Sarah-Quita reports from the first stop of the 2016 PWA Slalom Tour, in Ulsan, South Korea, where tricky conditions had everyone, including Sarah, on their toes until the end. Is SQ on her way to another PWA Slalom title? Read more from her below.

Annyeong haseo !

The first PWA Slalom event of the year has been held at Jinha Beach, in Korea and what a challenge it has been. The truth is that due to the wind direction, the water was full of seaweed and plastic bags coming from I’m guessing the bigger cities upwind. It was a true obstacle course and you’d be one of the few lucky ones if you didn’t catch anything with your fin. For your reference, after the race, instead of asking about the start or jibe tactics, the first question would be "did you have seaweed on your fin?". Having said that, I was one of those lucky ones that didn’t get caught in seaweed when it mattered most.

On all the days that we raced, the wind was around 7 to 14 knots. Normally I will use 7.8m² as my biggest sail, but given the conditions, I realized that I couldn’t afford being the slightest bit under-powered. So I felt it was time to bust out my 8.6m² at Jinha Beach. Surprisingly, there were more girls with the same idea like Oda Johanne and Çagla Kubat. Although it’s a bit heavier, combined with my iSonic 114 and my 42 cm fin, I was powered all the time and I could get away at the marks sooner. I think it saved me in the only race that got validated.

This has been the most exciting race for me in a long time! I’m going to admit that I have a hard time getting my starts right in light wind. I always underestimate the distance and make it to the line too late. Because of the light wind, you can’t accelerate as quickly to make up for that. So in the first race I made it to the mark second to last, and once you’re in the pack you are stuck. I thought that was it for me. But they decided to cancel the race. Sometimes you get a second chance in life! In that case… grab it with both hands.

Not sure I fully understand that concept though, because my start was off again the second time around. After the first mark however I managed to stay upwind and get some clean wind. I launched into attack mode and went from 6th place to rounding the second mark in first. Maybe that gybe was too tight because I got a stuck behind some swell and was third by the time I got planing again. But it’s not over until it’s over and in the end I finished second behind Lena [Erdil]. It felt great to battle it out like that!

After four days on the water we were close to finishing the second elimination. But on the last day, after wobbling around the start boat for 2.5 hours trying, the wind didn’t stabilize and only one race got validated. I did get a scare when my outhaul rope came undone 20 seconds before my heat. I watched the girls in my heat speed down the course and I was in the water struggling to get my outhaul back together. It felt terrible to lose my second place like that! Imagine the relief when the heat got cancelled due to the lack of wind. After a couple of more unsuccessful tries, the whole fleet got sent back to the beach.

And that was it for Korea! I’m grateful to have made it on the podium once again. We were at least 20 girls at this event and it’s nice to see how motivated every one is. I can’t wait to race again!

- Sarah-Quita Offringa

- Pictures by John Carter / PWA World Tour -