Top Tips

The PWA’s highest ranked slalom racers are asked to give away their speed secrets.

Recently we asked a bunch of the World’s best slalom racers to give us some top tips on going fast. We didn’t expect too much from the guys as we’re pretty sure they would rather keep most of their top secret tips to themselves for at least a little while longer! Anyway, read on, and learn what you can from the following.

Antoine Albeau (JP, NeilPryde)

“Sail, train, and tune. That’s all I’m saying…”

Finian Maynard (RRD, NeilPryde)

I highly suggest paying a lot of attention to the downhaul of the sail, regardless of whether it is a race sail or a wave sail, and everything in-between. Modern sails have huge differences in performance when not properly rigged. The top pros in all disciplines are continually checking and re-checking their settings, sometimes up to 4-5 times a day, making sure everything is in order. Another tip is to only make small adjustments to windsurfing gear at any one time, nothing drastic, or you’ll get confused.”

Cyril Moussilmani (Starboard, North)

“Train. A lot.”

Peter Volwater (Fanatic, MauiSails)

“My top tip for some one trying to go faster is to tune their equipment well and try to take the right sail for the conditions. Don't sail too overpowered and definitely not underpowered. Sail with at least one other friend who is as fast or faster than you, then you can work on both your technique and make changes to your sail/board/fin settings together. Also only change one thing at a time whilst leaving any other variables the same.”

Steve Allen (Starboard, Severne)

“Always try to train or sail with someone faster than yourself.”

Micah Buzianis (JP, NeilPryde)

“Simple, practice, tweak and tune. Water time is the key, and quality water time makes this key work.”

There you have it, we said don’t expect too much!