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Aka. Jaeger Bros.

 

Danish Wave/Freestyle Championships 2008 - Event Summary

16th to 19th October was time for the 2008th edition of the Quiksilver Windriders / Danish Wave/Freestyle Championships. As usual the setting was Klitmoeller aka. The Cold Hawaii, on the northwestern coast of Denmark. The event is the biggest in Denmark with about the 100 best windsurfers in Denmark participating. 

On competitions first day, Thursday the Young Gun Freestyle single elimination started in Middles, Hanstholm. We waited 3 hours because the freestyle B-Class should finish their elimination first, but at 2 pm and right our skippers meeting was held, and right after we started. The wind was completely side shore, about 12 knots (not much wind).  

The 1st heat won, D 1013 and D 995. The 2nd heat it was D 127 and D 59 there was going to heat 5. At last in the 3rd, it was Jonathan Jaeger, D 444's turn. He used his biggest sail, the p7 Swell 5.7, and a 100L freestyle board with a 13 cm fin.
The best opponent in this heat was D 24, Sebastian Kornum, so he had to do something...

But about 3-4 minutes in the heat, Jonathan crashed in a front loop, and smashed his left knee on the board, which made him unable to finish the heat, but instead ended on a local hospital with crouches.
 

So it was D 24 and D 224 on to heat 6. This was the last heat that day because the wind flopped right after.

Jonathan Jaeger, D 444: "In my heat the wind was really light and challenging, and by the shore break - the best place to pull moves, the wind flopped completely, so I was really struggling on my 5.7. I sailed really bad, and crashed almost all my moves, and then about 3-4 minutes in the heat I made a really bad forward crash on port-tack. I found a nice wave for jumping and went a bit downwind to gain speed. Just when I hit the ramp, I made a spinout. Anyway I went for a forward loop, but in the jump my left foot got out of the foot-strap and I crashed. In the crash my left knee was smacked into my board and I thought, "shit happens". Anyway after a couple of minutes in the water I managed to sail back the shore, but I was washed in the shore-break, and some German guys had to help me on to the beach. Afterwards I came by ambulance to the local hospital, and found out that my meniscus (I think it is named that way) was hurt, and I should keep in rest for about a month. That was really a bad day!.."

Earlier on Thursday the B-Class Freestyle had been run. In the first heat Sebastian Jaeger, D 777, was up against a bunch of really good guys, and didn't advance further in the difficult conditions. The best move in this heat was probably a perfect semi switch stance chachoo by Jonas Knudsen, D 103.

Sebastian Jaeger, D 777: "The B-class freestyle didn't go that god. The Conditions was very different from the conditions we were used to, the waves was close to each other and the wind dropped completely nearby the beach. I used my Point-7 Swell 5.7 and it worked really nice, it's a really good sail for freestyling. In my heat I sailed against some of the good freestylers in DK, Jonas Knudsen and Jens and a last one, who was unknown for me. As a big surprise the mostly unknown sailor, Anders, advanced to the next heat, together with Jonas Knudsen. Jonas sailed a god heat, but especially Jens was disappointed not to move on. This was a really bad heat for me, I could have done a better performance... The Swell Sails are good, we sailed with them during the whole week in Klitmoeller and we could see that they got us earlier on a plane in light wind conditions, but is still a light sail."

Friday the skippers meeting where held, but there was no wind so we were on standby that day.
In the evening Benjamin Jaeger (D 555) went out for evening session. The wind was quite good, but it was too late for competition to start.           
                                
                 

The forecast looked pretty well for Saturday, with a storm approached to hit in the late afternoon. Skippers meeting was held, but due to missing wind the Young Guns where set on standby, with skippers-meeting every 30-minute. After all at about 12.30 the first heats in the Young Gun class got started, with Benjamin Jaeger, D 555, advancing from his first heat into the 2nd semifinal. The heat length was set to 10 minutes, which was fine in the light conditions. The first semi got completed with Jakob Dahl, D 1013, and Michal Dziewiecki, D 127, advancing to the final. In the second semi Benjamin Jaeger and Sebastian Kornum, D 24, advanced. Then the ground was set for a top-class final. The start shot blew and the heat was on. Benjamin sailed pretty well, but in the 9th minute the heat was cancelled.
But anyway, the sailors where placed on standby about 1/2 an hour, before the re-sail of the final started. Now the wind have picked up a bit bore than earlier, and the 5.7 Benjamin was on, was a bit too big, the other sailed 5.0 and 4.7 he realized afterwards. Benjamin didn't sail as good this time, crashing a lot of the moves. The final result was: 

1. Michal Dziewiecki, D 127
2. Benjamin Jaeger, D 555
3. Sebastian Kornum, D 24

Benjamin Jaeger, D 555: "The first final got cancelled in the last minute due to lacking wind, anyway I was on plane about 60 to 70 % of the time, which for sure is caused by the super quick planing of my sail, the p7 Swell. I sailed a pretty good heat, within the first 20 seconds I snatched a fully planing spock followed by a spock 540 just to the beach. And in the first 5 minutes I got all my moves done, but then the wind dropped, and in the 9th minute - just 1 minute before the end of the heat and just as the wind picked again, the heat was cancelled. It was really bad luck, because I had sailed to my best! In the re-sail of the final I didn't sail up to my best. I was cold and freezing, which caused a lack of concentration, and I crashed a lot of my moves. Furthermore as the heat approached I realized that the wind has picked a lot more than I thought in the start, and my 5.7 was way too big. Michal sailed really, really well and was clear ahead in the heat. In the end it was a little bit annoying..."

The final day was Sunday. The skippers meeting were held at 8 am in Hanstholm. The head judges wanted get an A-Class Wave single elimination in the box. Mads Bjoernå, D 20, followed by Kenneth Danielsen, D 38 and Lars Petersen, D 99 as third, won this. The first and only completed A-Class wave single elimination in the season 2008.
At 2 pm it was time for the Price-giving. All the Overall Rankings and the Event Winners in the different classes where presented, outside NASA's facilities in Klitmoeller.

In the B-Class Sebastian Jaeger, D 777, ended up 5th in both the Event and 6th in the Overall Ranking.

In the Young Gun Class Jonathan, D 444, due to his injury became 6th in the Overall Ranking and 9th in the Event. Benjamin Jaeger, D 555, who participated in the same Class, finished both 2nd in the Event and on the Overall Ranking.

This event was the crown of a great season for the Jaeger Brothers. Lately they ranked 1st (D 444), 3rd (D 555) and 4th (D 777) in another freestyle event, King of the Fjord, which is just a bit of the good results. In the 5 events of the season, Benjamin have got 1xGold, 3xSilver and 2xBronze, Jonathan 1xGold and 1xSilver and Sebastian that made progress in every event. The last to mention is Felicia Jaeger, who participated in King of the Fjord, and won the girls class and became third in the women's class. Felicia was using the p7 Sweet 3.7.

We have semplified the forum in order to give you the best service in assisting your request on advices, trimming, purchases and any other questions.

Some Slalom racing in brazil: Kurosh Kiani DEN 13 blasting on his AC-1. I'm sure that all of us who are now in Europe and entering the cold season would love to be windsurfing in that place now : http://www.morlima.com/videos/galeria_link.asp?id_video=425#

Not the best week to get a suntan in Hyeres during this year Ventilo Show. A lot of rain has flooded the whole place! There were though 3 days of very strong wind and enough wind to get planning on the other days.

It was a successful event and it was a great way to let our French windsurfers try out the sails. I myself  windsurfing a couple of days during the event, leaving Dennis  alone to take care of the stand, but the conditions were too beautiful to stay on the beach! Sorry Dennis! I was out with the final prototypes of the AC-1 and once with the 5.0 Swell in beautiful waves!

As we were in France, Arnaud of  PlancheMag ask us to test the AC-0 6.6, the Square 7.2 and the AC-2 7.7. Will be interesting to read the comments of  Arnaud and his team on the next Planche Mag issues.

I was often training in Hyeres  in my past. It was the classical spot  I use to go  in March after I was coming back from spending the winter in Australia or Maui. It’s another of those European spots where you can sail all year round with a short arm wetsuit. There are a lot of other competitors spending part of their winter there, so a great spot to improve windsurfing skills.

Apart from having had a great time at the Ventilo Show, I decided with my team to make a change in our winter schedule. From Friday we go back to Sardinia till Christmas, short break, then we move all our R&D to Hyeres from Jan till April. We will keep you updated on our logistics in Hyeres as we will organize the possibility to come and try out our sails.