Finished yesterday the 2015 Brazilian Slalom Nationals.The event was held on the beautiful Cumbuco Beach at the new Carmel Resort. The beach is around 35km from my city Fortaleza. Nice sandy beach with great winds everyday this time of the year. As slalom in Brazil is growing a lot since last year, people were getting a lot of expectation to this event.People from all over brazil showed up to the amazing event venue.It was very nice to see all the fleet together again and very motivated to race hard,including the masters fleet, one of the most competitive out there.On the other side, people were very curious to see the fight for the national title.

The top seeds were Mateus Isaac BRA-767, now living in Maui and competing for the second year the PWA World Tour and last year Brazilian Slalom Champion. Gabriel Browne BRA 50, 4x Slalom national champion and former PWA Slalom competitor. Mathias Pinheiro BRA-5, former Formula Winsurfing Master World Champion. Victor Melo BRA-2497, top Formula Windsurfing sailor for many years in international events.

First day of event one round was done in Medium Winds around 14knts and big waves, due to a strong north swell that arrived in the first day of event.In the winners final all the top sailors were there.With a perfect start Gabriel Browne managed to control the race since the start with Mateus Isaac in second and Victor Melo in third place.

In the second day of event the swell got even bigger and the wind got stronger around 18knts.The race comitee had some problems to set the course and two races were done.In the first race of the day, Gabriel Browne got a good start again to win the race in fron of Mateus Isaac and Mathias Pinheiro.The last race of the day, the wind dropped minutes before the start turning everything very hard for the competitiors.This time Mateus Isaac won the race with a great start, Gabriel Browne finished second and Mathias Pinheiro third.

The third and final day of the event the wind got even stronger aroung 25knts.The race comitee set the course early in the morning to finish 3 races for the day.All the eyes were going to Gabriel and Mateus.As nothing were done yet for both, there was no room for mistakes. In the first winners final of the day Gabriel and Mateus started together at the pin, showing great speed on strong winds Gabriel Browne managed to go on top of Mateus in the first leg after the start to get first in the mark and win the first race of the day.To win the event Gabriel needed to win one more race as they were both changing second and first places.for Mateus, the situation was harder, he needed to win the last two races on the event.In the second race of the last day,once again the fight was already before the start.Gabriel managed to get a perfect start at the pin with Mateus very close until the second mark, as he left the sail dropped in the jibe.Gabriel won the race and the 2015 slalom national title for the 4th time.The last race of the day with the results already done, Mateus Isaac got a great start and won the last race with Gabriel second and Victor Melo third.

Gabriel Browne : " I´m very happy to win the slalom national title again.This year was special for me as last year Mateus won at his homespot, now I won at my homespot with all my family and friends.The event was amazing and the organizers want to bring a PWA event soon.Mateus is a great friend and competitior.Now he lives in Maui and compete all the PWA tour, something that I was doing few years ago.As this year the event was in my homespot I knew that I could do good as I´m very use to the place.Very intense training with my local friends made this possible, in the end I won 4 races out of 6.Also very happy with the performance of my gear. My MauiSails TR X1 were going really good.They were fast, friendly to use and easy to jibe. I was using my 7.7 and 8.4 during all the races.Big thanks to Phil McGain for helping me tunning my gear and training this year in Maui in the begging of the year when I was visiting my brother.My Isonics 107 and 120 was the perfect match for my sail sizes.With this result I feel more motivated than ever to comeback for the PWA slalom tour.I´ll be soon going to Maui again for some training and tunning.Hope to keep some good performance next year on tour."

Final Results :

1st - Gabriel Browne (Mauisails/Starboard)
2nd - Mateus Isaac (Neilpryde/StarBoard)
3rd - Victor Melo (Mauisails)

Best regards,
Gabriel Browne