The world's best windsurfers have come to Taiwan to compete in the third annual Penghu Pro-Am, the first of five stops on the professional Asian Windsurfing Tour (AWT). Racing begins today at Guan-yin-ting (觀音停), with finals taking place on Saturday.
Current world number one, Frenchman Antoine Albeau, and last year's AWT champ, Australian Robbie Radis, will lead the field of international pros. Hsin Jin-lung (幸金龍), Taiwan's windsurfing representative to the Asian Games in Busan, South Korea, will head the sizable pack of savvy locals in the three day competition.
They'll be sailing for US$5,000 in cash prizes, down from US$18,500 last year, and Neil Pryde equipment.
Now entering its third year, the Penghu Pro-Am is gaining an international reputation as one of the windiest sailing spots on the planet.
Outsiders compare it to Maui and the Columbia River Gorge. Local regulars could care less. "I went to Maui, and it was like, 25 knots, you call this wind? I wasn't impressed," commented one Belgian, a Penghu veteran.
Locals, like Hsin Jin-lung, began windsurfing in Penghu around 20 years ago, but the site wasn't discovered by outsiders until around 1996 when Australian Alex Mowday stumbled upon it.
Mowday manufactures parts out of a Taiwan factory for one of the leading brands connected with windsurfing.
He turned Penghu into his own R&D playground and also began to rent equipment, hoping to lure visitors and further develop the sport.
Penghu's lure was extreme winds, which ravage the Taiwan Strait at least eight months of the year, from October through April.
The winds are generated seasonally by the Northeast Monsoon system, which creates massive air movements from high pressure centers in northern climes to equatorial lows.
As the winds pass through the trough of the Taiwan Strait and between the mountains of Taiwan and China, they accelerate.
What keeps the water flat enough to sail is the land barrier of a curved string of islands in the Penghu archipelago. They create a massive bay of 11km in length and about 5.5km in width.
Statistics kept by Mowday's outfit, Bump n' Jump, has shown winds are between 17 knots (31kph) and 40 knots (74kph) for 71% of the season and more than 40 knots for another 13%. Only 15% of the season is a boring, and what the locals consider unsailable. Local crazies will go out in winds of 55 knots (102kph).
Racing over the next three days will take place in four divisions, Formula One, Men's Open, Women's Open and Masters. Formula requires uniform boards and rigs, while other categories leave the decisions to the competitors.
The main event will be a downwind slalom, and there is also a 40km endurance race over a figure eight course. There will also be plenty of freestyling and big air jumps within view of the Guan-yin-ting harbor.
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