HAPPY NEW YEAR

 i wish merry christmas  ( a bit late ) and a happy new year  to all of you.
may 2012 be the best year for every one .
i say goodbye to this year with  a sw kono sequence from my latest holiday
 sessions in loutsa .

thnx stayros for the fotos



take care

RUMMORS AND TALENTS

ususally at this time of the year it is all about transfers .rummors about athletes changing
sponsors  have been around last days ,freestyle world champion changed to jp /np,
albeau maybe on rrd ,marcilio seems out of fanatic and finian with kaseler made a new
brand avanti sails. so far so good ..
while the already big names are able to just choose wich deal is better for them
in the other hand there is a bunch of new talents that struggling to get a bit of help .
totally different situations but same sport and same level, whilst  definitely different oportunities.
 a huge example is hugo de souza



hugo is the same occasion like gollito or fellow named edvan de souza
from brasil that were discovered and turned up to be world champ
or top 10 in the world .
is hugo going to have the same opportunities?
another example is mahoamed aid

is he going to be the first egyptian that will get a bit of help
to show us what more  he can do ?
would a possible "amateur" freestyle  tour help this kind of talents?
or we are forced to only worship athletes that came from countries
with big markets and  refer as duak investmetnts to the industry ?

the point i am trying to make is that it is a sport and normally
 it should be the better one  among lots with almost the same opportunitites .\

 obviously i didn't sail today and all my energy expresed in  these words
but it was a sick day here in athens and here is how my homespot
varkiza was looking like

damn i really need to get that wave board

over and out 

LIGHT SUNDAY SESSION

we had a light session in aigio last sunday
with preety much everyone one the water.
about 10  guys traveled from athens and
the local crew from patras came and join us
sails 4.8-5.2 16 `c and very good vibe on the beach .
you can check some of the action thnx to miltos

i had also a good session yesterday in loytsa with 4.4 and landed a big kono
from my bad side     yoooho.

let's hope we score again later this week

cheers 

LIVE INTERVIEW

I am very happy to be invited by my friend nikos polymenakos
 for an interview in his radio show that you can listen live here

http://www.mojoradio.gr/tune-in/


enjoy

SOME WORDS AND SOME FOTOS

just finished one period of my life and getting into a new one ,
i wouldn't say  it was the better but definitely  not the worse
the only sure thing is that from now on i will definitely have
more time for my sailling .
this said i had a nice 10 days straight sailling every day
near patras ,which all this period revealed that it is propably the
 windiest city in greece .
for example until now this month had 20 windy days out of 21,
can't beat that .
now back to athens and planing my next steps ...
pretty interesting things are coming up .
my welcome sail in loytsa was propably the worse
it could be but unfortunately nothing i can do about it .
second day i did some slalom sailing which was pretty
entertaining after such a long time .
next session propably wednesday in halkoutsi
until then take a look to some evening session fotos
taken from titos georgiadis

SLIDING DUCKS 2

n joy

SLIDING DUCKS 2 MAKING OF

it's been a while since my last post but i needed a brake after
a very busy period of 10-12 days  .
one of the things that kept me busy was filming, with my
friend alex prapas our new clip sliding ducks 2, which
was powered by our common sponsor blu caffe and filmed
exclusivly in nissakia surf club loytsa for 3 days .
during editing dimitris maniatis (our editor and filmer)
captured some fotos  to give you taste of what you are going to see
 n'joy

ducks are back

getting in for action

a bit of rest












a bit of discussion













ducks are everywhere

action












action












action












action











getting out










all pics by dimitris maniatis
hope you like it
 clip will be online soon


aloha 

SANTORINI

wind didn't really got  good for wave sailing
as expected in santorini fortunately, because
after 2 days full working i was not able to windsurf  anyway .
job was done  contest was good action was really epιc
and overall i feel like i had a lifetime experience.
 check some fotos of the action


photo/vassilis spyrou
 

now back to patras  and eager to windsurf after relaxing
with the preperation of sliding ducks 2
pics coming soon

RED BULL ART OF MOTION SANTORINI

well no windsurfing for 2 days now but did a little research
about SUP and which  board to buy and i think i am getting
there, down to 3 options already maybe i set a poll up
anyway
 off to the beautifull island of santorini for the weekend for
 the red bull parkour contest that will take place there
and  you can watch live here 
i will be there working but i think i can relax after the event
and go catch up with one of greece legendary  sailors
philip adamidis and maybe get to windsurf a bit with his
equipment .
here is a couple of fotos from his last session in monolithi

these fotos is with north wind the forecast though for the weekend
is promising some southwest winds and a bit of swell too
which is like the best conditions in the island as philip told me

lucky or what ?

SEPTEMBER FOTOS

one of m sessions in patras with 5.2 in a spot near
 drepano where i normaly sail but that
day was a bit light and there was a bit more wind.
fotos are almost one month old but i just got them
so here we go

 kono

 shaka near the beach

shaka  ...

diablo












kono

obviously is my favorite move

 

sw chachoo

shove it spock

more fotos coming soon from slidind ducks 2 making of
we already had 3 days of filiming and some nice action
captured .

stay tuned

BEST BOTTOM (TURN) EVER

 well that is my 100th post so i thought i make it a bit more special
i don't think many or anyone of you  have seen a better bottom turn than
the one above .
after corfu  i had some good sessions in nayplio and loytsa
and also started filming with my friend alex for sliding ducks 2
clip from yesterday and already have some good action filmed
i also made a seperate page about the next session project
that you can find on the top of the page
where i will inform about the sessions i had and the ones
i am going to have .
cu

THAT WAS FUN

ok you sit in the beah crowd watching  there is sun there is some waves
but there is no wind . well PWA come up with a SUP race that was really
fun to watch .2 heats with 3 teams each and the final with the 2 winners
and the best second time  nicee. there was some drop in small waves
some drops and some head to head chasing with the paddle and
off course ben proffit commentating live
and then campello and marcilio browne did a tow session with jumping
   of the waves

pic PWA /jonh carter
not a tow  in foto
i really do not find any other alternative  more amusing
thumbs up.. (also for the replay 's from the live streaming production team ) 

TOW IN IMPRESSIONS

after the pwa tow in supersession in sylt is finished
and preety stoked from the action i saw live ,
i kind of have a bit of confusion about the judging .
having myself being towed in and watched couple of
this kind of competetions.
there is some things that are common between the sailors about
what is easier and what is not  while tow in for example
tonky did a very high sw kono that was really underscored
for the difficulty of this move perfomed at the back of a jet ski

pic PWA/jonh carter
as julien mas also did a culo,

pic PWA/jonh carter
which is a normal stance move way more difficult than
 sw stance in tow in (not only )  and also did not get the
 scores it should ..
i think there should be a discussion about the judging in tow in
and the way the contest will take form   because as it seems
it is getting more than a trend.
marcilio browne let's say  was really unlucky to have
the 3rd bigest overall move but not  pass in the final  .
so maybe the  top 4 or 6 scores will go through to the final ,since
it is a supersession and not a elimination contest .
any comments....?

TWEET TWEET

found some time to sign up with twitter at last
so if you like to follow me just click on the
pic   on the right of the screen under the sponsor links.
i also just watched pwa tv live review of the
1st day of the sylt world cup ,i thing
finnaly windsurfing is in the right way
hope it will work out fine .

except campello coming back to freestyle
there is also another comeback in slalom
usual beach commentator roberto hoffman
will race with the big guys and his
budies from italy
nice to see him sailing for a change.
for sure getting interviewed by robby
swift was a bit of a change for him

pic PWA /Jonh carter

GUESS WHO'S BACK

ricardo campello is back to freestyle at least for the sylt event that starts today in the north sea island . he comes againist davy sheffers in the first round so this would be a heat to watch . as it seems right now slalom will be first discipline starting today you can follow the action live in PWA

TRE'S CHIC

just saw this nice freestyle video from nouvelle caledonie in windsurfjournal tre's chic

FOR STELIOS

sxinias windsurfing club karavi and his owner mpampis maniaths held
a slalom cup for the memory of stelios georgousopoylos a real
talented and legend greek racer  that represented greece in the olympics
before he make room for nikos kaklamanis (who was in the event  )
to continue .
unfortunately i haven't sailed with stelios but because of my racing
past i have heard a lot of him . i unfortunately could not make it
and feel very sorry about it .
here is the vid

RIP STELIOS 

HOLIDAY END

greek legend alexis iwannou produced a nice video about his
family holidays in greek islands . off course he still has it but
the thing is his kids have it too.....

beware new generation is coming up 

CHEERS MATE

RSX europeans just finished and my old co-athlete
andone of greece finest racers  byron kakkalanis
finished 2nd

congrarts man

NEXT DESTINATION :

CORFU
after quite some time in patras i am heading north to
corfu the northest of the ionian sea islands.
i am very happy because i will have the chance
to take a good taste of what it has to offer.
there is some word and some fotos to prove it
that occasionaly delivers world class wave conditions
so first good forecast is for tuesday as my friend
and super  hot local sifis told me and showed me


SE@ ag stefanos

S-SE@st george argyrades












NW @acharavi












lets hope we score.....

THNX KATTIA

i have to say it is the first time that i am blessing for a natural phenomenon
that usually causes so much trouble BUT this time hurricance kattia worked
 really well and 'saved ' at least 2 events maybe 3 .
quiksilver pro in new york the first ever event in surf history
with 1 million $ prize money saw beautiful waves up to 6 + feet
in the favor of kattia  before this she affected us open again surf contest
and she traveled across the atlantic and the last 2 days is producing the
goods in the north sea making the cold hawai world cup in kitmolr
dealing with massive open sea waves and hi winds producing sick
action and unfortunately cold and rainy days making the broadcast
a bit ugly .campello on the other way made it look better with
his performance in the single  thumps up to him giving  a new
prespective, more interesting ,to the world title race .
lets see if wonder kid koester 'wakes up' tommorow 

INJURY TIMES MAKES COMMENTARY FIRE'S

unfortunately i heard news about 3 pro windsurfers injured in training
before the pwa event in denmark,bummer .
first one robby swift who was sailing in chile and hurt himself  doing a huge 360,
this time in his left foot, no words about robby and how unlucky he is with
his injuries ,
second is ben profit who injured himself in a backloop and fellow teamrider
klaas voget who in my opinion would be one to watch in the danish event
as he has made kitmoller his second home is third in the injuries report.
klaas got injured  in kitmoller warming up with victor fernadez
well i wish speedy recovery to all 3 of them as i know pretty well
how ugly it is when that happens.
the good thing about these injuries is that propably all 3 of them will
 be there comentating for us for the live streaming
 epic!!
 interesting effort there from robert sand and the cold hawai production team
 who wants to lift up the level of the event's broadcast  making it similar to
surf's, with live scores for the first time and 4 cameras capturing the action
thumps up

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

after couple of days sailing with my new loco 5.2 2012
i can say that it  is quite a different sail than last years
not only becuase of the xply added ,which makes it
a bit tougher but also because of the different leech
(way flatter ) makes it more steady during ducks
and in a way makes it keep the power on
so as you take off for the trick it kind of elevates you
super good for the new school stuff . there is also
new profile when you trim the sail that helps to that .
new sail is also lighter than the old one which was not
expected with the addition of xply but when you see it
you understand that it nothing like legend, it is
just one layer of xply  and a lot of monofilm between

anyway stocked again with maui sails and taty
for producing again quality and perfoming sails
here is some pics from my last session somewhere in
pelloponese

this weekend i am heading to athens to catch a north wind
forecast  and have a try of the 4.8 2012
sunday seems just perfect for that .

 ps past 4 days i was attached to  my screen
watching billabong pro tahiti
WHAT A CONTEST 

GIFTS

well not any good foto from andros, still  good action
firing freestyle in agios petros beach with 4.4 totally overpowered
and the waves also came in last day as expected.
i was experimenting with this new trend













and i found it really interesting but REALLY interesting
so now i am looking for what sup to buy
any suggestions ????
unfortunately i had to get bac in patras in sunday
and due to ticket problems i was forced to leave the island in
friday not cathcing the bigger swell on saturday
anyway on my way back i stoped to loytsa for a freestyle session
and i found that 2 2012 locos were waiting for me :))
can't wait to try them out
in first sight though they look different in the leech
let's see

oh another gift is the forecast for the billabong pro in tahiti
just don't miss it
http://www.billabongpro.com/tahiti11/

aloha

MELTEMI TIME

at last meltemi started and it is hollowing .
it is always nice when this north wind picks up in the hot summer months
and you have this unique feeling of the breeze cooling your face
 that is really connected to our summer here in greece  .
so i took the boat to catch some wind in andros the closest island to athens
the forecast is superb and should have 2 days freestyle and 1 in a secret spot
with waves if everything goes according to plan
there is a camera here also so i will try to keep you updated

ps it is already blowing for 4.4
off for some kabicuchi training :)

INTERVIEWED

very happy i got interviewed by timbertail online magazine
you can check it here
http://www.timbertrail.gr/sports/synentefksi/281-o-mr-windsurf-freestyler-nikos-athanasiou.html

still in patras sailing my head out .
had  3 straight days of  good wind in drepano and keep counting
 but  i  am getting  very tired now and eventually forecast is looking
calmer



PS : good luck to my friend jean mark fantis who is competing in pwa alacati

EVENT VIDEO

as i promised here is the video from the event in
sxinias .
dimitris maniaths did an excellent  job
njoy



FRULITE ON THE GO VIDEO from Nikos on Vimeo.


another project coming soon
until then freestyling in patras with nice conditions
kabikuchi is getting closer
off to the water

REPORT ABUSE

i must be the most carelles windsurfer on  the planet.

 i got stolen again from my car 

and the first thing thiefs took was off course my notebook

which off course i had in good visual position   dumm....

anyway back now with new notebook and windows 7 (not really excited yet ).

i start where i left  with the freestyle event in sxinias by frulite on the go .

i give you a small report with some fotos of what happened

event done unfortunately with no sufficient  winds for proper

 competition but a lot of good mood and happenings

dj s  

girls 

riders presentesion

TV was also there 

around 12  we had the skipers meeting  

we dicided to do  some tow in presentation:

alex showinn the way 

stam air funnels

 and some non planing freestyle show:

alex and aris going backwards to the beach 

 and then the wind picked up a bit and we did a super session for the

 crowds which i luckily won with a bob 1 hand ,second was stamatis

 promponas with sw chachoo 1 hand ,third alex tetsis with a really 

 nice ponch try in nearly  no wind  and fourth alex prapas with

a clean 1 hand flaka 

afterwards we did the prize giving 

all pics by karavi sxinias 

you can see more here

video coming soon