A dawn raid for the wave sailors proved fruitless as the breeze refused to build, and the swell that had been forecast failed to materialise, leaving them to head home before breakfast had even been served.

With few waves, the next group of fired up competitors to have their window of opportunity were the freestylers. Unfortunately for them, by the time they'd finished their skipper's briefing at nine o'clock the wind had dropped below the sufficient level for them to compete too.

And, by the time the final fleet of world-class windsurfers - the slalom racers - were briefed the wind was already showing signs of dying completely. Race director, Juan Antonio Aragon and his team made every effort to get the first heat underway by setting a course and sitting it out on the water all day, but the wind simply refused to blow.

Live Entertainment

Despite the lack of action on the water, live video streaming of the event continued on www.pwaworldtour.comwith interviews throughout the day, including a master class in wave board fin configuration from Kai Lenny (Naish, Naish), Robby Swift (JP, NeilPryde), and Klaas Voget (Fanatic, Simmer, MFC).

One Man Brand

With plenty of time spent on standby, we took the opportunity to talk to top Italian slalom racer, Patrik Diethelm (Patrik, North) about being a world cup competitor, shaper, and all-round brand man!

PWA: First and foremost, why did you decide to go it alone, and start your own brand?

PD: "Well, when I separated from F2 I had two choices; I either had to return to being an electrical engineer, or carry on shaping by heading off in a new direction. Shaping windsurf boards was definitely the more enjoyable of the two, so that's what I did. I actually often thought about doing it throughout my seven years with F2, but I just couldn't understand how I'd fund it. I knew all of the numbers from F2, and they were far larger than anything I could comprehend. But, before I made the final decision I realised that myself, and with a little bit of help from Karin (Jaggi - Patrik, Severne), we could do everything on our own. Together we could cover all of the bases from brand manager to team rider, shaper, secretary, marketing manager, you name it, and all without those costs!"

PWA: In what ways do you think being a world cup racer helps you to design, develop, and shape boards?

PD: "Firstly, I don't have to waste my time talking to a team rider and having endless conversations about how the board feels, and what we need to do to improve the performance. There are a lot of good racers out there, but many of them can't explain exactly what the board needs to make it better. Okay, they can say it doesn't gybe that well, but they can't pinpoint the reasons behind it. Does it have too much vee, not enough vee, too wide in the back, too flat, there could be many things, but the rider just doesn't know. Whereas, if you're a shaper that rides boards, you know immediately what's wrong with them. I could jump on almost any board and would know immediately what I'd want to change without having to measure anything."