The eye of Tom Malina

16/11/2023

Johan Søe's disqualification from the Fly! ANA Windsurfing World Cup in Japan has caused quite a stir in recent hours, with opinions as varied as they are clear-cut. Among them, the thoughts and insights expressed by Tom Malina on his Facebook page caught our attention, words that had their rightful place (in our opinion) in the columns of Windsurfjournal.com. A professional windsurfer from 2000 to 2018, the Czech took part in the Athens Olympic Games and, from 2006, competed in slalom events on the PWA World Tour. Now a lawyer, he also runs a windsurfing centre in the Czech Republic. And of course, he continues to sail and take part in slalom races.

"Well I would call it highlight of the day resonant in the group of windsurfers and fans who follow the PWA World Tour. Poor Johan Søe was disqualified from the last event of the year which led to losing the world title.

Normally I'm very restrained to comment PWA in general even if since I retired from the pro windsurfing I didn't agree with a lot of decisions made by the PWA.
But this time is different as a lot of people is asking, wondering why, hating, coming with some X-files theories etc. and I have the need to write something down.
First of all believe me I have seen a lot of cases like this during my racing career but most of them during my Mistral Olympic Design olympic period and the rest in IFCA class. To be honest, I don't remember any case over the 12 years on tour (maybe few pathetic ones).
Why is/was that? Well in IFCA and MOD class there were always tons of regulations and rules adjusting each fart you made and of course with so many rules you could always find some which was broken by your opponent and protest him. The reason why you would do that is simple. Eliminate your opponent and gain better positions. I dont think I have ever seen anybody protesting other guys just because of fairplay. It was always about getting an advantage.

On the other side, PWA was different and I really loved it. No rules, no protests. Of course there have been always some rules like dangerous sailing or something like rules reg. equipment regulations but that was it. Nobody really gave a $&@“ about that. Back in the days there was different mentality I guess. We were competing on the course not at the beach. We all did tuning on our gear all the time and nobody cared. But these times are obviously gone.
I have no proven information who actually protest Johan. Sure, there are some rumors, but rumors are rumors. But I think one thing is clear. Whoever did it on purpose as I mentioned already before specially if the world title, podium or Top 5 position is on the table. So If the protesting person put protest and the PWA committee found violation of the rules the protestee has to be punished. That's it whatever you like it or not. His mistake and it really doesn't matter if it was on purpose or not (I rather keep moral aspect aside as this would be whole different story). So far, no discussion.

But now is the B.U.T. coming. I remember studying the PWA rules few times in the past and as a person who little bit understands principles of law I was always wondering how come that all the rules or better to say system of rules and regulations is so imperfect leading me to the conclusion “ oh dear we rather don't do protests”. Why? Because the imperfection was so big that basically the all mighty power of interpretation of the rules was given to the few people who were judging the protest and those people were led by their instinct and personal opinion because the rules they had were just few general sentences without any serious meaning. Maybe that is why nobody was protesting in the past. It would be just one big joke. But as I said times are changing.
Unfortunately If the system of rules and I mean mainly procedural rules is still the same like in the past than it still will be the same joke like it used to be and that is just not fair. If somebody is protesting me I have the right to defend my self but it is really hard to do it when the rules are not exact and precise. If we want to decide the world titles on the beach or in the office then we need to have system of rules which leaves no one in doubt that the process could not be fair for both sides of the protest.
I'm sorry for Johan, but this is how it is. We are here to learn from our mistakes which is moving us forward. He is young, and he is a good sailor, so for sure he will find his way to the top without any sorrow left in his mouth.
And there we go! Since I posted my thoughts yesterday evening I received some feedback and most importantly some trustworthy information regarding the process of this case and I think it is fair to update my post.
First I have to point out that I'm far to judge anyone means Johan Søe, Point-7 team or the PWA World Tour committee. The post was about my concerns of the fair protest procedure leading to disqualified a guy who was almost world champion and my concern was coming from my past experiences with protests on the tour.
Based on the information I have got now it seems that beyond my original concerns the whole process or we can call it trial was fair to all the participants of the protest which makes me a bit calmer and means what I already wrote before. Every founded violation of the rules is followed by penalty this time disqualify for the event. That's it. Case closed.
But I still can't help my self. I think that with the foil stuff we will see more situation like this in the near future. I think that the difference between the riders on the water is so small that some of them will try to get their advantage off the water specially if we are talking about the top places which means more and better sponsors, more or some money, better contracts etc. We can see it in many other sports. But if that will really happen, and I personally don't really like that idea, the PWA World Tour has to be ready for it to guarantee fair proccess for everyone."