Porto Pollo 2013

Hi everyone,

It has been a while since I updated my blog... Sorry for that. 
But the good news is that I had a crazy trip to Sardinia during the Easter Holidays! I went there to  attend the New Generation Project from Dieter Van Der Eyken. I arrived on the 6th of April. It was pretty late so we went straight to bed... The forecast for the next day wasn't looking that good. So we just went to the spot for a meet and greet with the other riders and Dieter explained all the moves we wanted to learn! In the afternoon Dieter said we could go on the choppy site to see if the wind would pick up... But it didn't look like that was going to happen! And suddenly out of nowhere we were all planing, I was even getting a little bit overpowered with my 4.0 Freek.
It's always nicer to get an unexpected session. It was a nice session to get familiar with the conditions at Porto Pollo. And at the end of day one, we all went sleeping with a big smile on our face :). With the first day being so good we all had our thumbs up for the second day. In the beginning of the day the wind wasn't that good so we could watch the videos that Dieter made from the day before and see what we were doing wrong and improve on our skills! In the afternoon the wind picked up and got perfect for my 4.0 and it was a sick session with nice double pop flaka's and my shaka's were getting closer and closer. At 5.30pm we all went of the water and went to a nice pizza restaurant :p. The forecast for day 3 was looking super sick so we all went to bed early but the next morning the wind didn't look that good so we all thought we would have a nice rest day so my hands could heal a little bit.... But the wind didn't want that and after lunch the wind started blowing again and we all went on the water. Unfortunately the wind took off pretty fast... So I was quite happy that my hands could rest a little, because the forecast for tomorrow was looking epic :p I woke up that morning and the wind was already looking super good so I was very stoked!!  The only sad thing was that I couldn't rig my favorite 4.0 Freek so I had to take my 3.7... But that didn't make the session bad because I landed a sick puneta 900°.  I was super happy about that! I also could practice my switch konos that day, I came pretty close. The next day was a day without action... But my hands were happy to rest :). We thought that in the morning we still could get a little slalom session but even a 6.5 wasn't big enough... So we went back to the beach and Dieter showed us some movies from the PWA in Sylt and in Fuerte. So we could learn how to plan our heats :)... We all went to bed early because the wind for the next day was looking pretty sick :)! The next day was the last unfortunately, but for sure it was a day that we wouldn't forget soon! After a nice but gusty session we all went to a restaurant and had a nice meal. At the end Dieter had 3 T-shirts: 2 for the best moves and one  for the most motivated guy! I won one for the best move with a Puneta 900° from the previous day. I was super happy about that! It was a nice clinic, I learned a lot but my trip wasn't over yet, the bad stuff still had to come... The next day we would leave late so we still could have a morning session: the wind was looking good so I rigged my 4.0 and went on the water. After maybe one or 2 hours sailing I wanted to do a double flaka and in the second rotation my knee twisted and I was in a lot of pain. Dieter helped me to get out of the water. When I was back in Belgium I went tosee  the doctor and he said I had to get in  a plaster for 1 week... Sick trip but a bad end ;) haha


Greets
Mattijs






All the photos are taken by Britt Van Der Eyken