Strong early morning winds lessened soon after dawn to leave a moderate breeze and brilliant sunshine here in Brazil on day one of the PWA Ceará Wind Grand Prix 1999.

Although official World Championship competition does not start until tomorrow, the beach was a hive of activity this morning as sailors rigged, tested and prepared equipment for this afternoons Pro Am Long Distance Race. The race, which has opened the event for the last 3 years, takes the fleet, made up of both professional and amateur racers from around the globe, along nearly 20kms along the beautiful coastline of Ceará in North Eastern Brazil.

As the fleet blasted away from the beach into the warm waters of the Atlantic, it was Frenchman Antoine Albeau (F-192) who took the early lead, away from 11 times World Champion Bjorn Dunkerbeck (E-11) and veteran racer Anders Bringdal (S-10). In the chasing pack were other top names such as Robert Teriitehau (F-2000), Jimmy Diaz (VI-11) and top Brazilian racer Wilhelm Schurman (BRA-999). In the women's race, World Champion Karin Jaggi (Z-14) took a flying start from Venezuelan Colette Guadigno (V-711) with Brazil's own Valeria Matuck (BRA-704) in hot pursuit.

After 45 minutes of downwind endurance, Dunkerbeck and Albeau were neck and neck as they hit the beach and sprinted to the finish line. Disastrously for Albeau he tripped just short of the line handing Dunkerbeck the win leaving Bringdal in a respectable third.

Guadigno fought her way down the long, broad reaches to finish first ahead of Jaggi and Matuck.

Now in its third year, The PWA Ceará Wind Grand Prix is currently the main focus for international windsurfing in South America. It provides a welcome escape from European climates at this time of year and is a firm favourite among many of the top ranked sailors.

Scott Fenton
"Why do I come to Brazil? Warm water, warm wind, beautiful people."

Jamie Hawkins
"I don't think we go anywhere else in the world where the people make us feel so welcome. Everybody is just so friendly. The water is warm and despite the fact that the wind is normally quite light the conditions are pretty challenging, it's really choppy and that adds a whole new dimension to the racing."

Micah Buzianis
"The people, the place, the conditions, it's just really cool.

The last PWA event saw complete domination from Swedish course race ace Christopher Rappe (S-39). We asked him how he rated his chances against a fully stacked fleet here in Brazil.

Christopher Rappe
"Everybody has had a few weeks to work on their equipment and really prepare for this event, on top of that there are some big names here in Brazil who weren't in Paros, Bjorn and Anders and people like that so it's going to be pretty tough to do as well. My course racing gear is really good right now though so I know I can do OK upwind.

Following a week of good wind at the Brazilian National Championships everyone is looking forward to some solid competition in the coming days.

Text:©SSM Freesports / Dan Atkins