“Cold Hawaii is the greatest I’ve ever experienced”

18/9 2011 by Susanne Eltzholtz in press releases 2011 | Comments Off
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Those were the words of the 17-year-old German, Philip Köster, after he was officially crowned as the winner of the Danish World Cup section of wave surfing performance. The competition was held in Cold Hawaii – more specifically, Klitmoller on the West Coast in Thy.


Photos by: John Carter

There is more than one reason why this is big news. Philip Köster can call himself the youngest world champion ever. This was already a reality late in the afternoon on Wednesday September 12th after 45 of the world’s leading sailors in windsurfing of wave performance finished the double elimination in the 2011 KIA @coldhawaii PWA World Cup.

The World Championship title was awarded to Philip Köster after the finals, in which he had beaten the nearly 10 years older Venezuelan, Ricardo Campello with a total score of 38.5 – the by far highest score in the competition.

Before that, the young Köster had waved all competitors off the court in superior style. This occurred in circumstances described by all as the most extreme in the PWA World Cup for many years. Cold Hawaii showed its teeth with a wind, which at times was over 20 meters per second (40 knots ), and breaking waves of up to 6 meters. Nothing, however, could scare this kid, who was born in Hamburg but grew up on Gran Canaria.

“Cold Hawaii fits my style perfectly. I did what I felt like out there, and it was fun. It was tricky conditions, but the day of the finals we had such a good day. I found every wave out there, and could just jump when I wanted. Cold Hawaii is a really great place and I would also come here to train. It’s perfect here.” said Philip Köster immediately after the victory ceremony. He is described by his competitors as the biggest windsurfing talent the world has ever seen. Most agree that with his incredible skills, he will set new standards in windsurfing wave performance in general.

The fact that Philip Köster can now call himself world champion is special. The last section of the Word Cup has not yet been settled. It takes place later this month on the island of Sylt in northern Germany. However, Philip Köster has won all competitions and now also the competition in Klitmoller, making him untouchable in 2011.

“The event in Cold Hawaii is one of the most intense and weather wise extreme in World Cup history,” says Richard Page, tour manager for the PWA. “We’ve been through it all. We have crowned Philip Köster as world champion and even the youngest ever. We thought at one point that we had lost the Danish Lars Petersen, when he had lost his equipment and was finally found after 20 minutes of intense searching. At one point we actually considered canceling the day’s races, because the conditions were so extreme. Generally it’s just unbelievable that we here in Denmark, and now for the second year in a row, have had something close to the best of circumstances we can wish for. Congratulations to Klitmoller, Cold Hawaii and Denmark.”

“It’s great that Northern Europe can offer these kinds of conditions. Denmark has a gem with Cold Hawaii. It’s already big, but it truly has the potential to become the absolute center of windsurfing in the entire Northern European region,” says project manager Robert Sand. And with over 30 world cups on his resemae, the former World Cup windsurfer Robert Sand knows what he is talking about.

The West Coast in Thisted, better known as Cold Hawaii, has once again been host to a stop on the PWA (Professional Windsurfer Association) World Tour, where the “Reef” in Klitmoller is the only stop on the tour in Scandinavia.

The event, whose official title is the 2011 KIA @ Cold Hawaii PWA World Cup, began on September 12th and thus just before the remnants of tropical storm “Katia” hit the West Coast of Denmark. The event is supported by Thisted, Sport Event Denmark, Region Nordjylland and Villages Action for Thy-Mors. It is part of a larger tourism venture, which is about making the West Coast in Thy into a center for surfing in Northern Europe.

Data will make windsurfing competitions understandable

18/9 2011 by Susanne Eltzholtz in news 2011 | Comments Off
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The KIA @coldhawaii PWA World Cup 2011 has put itself into world history in more than one scence.

Not only was a new world champion announced, but together with ACTIVE Institute, the organizers also introduced the “Cold Hawaii Scoresheet” which will hopefully mark the first step in changing the way windsurfing wave performance is communicated to the rest of the world.

The “Cold Hawaii Scoresheet” has, for the last two days and for the first time ever, given an online audience the ability to actually see every counting score right after each heat, in both the single and double eliminations.

“It is important to understand that the product that we’ve created in Klitmoller isn’t the solution. It should be seen as a crucial step to a very important path, that will make the competitive aspect of windsufing wave performace understandable to the world”, says Rasmus Johnsen from ACTIVE institute.


PWA Head judge Duncan Coombs and tabulator, Matias Hejl.

The idea was simple. Instead of giving the scores on a single piece of paper, the judges were using scoresheets that produced a carbon copy. Immediately after each heat, the copy was handed to two tabulators, who, through a specially designed interface, were able to very quickly digitize not only all relevant heat information, but – most importantly – all counting scores, that the judges awarded each rider. This made it possible to then display results through a specially designed app on the event website.

“We need this dimension in the dissemination of the sport of windsurfing wave performance, simply because it makes it possible for spectators to see and understand why one rider beats another. But that’s not the only reason. We also need to store the data. Imagine what you could do with that data once the database gets more comprehensive. For starters, who wouldn’t like a simple thing as being able to search and find the scores from the legendary heats of Robby Naish and Bjorn Dunckerbeck back in the days“ says Rasmus Johnsen from ACTIVE institute.

It’s not only the spectators and online viewers who can enjoy this new revolutionary idea. Future riders can go back and see the specific points from each event they participated in. For the riders, this means a lot, because they now have the opportunity to see what tricks they got good points in, and which tricks they need work on.

The “Cold Hawaii scoresheet” truly is a new initiative, that the KIA @coldhawaii PWA World Cup are proud to have introduced to the world. The far-from-unrealistic vision is to produce the ultimate system, which is, of course, a live scoreboard that will make it possible to follow scores live, as they are given by the judges.

All counting scores single