World class windsurfers off Paul do Mar
Madeiran Olympic Windsurfer: João Rodrigues has been training in Madeira surfing off Paul do Mar and Funchal
João Rodrigues currently ranked 14th in the world by the ISAF:
link: http://www.sailing.org/15_9490.php?includeref=ranking3760&rankdiscipline=7&ranktype=2&rankclass=82&rankdate=latest
“João Filipe Gaspar Rodrigues, better known as João Rodrigues, (born November 2, 1971) is a Portuguese windsurfer from Funchal, Madeira. He started sailing at nine years-old and racing competitively at the age of eleven.
In 1995, he won his first major title at the Mistral World Championships, in Port Elizabeth, South Africa; this year, he also graduated from a five-year course in engineering. In the following two years, Rodrigues won the European Championships in the Mistral class. In May 2008, he added a third European title to his record, this time in the Neil Pryde RS:X class.
He has participated in every Summer Olympic Games since the 1992 Summer Olympics and has already qualified for what will be his fifth consecutive Olympiad.
João Rodrigues also won Silver in the masters fleet at the 2009 IWA Junior, Youth and Masters World championships which took place at Weymouth and Portland sailing academy which is the venue for the windsurfing and sailing at the 2012 olympic games.”
Source: Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo%C3%A3o_Rodrigues_(sailor)
Madeira: European Windsurfing Championships 2012
From 7 March some of the best Olympic windsurfers will be in Madeira training for 3 weeks in preparation for the European Championships organised by Clube Naval do Funchal.
Besides Madeiran Joao Rodrigues other Olympic windsurfers Blanca Manchon Spanish World Champion…
the German Moana Delle, the Frenchman Eugene Ricard and Fin Tulli Petaja are expected to come to the Region.
Snowfall on Madeira’s serras in January
Photo gallery from Diario Newspaper:
http://www.dnoticias.pt/multimedia/fotoreportagem/247165-queda-de-neve-nas-serras-da-madeira#
Looks like you guys in Madeira are having awful weather at the moment. Hope it improves by the end of March, which is when we are next over. 🙂
The rain was dreadful on Tuesday and Wednesday, but it’s actually been lovely since then. Nice warm sunny day today, thank goodness, as it’s my last full day here after a wonderful 2 month stay. It’s going to take me a while to get used to wearing a coat again when I’m back home. Brrrrr….