This day I made it 100% sure I wouldn’t be at the riders – meeting too early again so I could have a nice sleep until 10am. Superb! Apart from the fact that I simply couldn’t sleep no more because it was already so crazily hot again!

It’s really, really hot over here … during the day temperatures raise up to 35°C + and at the night it’s always around 30°C. Hard job to sleep without the aircon on because it’ll get you a cold after the first night right away!

We had the race-meeting around 1am because they had to finish the final heats of the Freestyle – elimination. Unfortunately there was no real upwind – part in the race so there was no advantage from my racedoor – prototype with a massive daggerboard. I took the 12m SPEED3 and the Flyradical M which was the best choice to control for the super fast downwinder to the buoy which was about 3/4 of a mile outside. For all the Thai riders it was one of their first competitions so they made the mistake, when the race-director was counting down from 10 for the 10min until start – signal all of them started racing and finished 3 min prior to the real start … although it’s unsportive I couldn’t hold back my laugh. The Thai kiters are all so funny and super motivated and did the race just one more time, 3 min after their “first round”.

I had a really good start and was already on full speed when crossing the line just for the signal. Fought for 2nd and 3rd place on the downwinder to the buoy … then I jumped 180 degrees to toeside and jibed round the outside-buoy.

On the upwind riding part coming in to the beach my biggest advantage was the 12m SPEED3. I was fully powered and could depower the kite and have it all the way parked at the edge of the wind-window. I overtook the 2 riders in front of me and won the race. This one was not the final result unfortunately because the top 5 men and the top 2 women from the first heats would advance one round and meet all together for the big final which in the end also gave us the result. I had a great start once again and was racing with the same guys to the outside-buoy After jibing I was having a great run back to the coast. My SPEED3 was helping a lot to get in front but then all the sudden there were a few lulls and I couldn’t keep the hard upwind-course I was riding. I had to tack one more time because I missed the leeward-buoy of the start-/finishline for just around 1-2m. It was so bad … enough time for Clinton to overtake me and put me on 2nd place. But still I am very happy with the result, won a board from Airush that I changed into cash on the beach right away and some more money. Enough for a round of poker with some mates at the evening after enjoying some great Sushi in the Village Market just across the road.

Hua Hin is amazing so far … yesterday I had my first massage. 1.5 hrs for just 5€! I would have payed around 10 times as much in Germany I guess. After that eating a great typical Thai meal – fried rice with eggs, shrimps and vegetables. Some chili- & fishsauce on top. So good … and just 1€ for it. Can’t hardly call that paying.

Today the PKRA will start. Riders meeting at 12. Let’s see when they’ll start the racing.

There were many, many new faces and also past champions around yesterday having their first runs on huge race-directionals with 4 fins, each around the size of my dagger-board. It’ll be very challenging to compete against them.

I decided not to compete in the Freestyle. I am just not there still … you can feel it really bad when you have been sitting behind the books for 4 months and everybody else have been training all the winter in Capetown, OZ and Brazil … but it’s ok for me.

I am getting my tricks back together faster than last year and I am sure I’ll be fit when Nick comes over end of the month for the sailing-trip around Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.

Cheers

Sebastian