The French Brazilian

Up and coming PWA freestyler, Arthur Pollet, reports on a winter in Jeri.

Arthur Pollet (Tabou, Gaastra), the Brazilian French windsurfer, who splits his time between home life in Gruissan in the South of France, Jericoacoara, the windsurfing paradise in Brazil, and now the events on the world tour, describes where he and some of the rest of the PWA freestyle crowd have been hanging out.

Over to Arthur.

“After my first full year of competition on the PWA tour in 2009, I decided to head over to Jericoacoara, on the North Brazilian coast, to train hard for 3 months in order to try and improve my PWA ranking in 2010.

Jeri is the perfect spot to train for freestyle, with warm water, good wind virtually every day, andalmost all of the best PWA freestyle riders around, including Edvan de Souza (RRD, Simmer), Levi Lenz (Dakine), Sarah-Quita Offringa (Starboard, Gaastra), Steve van Broeckhoven (F2, Gaastra), Jose ‘Gollito’ Estredo (Fanatic, North), Andre Paskowski (Fanatic, North) and many, many more. If you want to learn new tricks and reach a better level in freestyle, it’s just the perfect place.

This is my third season in Jeri, so this year I’ve tried to sail in different spots up and down the coast to experience different water states. Three of the best places I’ve visited are:

Camocim: Flat water and really, really strong wind. I was there during the Brazilian Slalom competition with two Brazilian friends, Levi Lenz and JanJao, but also with Steve VB and the Netherlands guys. This is definitely a spot with some of the best action!!

Lagoa Tatajuba: It’s a beautiful buggy ride to reach this place, small chop, beautiful deep blue water, good wind, and the perfect spot for getting the camera out!

Icaraizinho: This remains as one of my favourite spots. It’s uncrowded with just a few friends out on the water, and almost all types of chop at the same spot with different tides. Whenever I dream of the perfect spot, this seems to be it! I went there with “ClubVentos”, who arranged the trip for a week, along with some locals and some PWA riders. We had good sessions, good vibes and of course a great soccer game: Brazil vs The rest of the World! No need to guess who won that one!

I’ve learnt a lot and improved plenty of my tricks on this trip, including some jumps and more new-school moves. In fact, it’s not just myself who has learnt a lot, most of the riders out here have, so for sure the level will be much higher in PWA freestyle competition for the 2010 season!

Now I’ll finish my trip off down South, in Rio de Janeiro, with my friend Edvan, hopefully we’ll get some more wave sailing in, and I’ll be able to practice my tricks on the other tack.

See you on the water soon, Arthur F-00”

To keep up to date with Arthur, check out his blog at www.arthurpolletbra101.blogspot.com/.

Sounds like 2010 will be a big year on the PWA freestyle tour…