Pozo PWA World Cup

The world’s best wave sailors look ahead to the 2015 Gran Canaria Wind & Waves Festival

With just a couple of days to go until the start of the Gran Canaria Wind & Waves Festival, which is also the first event on this year’s PWA Wave World Tour, we caught up with a few of the sailors to find out how they are feeling ahead of the event. 

The current forecast looks as though the conditions will be absolutely firing on the first day of the contest with the howling winds which Pozo is famous for being predicted. With this in mind the schedule has been brought forward slightly to make the most of the best conditions, so trials will now start from 9:45am if conditions allow, meaning the main contest now has a first possible start of 12:30pm.

Over to the sailors:

Victor Fernandez (Fanatic / North / MFC):

“I’ve been in Pozo for a month now and I’m feeling good in the water. We had light wind conditions for the first 2 weeks and last 2 weeks was the best. Forecast looks great for the event so I´m prepare to have fun in the water and I’ll try to sail my best.”

Ricardo Campello (Patrik / Point-7 / MFC):

“We have been training a lot in pozo and we have had 4 really good days here with 4.0 and 3.6 full power and I had the best session I’ve had in pozo so far, it was super fun and I feel ready with my new boards and sails, the forecast is looking amazing for the first days and I hope we get good conditions. The boys are sailing really good and the competition will be really hard!” 

Amanda Beenen (99NoveNove / Point-7):

“After six months in Maui I was worried about my port tack sailing, but I think developing my starboard tack definitely helped my port tack sailing! I feel pretty good coming into this event, trying to push my jumping to new heights (literally) and feeling very comfortable in my wave riding. I just hope that I can show that in competition.”

Robby Swift (JP / NeilPryde / Mystic / Maui Ultra Fins / SWOX):

“I'm feeling pretty good. It's always good to get here early and warm up. It's so different here from anywhere else. I've been here for a couple of weeks now and have one more week before the contest. We had no wind for the first few days and then it was very flat but the last couple of days have been Pozo at its best so we are hoping for more of that for the contest! The forecast is looking great for the first few days so everyone is keeping their fingers crossed for an epic year!”

Jaeger Stone (Starboard / Severne):

“I've been here for just over 2 weeks now. It's been consistently windy and I've been out on everything from 3.3 overpowered to 4.8. It's Winter in Australia at the moment so coming early has been a good opportunity to tune all my gear and get use to the Pozo conditions. Having windsurfed almost every day since I've been here I'm trying to manage my body off the water as well so I'm ready to go Day 1.”

Sarah-Quita Offringa (Starboard / NeilPryde / Mystic / Maui Ultra Fins):

“I've been in Pozo for a week now! Because I know Pozo is hardcore, I took it quite easy and just sailed a couple of times. By now I think I'm a bit more used and confident to the strong wind again. I've seen so many ladies on the water, and I'm really excited to be competing with all of them. The forecast looks pretty solid, so all I can do is hold on to my sail and do my best :).”

Steffi Wahl (Patrik / Sailloft Hamburg):

“I´m feeling quite well compared to last year… I had no injuries and arrived a couple of days before the comp starts….We had some nice full power sailing on my smallest kit and I really enjoyed it to be back on the water. I´m really looking forward to Sunday, I like sailing heats and for me it could already start today. I need the heat pressure to sail more radical :).”

Make sure you tune into www.pwaworldtour.com from the 12th-18th July to follow all of the incredible action live via the PWA live stream and live ticker.