Zur Info:
Dear Sailors
Not one of us can have completely escaped the impact of the COVID pandemic this year, but we hope you have not been hit too hard by the virus, or its effects on our daily lives.
Throughout the year, we tried to give every event the best possible chance of happening, but in the end it was simply not possible due to local restrictions at the event venues, travel restrictions, or reasons of pure social responsibility to do the right thing by both our members, or the communities hosting events.
Regardless of the unfamiliar world we have found ourselves in, the first glimmers of hope have appeared on the horizon in the form of the various vaccines being developed, and, for perhaps the first time since the pandemic began, we can start to have faith in meaningful improvements in the situation over the next few months.
2021 Tour Calendar
We know you will all be keen to see a calendar for 2021, but we need to wait a little longer to better understand how the coming weeks will unfold before publishing anything official. However, what we can tell you is that we are working on almost all of the regular tour events that we had expected to see this year, as well as one or two new possibilities so, whilst it is undoubtedly too early to be sure how 2021 will look, hopes and expectations are building that we will be raising green flags across the disciplines soon.
Rule Changes – Racing disciplines
There are a few things we want to let you know about for next years tour. In general, there will be no major changes to the racing equipment rules for course racing and slalom, with competitors still able to register 4 boards and 7 sails for slalom, and 1 board and 3 sails for course racing. However, there will be some minor changes. For both disciplines, competitors will now be able to register 3 front foil wings instead of 2. This has been introduced to ensure that competitors can use the right size wing in a wider range of conditions, to help ensure control and enhance safety.
Women’s Foil Slalom
In the women’s division, there will be further allowances. Women’s slalom will still be separated into foil slalom and fin slalom. For foil slalom, competitors will be able to use boards up to 100.5cm in width, provided that they have been registered for use on the PWA Tour. This has been introduced to encourage female iQFOil and Formula racers to participate in PWA Racing, without having to purchase additional equipment, in order to further boost the women’s racing divisions. The men’s divisions will still use the 91cm rule for slalom.
Constructors Ranking
There will also be changes in how constructors ranking points are allocated. From now on, the top 16 ranked riders in the men’s division, and the top 16 ranked riders in the women’s division at each event will receive equal points. The ranking will then be calculated based on the 2 highest points scorers per team, whether they be men or women. The new system will ensure equal value for men and women in the constructors ranking at each event, leaving it purely up to each brand to decide how it organises its team.
Foil Freestyle
Its been hard not to notice the enormous potential of foil in freestyle, particularly for lighter wind venues. Balz Muller has done a great job of championing development in this area and demonstrating that anything is possible, and we congratulate him on that. Following discussion with the freestyle committee, it has been decided to allow foils to be used in PWA freestyle events in 2021. This will not mean that everyone has to be able to perform on a foil, and the wind minimums and guidelines for minimum conditions will remain the same at this stage to ensure that it is still possible to compete on a fin in official competition. The change is being made to encourage more people to get into foil freestyle and to develop the concept further in order to eventually be able to open up freestyle competition to a much bigger wind range.
Media
The new PWA media service, which would have been deployed on the 2020 World Cup Tour, did not have the opportunity to demonstrate the enhanced coverage that it will provide from PWA events because of the pandemic. The team, headed up by Adam Simms of AALVAA Media (who many of you will know from the highlights clips they have produced for PWA already and from their work on other windsurf events), will bring an enhanced and comprehensive service for 2021, to deliver high quality live and highlights production, as well as assist in the distribution of television footage to broadcast networks. In addition to these upgrades, we hope to bring you some further exciting news regarding PWA media soon.
Social Media
Despite the lack of events, our social media team has worked hard to keep the windsurfing audience entertained. Our numbers have continued to grow and 2020 has been successful in that respect. As always, we try to share and promote as much content from the PWA riders as possible, so if you have content that you would like us to include, please feel free to contact us and let us know.
Future Changes
We will be making some important announces about changes to certain aspects of the tour in the near future, so watch this space. In the meantime, stay safe, follow the rules and guidelines for wherever you are, and hopefully, if we all continue to work together to beat the virus, we can see you all back on tour soon.
Kind regards
The PWA
