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Ufficio stampa - Press office |
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Press Release - May 17th |
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The wind was coming from a
western direction blowing between 10 and 12 knots with frequent strong
gusts and heavy sea, this is what Valeria Zullo saw today in the “One
Woman Show”, which she completed on her own from Ustica to Mondello,
she has now became the first woman in Europe to have travelled 30
nautical miles on a windsurf.
The bitter conditions of the sea
and the wind had made the crossing even more demanding, in a challenge
that is already an enormous strain on the body, and takes months of
training to prepare for. The average intensity of the wind registered was around 10 – 12 knots, but more than once the intensity reached over 19.4 knots, the waves of three to four metres lifted up constantly in front of the RRD table, Valeria Zullo had a 7.5 sail, so she made the most of the wind that blew.
The surfer who comes from Rome
left Palermo early in the morning, reaching Ustica under a dull sky with
a storm making its way in. The challenge took of at 11:30 and finished off in Mondello at 15:05 amongst applause’s from the many spectators who waited for her on the beach.
She was accompanied by a rubber
dinghy led by Guglielmo Russo and Commander Oscar Casagrande, who by the
rules couldn’t in no way give her any help, or the attempt would be
cancelled, Zullo kept a speed of around 10 miles an hour, finding
herself quickly in sea of 3-4 metres. On her journey she didn’t meet
the sharks that she feared but a large dolphin, which seemed to show a
sign that everything would have went just fine.
When she was near the end of her
journey, near the torre of Mondello, before entering the bay, she needed
all the strength and determination she had in her to overcome the drop
of wind that she encountered, Valeria needed all the strength she had,
her table was with no drift so it was even more difficult to control the
board. When she finished her journey she was met on the beach by Vincenzo Pottino, President of the Albaria, who congratulated and awarded her for this challenge brought to an end. “This morning when I woke up at 5:00am I saw that the weather wasn’t good, but I’ve been preparing for this challenge for such a long time. The sea was wild, I haven’t seen waves like this but I felt I could go ahead and do it. When I took off I was given a piece of paper with today’s weather forecast: Stormy! Great, lets get going then! If the weather had been good it would have been easy. Whereas finding yourself in open sea and alone without seeing any land and being in difficult conditions was really a deep experience. I was ready physically and mentally to cope with a lot more time in the sea, the wind kept me going right up until the end, making me gain a lot of time than expected.” These were the first words from Valeria Zullo, who was happy, tired but also very serene and who didn’t even need help from a doctor.
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