Philip Soltysiak has been keeping busy! After winning the US Windsurfing Slalom Nationals last month and cruising the California and Oregon coastlines, Phil is now getting ready for the AWT Pistol River and Rio Vista events. Read his update below.

Sorry, I can’t fill you in on the big project I’ve been working on the last two weeks with Max Matissek, you’ll have to check our your local windsurfing magazine in the next few months to see that… Besides those secret adventures, I’ve been cruising in my rented Escape Campervan and windsurfing a lot. I had a couple of freestyle sessions in the Bay Area at Candlestick park with the local crew. They are all extremely good freestyle windsurfers, motivated, and a ton of fun to sail with. I always look forward to joining them for a session! I also cruised over to the Delta at Sherman Island, which will host the Rio Vista Grand Slam June 17th – 19th and got some decent winds there.

To keep my slalom legs going I took the gear out for a couple of sessions in the San Francisco Bay including a race I did last Friday; the Crissy Field Friday Night Slalom. It was a local slalom race, perfect to practice a bit before the slalom at Rio Vista and Hood River. I won 4 out of the 5 races using my 8.6m² Sailworks NX and Starboard iSonic 114 Carbon Reflex. It was a great combination that was very stable when the wind kicked in on the outside marks and start line, and powerful to get me out of those tricky wind situations on the inside marks.

I’m now up on the Oregon Coast in Gold Beach, where I scored two good wave sessions on Sunday and Monday until the wind shut off today. Tomorrow is the start of the AWT Pistol River Wave Bash, so my fingers are crossed that the wind returns before the event is over on Sunday.

- Phil Soltysiak

Photos by Lawrence Stewart and Kipps Zygarewicz