PWA Aruba

Aruba

So the Caribbean leg of the tour is now over and I’m currently on my way back to Vassiliki, Greece via Amsterdam and London. After finishing in 13^th in Bonaire I was keen to hold on to my spot in the top 16 of the event but unfortunately it wasn’t to be!!! The conditions were completely different to Bonaire and it was a bit of a shock at first. To add to the tricky conditions lots of the shit hot local guys from Bonaire joined the fleet again in Aruba, these last two events have definitely been the highest level right the way through the fleet that I’ve ever experienced.

The island is also completely contrasting to Bonaire! Its like a tropical Brighton. The far end of the beach is lined with High rise hotels and Americanised shopping malls etc… Fortunately the event site is a lot nicer and thankfully theres no high rise hotels yet as the wind is bolt off shore!

Like in Bonaire we were hoping to complete two double eliminations but unfortunately the first two days in Aruba didn’t deliver good enough conditions for us to compete! It was windy just from a slightly different angle which made it incredibly gusty! We were all quite glad at the time but looking back it would have been a lot better for me to get the chance in a second double.

I really felt like my level was a lot lower than in Bonaire and I was struggling with a lot of my bigger moves in the choppier conditions so this led to me crashing out into 25^th place! Moving me from 12th into 15^th in the current overalls. The good news is that after 7 events we get to discard out two worst results, this would be a massive relief if I was attending the Lanzarote event next week but due to financial issues I’m giving it a miss. So that will be another discard used up which puts a lot of pressure on for the final two events in Fuerteventura and Sylt.

It was good fun again to be involved with the live streaming which is getting 30,000 views a day. My throat is suffering now and I’m not sure how Proffit does it! He was already loosing his voice and there was still 3 days of slalom left.

Now I’m spending the next three weeks working for www.clubvass.com before heading to Fuerte for two weeks. Cant wait to get back to Greece!!!

PWA Bonaire!

Just finished the 3rd stop of the PWA Bonaire event. Definitely the best location of any competition I've ever been to! The high level was definitely reflected by the amazing conditions. As soon as I arrived and saw the locals sailing here I knew there were going to be some upsets in the draw. I felt like I upped my game a lot doing Culos, bobs and double spocks in most of my heats. We had wind everyday so it was great to finish two double eliminations which would normally split the results evenly but as there were so many similar results it ended with about 8 of us in joint 13th!!!!


I am pretty stoked though as it moves me into 12th in the overall rankings so far for the year. There is still four more events remaining so its going to be hard work to stay in that place, by this number of events last year we would of already been heading into the final one! Unfortunately I'm going to be missing the first stop in the Canaries for financial reasons so will have to use that as my discard and pray that I dont get any bad results in the remaining events!

Its been good to be involved with the live streaming commentary during the event. I have found it stops me from getting nervous hanging around on the beach thinking about my heat too much!! More of the same in Aruba so be sure to check it out at www.pwaworldtour.com
Speaking of Aruba I have just arrived! We got on the smallest plane I've ever seen yesterday to make our way over. Unfortunately the kit took up an entire plane, as in they had to take the seats out to fit it in!!! So we got delayed 5 hours while they sorted that out dropped the kit off and then came back for us!!


Big thanks to https://www.facebook.com/JanWachtmeesterPhotography check out the page and like it! Some awesome shots on there!

the rest by JC/PWA

Bonaire!

Arrived all good in Bonaire. In the end it was actually a pretty easy journey, spending about 12 hours at my house was a bit of a manic rush. To make things a bit more hectic I decided it would be the perfect time to collect my 5.4 Duke from Nik Baker so I ended up going via Gatwick again on the way to Heathrow!!

Feeling a little bit under prepared for the event kit wise, with the KLM weight restrictions it was only possible to bring 1 board, 3 sails, 3 masts, 3 extensions and a boom. Oh and 4 pairs of boardies and a few t-shirts! Should be ok though as long as it doesnt get below 5m weather which hardly looks likely at the moment.

The first day I arrived I went on a tour of the Island with Paul Zeper. Check out the clip from Globalshots here-
I got a quick session in yesterday pumping around on 5.9 but the forecast looks like its improving for the coming week. The spot is absolutely amazing! by far the hottest water I've ever experienced. Its easy to see why the local guys are so good!


The place I'm staying in is perfect as well, just a 30 second walk from the beach and we can keep all out kit rigged out the front. Currently living with Bubble and Laure but when they move into the free accommodation I'll be living with Yarden Meir & Andraz Zan just next door.

EFPT Milos beach

I’ve been out in Greece for the last two weeks setting up the Club Vass centre ready for the first arrivals. We normally open the centre a month earlier but this year the hotel has undergone a bit of a makeover. None the less it was still a massive rush to get the centre ready in time!!! But it is looking really pimp now!

Milos beach is on the north side of Lefkada just an hour from Vassiliki. The event normally takes place a month later but because the pwa calendar is so full they had to push it earlier. To be honest I’ve never been a fan of the conditions at Milos beach as even when the forecast is good its rubbish pumping 5.9 weather!!! It made it even more painful to return to Vass each evening there had been no wind at milos to find out it had been amazing 4.7 weather all day…….

I was pretty confident going into the even knowing a lot of the top guys weren’t there! I was seeded against an unknown Italian in the second round and unfortunately he was sailing amazingly in the gusty 5.7 weather. I had a good heat but kept it too simple. I crashed my shaka and twisted my ankle a minute before the end of the heat leaving me no time to get another attempt in!! All my other moves were fully planning and had plusses on the sheets but the other guy had done a sick ponch and a shaka so it was game over for me! Somehow I still finished in 9^th leaving me with a bit of prize money to drown my sorrows with that night in the Zeus bar!!!!

I have one more week left in Vass before going to Bonnaire for the next PWA event.

Big thanks to Jay Haysey from Globalshots for the pictures….