2009 marked Hot Sails Maui's return to World Cup racing for the first time in 10 years. Diony was the only competitor at Sylt to compete in all disciplines - wave, freestyle and slalom. He put in an impressive racing performance despite the harsh conditions finishing 10th in slalom ahead of World Cup veteran Kevin Pritchard and only two places behind Finian Maynard who is the last sailor for Hot Sails Maui (many years ago!) to turn in such results.
This is what Diony had to say:
"The first days of the event was very calm, sunny and good temperatures to get ourselves ready for the event, we knew that conditions where going to be epic for Sylt standards, I rigged up gear for 3 disciplines, slalom, waves and freestyle, I was the only one that did all 3 disciplines, I felt very hyped up to do good in all, the event started of with slalom.
Temperatures were from 8 to 13 degrees centigrade with waves from 2 to 5 meters with winds reaching 40 knots and occasional hail during the event. It was not the most beautiful conditions to compete in, but still I loved the challenge and I seem to do better in tough conditions in slalom. The competition area was very choppy and used my 8.0 and 8.8 GPS, with my 110L and 125L AHD SL, worked good in those conditions.
Photo courtesy of John Carter/PWA
I got to the losers final on first round doing ok, then in the second round after redoing our heat 3 times because of general recalls and people getting mixed up in heats I got a 3rd place inthe Final. This was very satisfying as so far was my best result this year after 3 events. I was in second place at the last mark, but just got passed by on the finish line.
I started of sailing good in the freestyle category, had Brawzinho in my first heat, it was basically a final in first round, wave started the next day, advancing and in the second round was against Angulo, I unfortunately hurt my ankle badly which did not allow me to compete in the double elimination even though I tried, I am very pleased with my slalom results being the first year on the slalom tour after 3 solid events in the Canary’s and Sylt! Cannot wait for next year! Thanks for all the support of everyone!! All the best for the rest of 2009 and see you on the water soon!
Best Vibes!
Diony Guadagnino V69
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