PWA Grand Slam Aruba 2011

The first setup was done for four days of worlds finest Freestyle, the playground was there, only that it could be seen easily that the entire season in the Caribbean has been more than strange, weather wise. Big Storms and Rainshowers made the scenery look like the austrian Worldcup beginning of May, only that the watercolours and clothes looked quite different. So it became a very hard Competition for all Freestylers, in very gusty winds, big windholes and the hardest was to take the right sail choice for the Heat. Gollito Estredo seemed to got adapted best to those difficult conditions and so he sailed his way up straight into the Single Elimination Final vs. Belgium Steven van Broekhoven, who is sailing in absolutely Top Form this Season. And so it was the belgium who managed to stop Estredo´s run for first place. Deivis Paternina and Yoli de Brendt on the other hand were struggling with the tough conditions. De Brendt finished the Single Elimination of the women fleet in third position while Paternina after loosing already his first Heat vs french Anthony Ruenes, had to hope for a good run in the Double Elimination.

During the three days of Freestyle Competition the windspeeds improved a little, but still played games with riders more than once. This time both Estredo and de Brendt became victims of the wind and their opponents who managed to find the better gusts for their moves and so after the Double Elimination Estredo finished in third place and de Brendt lost her podium place and went down to fourth. Paternina instead could climb up the ladder and finished the Contest in 17th.

The next four days were dedicated to Slalom Racing, with the Downwind Race Course set close to the beach so the Spectators could easily watch the Big guys flying over the turquoise waters of Aruba. For the Top Places it was the battle of the previous years between big names Dunkerbeck and Albeau for first place and Karin Jaggi between Sara Quita Offringa at the women fleet, but how would the venezuelans Juan Marino, Diony and Colette Guadagnino do ?

After eight races and some high class Windsurfing Slalom Races Diony Guadagnino managed to race up to 25th place and Juan Marino to 32nd while Colette Guadagnino finished in 12th position, while Björn Dunkerbeck won the Men Slalom and Aruba Local Sara Quita after winning the Freestyle already also won the women Slalom.