30 S after the start

phoilingphil said..
In my mind Johan is a two to me repeat world foil champion!!

Agreed.

Disappointing that the wind didnt turn up today. Forecast looks rubbish for tomorrow.

A podcast where Mario & Arnon Dagan rate all the sailors (male). Some interesting thoughts about IQ Foilers along the way.

phoilingphil said..
In my mind Johan is a two to me repeat world foil champion!!

Two moral victories but no trophies!! Give it a break.

What we can say is that he absolutely blitzed this event. 10 first places in 12 heats competed so far is very impressive

Paducah said..

duzzi said..
Lot's of young people! Johan Soe is just 21 years old!!

But man, and woman ... THEY ARE BIG!

There was a 14 yr old female competitor who did quite well in the heat that I saw. Remember all the fuss about the IQFoil and that kids wouldn't have a way to enter the pipeline 'cause "foiling is too hard"?

The young brain is a sponge, quick to learn new things, and the self preservation receptors are nowhere near fully developed.

Maddlad said..

He won last years world title despite missing a whole round, and they had to disqualify him on a technicality based on a sail they couldnt prove he actually used. The whole thing came off as old blokes desperate to stop a young guy and claim a title before they got surpassed by younger better sailors.

So are you saying if Pierre Mortefon had been found using an illegal sail nobody would have minded?
Soe started a heat which was cancelled with the illegal sail iirc.
It was blatant.
I think Soe was got over that incident, but seems not all on here.

As much as I sympathize with Johan -- by all accounts he sailed superbly, when he was there -- Pierre deservedly won the Tour this year, an even more impressive performance when adding his SlalomX title, which he clearly dominated.

But one doesn't have to dig deep to see some systemic problems. Despite there only being 3 events on the calendar this year, even within the top 20 men some guys didn't manage to do the whole tour; outside the top 20 the list is even longer. Similarly, in the women, where there were only 2 events, 5th and 6th overall only finished 15th and 22nd respectively in Japan, while Erzen is on the podium in Japan but barely in the top 10 overall as she didn't do Fuerte.

bel29 said..


But one doesn't have to dig deep to see some systemic problems. Despite there only being 3 events on the calendar this year, even within the top 20 men some guys didn't manage to do the whole tour; outside the top 20 the list is even longer. Similarly, in the women, where there were only 2 events, 5th and 6th overall only finished 15th and 22nd respectively in Japan, while Erzen is on the podium in Japan but barely in the top 10 overall as she didn't do Fuerte.

IQ Foiling in comparison has a lot more sailors in all age groups and a lot more events. In the UK there have been several youngsters at youth & U17 events, about 15 off the top of my head, plus the seniors. In the PWA we just have Scotty Smallman and Jenna Gibson, who didn't go to Japan.

To put an optimistic spin on it: IQFoil is the pipeline to the PWA. Having numbers in IQ means new crops of youth who can move into the PWA if they choose. Were it the other way, I would be more concerned that in a few years time, we wouldn't have an inventory of talent to keep the "pro" side adequately supplied.

Arnon Dagan, in the video posted by PhilUK (worth a watch or listen), thinks that if you put the top 10 IQFoil guys into the PWA, it would seriously disrupt the top standings.

What may hurt the PWA is current formats strongly favor 95-105 kg in men's racing. That is definitely going to reduce the talent pool. The women's side doesn't seem quite as kg favored judging by the results.