williams (GBR – Tabou / GA Sails / Shamal Sunglasses)
9th Ingmar Daldorf (NED – Tabou / GA Sails)
10th Julien Quentel (SXM – Patrik / Avanti)