We are always happpy to showcase great talent. And when it comes to talent - here is a sailor with bags of it. Mattia Pedrani is an up an coming windsurfing star with a fantastic repetoire of freestyle moves. Kitforsale follows the Mistral and North Sails rider as he takes part in Hallowind 2006.
Over to you Mattia ...
The lack of wind in the Major events like Austria and Russia made the atmosphere for this EFPT final really tense and exciting. Luckily enough,unlike last year,we got a chance to complete a full Double Elimination with a nice Bora (North East wind) ,which was a little gusty but blew more or less all day long,between 15 and 25 knots.
Personally, I was try get a nice result in this contest rather than an overall ranking since I had missed some very important events and was now in 19th position…
Once the first 5 qualification heats were completed,the 32 athlete ladder was ready to get underway.
My First Heat was already very though.since I had to battle against Austrian rider Michael Sumereder. The conditions were pretty tricky,with gusty winds and really choppy water. Anyways, as soon as the heat started I decided to go straight off the gate for one of my favourite moves : a Shaka 720(actually Shaka into Flaka). I pulled that one off perfectly and it gave me a boost for the rest of the heat. My other moves were Spock, Grubby, Forward, Eslider, Shaka, Switch Chachoo, Flaka Diablo e Flaka 1 hand 720. With a total of 9 moves and only 1 crash,I was feeling pretty comfident and I advanced to the next round.
In my second heat I had to go against Andrea Rosati (Italian Champion AICW 2006 along with Fede La Croce). I thought I could relax a little more, but I pretty much lost to myself… Actually I had done some nice moves in this heat too, but they were more “scattered” around the course,and they didn’t really flow as I wanted to because I was too relaxed…I was now 9th in the single elimination which is actually the worst position to go into a Double because If you lose your first round, you loose 8 positions and go all the way back to 17th !!!
Besides my placement, I also had to wait 2 hours in the cold winds before even getting a chance to improve my result. Luckily enough the cold factor wasn’t really a problem for me because I was wearing my new ICEWIND Drysuit, which unfortunately is not in the Pictures…
Anyways I wait for the first Single to end and my Ipod is pumping in my huge earpieces in order to get more motivated and focused, since I wasn’t happy at all about my 9th place and I knew it was all my fault.
Ok,the waiting has finally come to an end my heat’s the next one. I go out on the water to warm up a little and get ready. I’m going against talented italian youngster Vittorio Mazzocca, but in the end my worst rival is only and always one : MYSELF .
Mattia Pedrani mid way through a 1 handed Switch Chacho
Determined not to lose again, I start cranking some tricks and my heat is looking pretty nice with an Eslider, Switch Chachoo 1 hand (pic above) , Gozada, Grubby, Spock, Lollypop, Shaka, Shaka 720, flaka 1 hand diablo, forward, spock, grubby. In the end I even went all out and bailed a Shaka Cana Brava right at the end.I was feeling comfident, but you never know…I ran up to the ladder and found out I was now going against young Slovenian Andraz Zan who had previously eliminated the
experienced Chris Sammer!!!
In the blink of an eye, I’m on the water again and the game is on. I pretty much do a twin heat of the one before and I advanced to go against my good friend and Italian Aicw champion Federico La Croce. When it all comes down to competition, Fede is a real pain in the ass!! He can annihilate anybody with his one handed ponches,funnels,shakas,switch chachoos….there was no room for mistakes.
As soon as my third heat of the double elim started, I busted out a Shaka into Flaka right away, trying to get Fede to see it and make him lose a little focus. Right after that,on the same way, I did a Flaka 1 hand diablo, then came back and went for Spock 1 hand, Grubby, Eslider 540. I went out again and went for a Shaka and a
Switch Flaka, then tacked. Coming back I did an Eslider, Switch chachoo 1 hand and a Foward then tacked again. This time I just went upwind and got ready for the final move of the heat coming back in. Here we go..I got switch Stance, Back to Sail, here comes the gozadaa!! I jumped, span around and took my hand off waving at the judges and crowd. I’m on a roll now, I go out and try once more a Shaka Diablo but pulled is poorly…Probably the wind was kinda shifting as you got closer to the little island in front.
Anyways, I advanced and now had to face young Russian Mikheev who was really sailing strong, battling for the 6th place. This dude along with his friend Egor, spent the last couple of years in Dahab, training for six months at a time….with 4.5 wind, absolutely the flattest water I’ve ever seen and 30°C temperature…That’s gonna be a very though one! I put on my earpieces again and listen to some Rap music to get pumped and the game is on again.In this heat I actually sailed only 3 minutes, because I was barely moving for the first two and saw Mikheev doing moves around me…As soon as I finally got planing I really knew I had to go all out and here’s what I got : Shaka, Puneta , Switch Chachoo 1 hand, Flaka 720, Shaka 720, Flaka 1 hand diablo, grubby and a gozada one hand, but bailed in a lollypop at the end.
I had made it!!!
It was now time to go against Ruben Petrisie, in my fifth heat in a row. Ruben is training and Lives in Bonaire with Tonky, Taty e Kiri. He is really known for his consistency but he doesn’t really have any big moves, so I knew that I had to go for the technical stuff but with an insolent style in order to gain as much as possible in overall impression and also to get him to lose his focus. I think this technique worked out allright,especially for me, since this was my best heat of the event.
Here are the Moves : Shaka, Switch Flaka, eslider, eslider 540, Switch chachoo 1 hand, Gozada 1 hand,Shaka 720, grubby, spock, forward, Puneta followed by a Puneta Clew First and the fatal blow, the Shaka DIABLO.
I really felt super happy cause I was finally started to sail like I wanted to and as a matter of fact, I never fell in that heat! Unfortunately, I perfectly did all the mistakes I had avoided earlier in my heat against Remko, going for the 4th place. I actually got another nice heat with more or less the same moves as the one before but I was really starting to lose focus and it showed. I bailed twice and then made a couple of really sloppy ones like a switch chachoo Diablo and a Shaka Cana.
Mattia Pedrani throwing a mean Ponch
I was sure he had annihilated me and I already knew he had advanced…But actually it was a lot closer than I had thought.I was out for good….Really tired and a little bummed for losing but happy for improving my result, I get onto Matteo’s (Guazzoni) PathFinder and finally put on some warm clothes! I could have been 17th but I was 5th, so there was actually a lot to smile about!!
There goes the Ipod again…I put on my giant earpieces and go check out how Guazza is doing and just as usual, he’s kicking asses…He beats Remko and Olandersson, improving from 4th to 2nd place in the double! Meaning he’s 2nd overall for 2006! Even though my 15th place overall is miles away from his placement, I’m still happy to be top 16 after doing only 3 out of 6 events counting for the ranking. This means that I’ll have an ok seeding for next year and will hopefully improve my EFPT Ranking!!
We will be keeping an eye on the progress of Mattia in the future. Watch out for our new Gallery / Moves section featuring some of his freestyle tricks - coming soon.
More info: www.mattiapedrani.com
