kiel

Last season, my coach told me about a very famous race celebrated in Germany: the Kieler woche (Kiels's week). He told us (to the team) about the race and instantly we wanted to go! unfortunately we finally didn't go, because it was expensive and a bit too far regarding that we had started that same year. But time's passed so fast and we are already preparing the calendar for next season and summer, and it seems like this June... we're traveling to Kiel!!!

I was already excited when I heard about that, but my excitement boosted when a couple of weeks ago the organization shared the promotional video for this year. I'm really looking forward for it, although it will be cold. Germany is a beautiful place, and as I've heard Kiel is great: just watching the video you can make an idea of how great the experience of being in that race would be. I can't wait to go there! 

It seems like Kiel's winds are not too hard nor too light (perfect!) and the temperature in June-July is like the average temp. here in middle spring. I'll have to wear my winter clothes again, but I think it is going to worth it. Another point to contemplate is the long journey to there, which is in northern Germany, about 2000Km far from Barcelona. We still have to decide if we're going there by plane or with our club's van, and there are a lot of details to settle...

I'll keep you informed!  

I've post the video up there! (the post just before this one...)

my photo

This is a photo of Pau and me sailing taken in Vilagacia d'Arousa during the Spanish championship. In the center you can see Pau hanging from the trapeze and just behind him there's me steering. On te left top there's our boat and the sails. On the background there is a boat racing against us and you can see two more 420 on the right side. Also on the right side, but forward, there's the arrival boat. The sea looks a little messy and the wind strong but not too much. 

I like this photo because it's very dynamic and of course because there's me sailing and I don't really have a lot of photos sailing. Also because it's cool and I think that I look very concentrated (I didn't realize that there was somebody taking a photo of me). My favorite part of the photo is that you can see how is a sailing day with wind, and all the sails together are very beautiful.

However it is also useful to see what do I have to improve, for example you can see that the small sail on the left is a little bit curved by the spinnaker pole. I can also see that both Pau as I have to hang more straightly so we could manage the boat better.

Anyway, I like the photo and I have to say that it is my profile picture on Facebook.

keep sailing...

This is the third post about sailing, and it won't be the last one. My intention is to keep you in contact with my sailing experience. Today I'm going to talk about the racing calendar. 

At first it could seem very hard, because I have only a free weekend a month. But once you're in, you don't need a pause, you want more and more. 

Nowadays I have about two training weekends per month and a race. However, we have several races which last for two weekends like the catalonian championship, which was this two last weekends, or the spanish championship which lasts four consecutive days. This weekend I went to the second part of the catalonian championship, and I did it quite well (in my opinion). It was a hard race. Specially last Saturday, which was windy and super cold. The wind was completely frozen and the sea even more. 

But... now that the exams have already passed I have time to think of the future, and in two weeks I'm going to Villa García d'Arousa to compete in the nation championship. It lasts for four days, but we're going there a few earlier to train and pass the material controls. So we're going at least eight days, two for journeys and six for sailing. I'm very excited because it is the first long race I'm going to without parents, with plane and... a lot of friends! It sound great. :)

Well, I'll explain that race once being there and I will tell you all the details! ;)

Sail, train, enjoy.

I've already done a post about sailing, but I would like to show you some more things. Every weekend I go training to Blanes or somewhere to compete in a race. This weekend I trained at nine o'clock with my team, because the winter wind in Blanes is quite strange, and if you want to sail, you have to wake up very early. As I know that sailing is an uncommon sport, I'll show you a short resume of how is a training day. You'll see that this Sunday (when I shot the videos) we had soft wind and flat water. These are great conditions to practice tags and jibes, and also velocity against other boats. I also have to tell you that it's been a short time that I'm sailing with this class of boat, so I still have to train a lot... Anyway, it is a good video to figure out how is training a sport such different as from we're used to see in television. I hope you enjoy it! ;)