Competition update

Time for an update after being half way in #PWA competition in discipline nr #2 this year.

Straight after the PWA freestyle competition in Fuerteventura I left to Tenerife; another Canarian Island for a PWA wave event. Fuerteventura was a freestyle event and this wave one is the second stop in the Wave Tour of the PWA. I did not compete in the first PWA wave stop of this year in Pozo because that was only six days before the start of the Freestyle and I did not want to take any risks.

Two days after the event in Fuerteventura I left to Tenerife. Unfortunately as soon as I arrived in Tenerife the wind dropped. I managed to get a small wave session in on my first day but after that the wind was gone. It felt sooo strange to be on a wave board after not using one for almost half a year! The foot straps are much wider apart than on my freestyle board and I kept hurting myself by kicking my tows into the straps and I am used to sail with my small MUF fin under my board instead of a few fins!

Was nice to catch up with some many friends from all over the world. It’s always a great feeling to come to a place on your own, and realize within less than a day that half of your friends are on the island too 🙂

Was so nice to see my good friend Caterina again from Cape Town, and we went for a nice SUP session together on a windless day.

Photo with my favorite Catalan windsurf girls and Sarah 🙂

TWS windsurf center were so nice to pick me up from the airport and in their center I had the time to play around with the right fin set up and rigging my Blacktip wave sails. Thanks TWS!

On Sunday evening was the opening ceremony of the event. All riders were walking with the flag of their country towards the main square in El Medano, with live music and lots of people watching! Here a pic with some of the girls on the stage.

For the first days of the event we were on hold because there was not enough wind and the waves were not that great either. I was up against Daida Moreno in the single elimination; 20 times world champion. Not an easy seeding unfortunately but I am hoping that I can work my way up in a double elimination.. but with the wind staying away for more and more days I know the chances for a double elimination are not that big.

Yesterday they decided to start with the girls single elimination. There was still not a lot of wind, but the waves improved a bit. My biggest board is a 78 liter; which is quite big for my weight normally, but I knew that with such light conditions I needed an even bigger board just to keep my speed. Luckily I could borrow a 90 liter RRD board from TWS windsurf center; lots of wave sailors told me I was crazy of using such a big board; but being used to my 91 liter freestyle board I knew it would not be a problem for me and I preferred having enough speed over making the perfect cutback. I was also lucky to be able to borrow a sail from one of my Simmer team riders so could use a 5.0 Blacktip sail; which is a bit bigger than my 4.8.

Because there was not enough wind for jumping the judges decided to only count wave riding and no jumps. Not so good for me as my jumping is better than my wave riding, but the only big advantage that came along with this is that now my heat against Daida became a four man heat with Daida, me, Justyna and Caterina of which the best two would advance.

Just before the heat I was chatting with Dieter and he gave me some good advice just before I went on the water. With this in mind, I started my heat waiting for a nice wave in front of the judge tower. Had a good start of the heat with a nice wave ride but the rest of the heat it was harder to find some good waves. Felt very happy when I came of the water as I sailed a solid heat; had some nice turns and kept my speed. It turned out to be a close heat, for a long time I was ahead but Justyna, Cat and me were all very close in points together fighting for that second place advancing the heat. In the end it was Justyna who advanced and I became third place.

I came of the water smiling; not knowing whether I was advancing or not but either way being satisfied with my sailing and my heat. I have never really practiced wave riding on this tack ; most of the time when I’m in waves I prefer to practice jumps or freestyle and this winter in Cape Town I was still a bit wary for my ankle doing wave riding. However after this week of practicing a lot, visualizing my wave riding and getting so much tips and tricks at the last moment, I feel I got a better understanding of this onshore wave riding and I’m very keen to keep improving!

With the system of elimination you are out when you loose your heat; so that was it for me for the single elimination. A shame as it looked like lots of fun on the water yesterday in the finals of the girls; it’s only in a heat that you get this perfect spot for yourself for a little bit! 😉

Fingers crossed for a double elimination; the forecast looks alright for today and tomorrow but they first have to finish a full men single elimination which takes a long time. Would be really nice to get another chance but we have to wait and see.

Going straight from one competition to another I didn’t find the time to update about Fuerteventura, so a bit more about that too.

I managed to finish 5th place in Fuerteventura. I must admit I felt a bit disappointed with this result; after finishing in top three for the past three years its not a nice feeling to go down in ranking. Especially after my ankle injury last year which resulted in not having an overall result I really wanted to put down a good performance again this year. But I couldn’t pull it off and did not sail good for most days in the competition. I could say it were the conditions that did not suit me or my ankle that was painful… but it’s not the truth 😉 I normally like sailing in strong wind and with some little swell but my head was just not in the right place. Don’t really know why; I think I put too much pressure on myself, being so stressed about it all and I think it was not good for my head to be there already for a month before the competition started. But loosing is part of competition too and I have learned from it.  Fifth place is a good result. I think the level of girls freestyle is getting higher and higher every year, and great to see that there were so many new girls entering their first PWA competition! Had a great week, the atmosphere was amazing like always and it was so nice seeing all my friends on Tour again.

 Fourth place after the single elimination with Sarah Quita, Maaike and Oda; congrats girls!!!!

I think being the waves and starting at the bottom again helps me realizing things about my freestyle competition as well. Competing in waves I feel no pressure at all from myself, of course I set myself a goal but I do not have high expectations and I just see how far I will get. It’s such a nice feeling to get on the water not being worried about messing it up but only thinking about going for it; not having anything to loose. Until this year I think I always had that feeling in freestyle as well, and I think this year I was overthinking everything way TOO much. some of you know what I can be like 😉 hahaha.

 

O.K., it’s time to go to the beach and check out if they have started with the men’s elimination again, I’ll keep my fingers crossed the whole day for a lot of wind and swell to come!

Next competition after this is going to be discipline nr #3….SLALOM! But more about that later 🙂