PWA Pozo World Cup - Promising, but not enough on day 5

by Vienne Masters on 15 Jul 2013 The penultimate day of the PWA Pozo World Cup (Gran Canaria Wind and Waves Festival) saw the most promising conditions thus far, but unfortunately they were never consistent enough to allow for the competition to begin. At quarter past four the decision was made to try and start the men’s trials, but unfortunately by 16:30 the conditions had already deteriorated and despite the sailors remaining on hold until 18:15 it was not possible to begin the main competition.

On the other hand today did see the conclusion of the Junior’s competition and eventually Moritz Mauch (Starboard / North) claimed the under 18s title ahead of Benjamin (Goya Windsurfing) and Marc Pare (RRD / Simmer).

Junior Competition
All three sailors - Mauch, Benjamin and Pare - landed forward loops, but it was the wave riding department that really separated the three sailors, with Mauch in particular excelling in the challenging conditions. The seventeen year old scored the best wave of the heat towards the end of the final as he linked three backside smacks to take control of the heat. With no time to respond there was no way of stopping Mauch from marching to the title with Benjamin and Pare in second and third place respectively.

With both the wind and waves teasing the competitors for the entirety of the day we still managed to catch up with Britain’s Adam Lewis - who finished the 2012 season in thirteenth place.

PWA: Where did you spend your winter?

AL: 'I was in Western Australia for the Patrik photo shoot, as well as just for some general sailing and training - it was sick - I’d never been to Australia before and it was amazing. Some of the places there are perfect. I didn’t actually do much jumping, so perhaps for jump training it’s not the best place, but for riding it doesn’t get much better. Up in the North it’s just incredible.'

PWA: Where was your favorite spot in Western Australia?

AL: 'Gnarloo - you can do everything there because it’s still windy. I was on 4.8m most of the time and it’s just amazing - eight bottom turns on a wave and by the end of the wave you’re just knackered

PWA: You are one of the sailors who is also focusing on training off the water - what does a general routine involve for you?

AL: 'I have a trainer based in Tenerife - Thomas who works for the Recovery Centre in Tenerife - so we do a lot of what’s called functional strength training, which means I do a lot of suspension training which uses your own body weight rather than using real weights, also use elastic bands, Swiss balance balls. It turned out that I’m quite uncoordinated - he couldn’t actually believe that you are at a high level in sport and this uncoordinated - so things like standing on a balance ball, throwing and catching etc wasn’t great. It’s very broad, but definitely focusing more on function.'

PWA: Have you noticed a difference in your performance on the water?

AL: 'Yes - I have to say that after the first month I started to notice a bit of a difference. Also in Tenerife this winter we had a period of about two months without wind, which I spent just training, then when I eventually returned to the water I found that I’d actually improved my sailing, so at this point I was like hang on a minute there’s definitely something going on!'

PWA: Favorite conditions?

AL: 'Cross shore / cross off, logo to mast high. Basically Gnarloo.'

PWA: Favorite kit set-up?

AL: '4.8m and 80l trailer wave, but it’s a slightly different one, it’s really short so it really fits in the pocket of the wave. Other than that I really like 3.7 weather, just because maxed out 3.7m jumping I love that too.'

PWA: Aims for the season?

AL: 'I’d like to finish inside the top ten. Last year I finished 13th and I had a couple of top ten finishes so I’d like to finish there overall.'

PWA: Thanks Adam and good luck.

Tomorrow’s forecast offers slightly more wind than today with a slightly bigger wave too, so hopefully we will see the most radical sailors in the world in action. The skippers’ meeting will be held at the earlier time of 9am tomorrow morning with the first possible start at 09:30am. PWA Event website