La Torche PWA Grand Slam

Day 2: The highs and lows of life on tour

The second day of the 2016 La Torche PWA Grand Slam proved to be another beautiful day with wall-to-wall sunshine and peeling waves, but the competition remained on hold with barely a breath of wind on offer. 

With very little chance of competition today many of the fleet once again took the opportunity to catch some waves before they were officially released at 4pm.

Throughout the day we caught up with a few sailors to find out about how long they’ve been on tour and what their highs and lows have been over the years:

First up, Ricardo Campello: (Patrik / Point-7 / MFC), who won the event here in 2014:

PWA: How many years have you been on tour? 

RC: “16 years! Wow, I'm old!”

PWA: Best moment on tour?

RC: “Probably when I won my world titles, It was pretty amazing completing one of my dreams and winning 3 times in a row was special, so that was definitely my best moments!”

PWA: Funniest moment on tour?

RC: “Pretty much everyday with the boys, we try to have fun all the time and there are pretty funny moments which I shouldn't tell you in public jajaja.”

PWA: Worst moment on tour?

RC: “Probably when I was winning the world tour by far and in Canada for me to drop from first to second. I had to be 7th or better which back then it was pretty hard because at those times I was on fire on freestyle and the conditions changed to fully onshore wavy conditions and I lost to John Skye and dropped from 1st to 2nd. That made me miss out on the world title that year.”

PWA: Worst injury?

RC: “I’ve only had two. My recent one in Maui in April and when I tried the triple loop for the second time in Pozo, I broke my wrist but I actually didn't notice until a week later!! I actually kept sailing that day.”


Ben Proffitt (Simmer / Simmer):

PWA: How many years have you been on tour? 

BP: “Since 2003 - so 13 years.”

PWA: Best moment on tour? 

BP: “Winning the indoor in Poland in 2014.” 

PWA: Worst moment on tour?

BP: “Being 5th overall in 2004 heading into Sylt and then basically coming last. I dropped from 5th to 26th because the comp was only completed to the top 16 so there was 16 joint firsts. Also last year, because of the nature of windsurfing, it seemed like on the northern European leg of the tour we were continually driving away from the wind, which was quite frustrating.”

PWA: Worst windsurfing injury?

BP: “I’ve had a couple. My Shoulder. I did my AC joint after I hooked in on a tweaked pushloop and couldn’t sheet out, so I basically had to piledrive into my equipment and busted my shoulder. Also my has been giving me a bit of gip over the last couple of years.”

Reigning world champion — Iballa Moreno (Starboard / Severne / Maui Ultra Fins): 

PWA: Years on tour?

IM: "My first comp was in '97, but my first time doing the whole tour was in 1999 and that was also when I won my first title.”

PWA: Best moment on tour? 

IM: “Probably in 2005 — winning the Aloha Classic for the first time.”

PWA: Worst injury? 

IM: “My knee and my foot. Both took more than 6 months to recover from. I injured my knee playing basketball and my foot when I was doing a tabletop and one of my feet came out of the stars and as I came down I landed with my toes directly on the board and broke three metatarsals.”


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

PWA: Years on tour? 

SQO: “11 - 2006 was my first full year on tour though.”

PWA: Best moment on tour? 

SQO: “I think probably last season… finishing in the top 3 in the waves for the first time, winning my eighth freestyle world title and winning my second slalom world title after a long season.”

PWA: Funniest Moment? 

SQO: “Water bombing a couple of the PWA Crew in Denmark. The look on their faces was priceless.”

PWA: Worst moment? 

SQO: “Probably during the Poland indoor… in the practice rounds I crashed going up the ramp, which was pretty scary.”

PWA: Worst injury?

SQO: “In NC I had a massive catapult which resulted in a bulging disc in my back. It’s alright now, but I can start to develop back pain pretty quickly”

 

Adam Lewis (Fanatic / NorthSails / SWOX):

Years on tour? 6

PWA: Best moment on tour? 

AL: “Probably… coming 7th in Sylt a few years ago (2012 I think) it was my first full year on tour and off the back of that I was able to become a full-time professional windsurfer, so that was pretty cool.”

PWA: Worst? 

AL: “I literally don't think I have one, but it was pretty annoying when Chile was cancelled and if I’d have just gone to Maui instead I’d have finished 7th overall.”

PWA: Injuries? 

AL: “I broke my LCL (Lateral) in my knee. My foot came out on a turn and with all my body weight over it, it popped out. I just thought I’d sprained it so I didn’t go to the doctor until a month later and I carried on sailing on it, which was pretty stupid looking back as it made my recovery much longer. As knee injuries go though it wasn’t too bad as you can just wear a brace.”

PWA: Thanks, and good luck for the rest of the event.

The forecast for tomorrow is predicting winds of 13-17 knots from the east to east-southeast with a swell of 1.7m at 14 seconds, which could provide enough angle to allow for some wave riding only heats. With this in mind, the skippers’ meeting has been called for 8:30am tomorrow morning with a first possible start of 9am (GMT+1). Make sure you tune into www.pwaworldtour.com to stay up to date with all of the latest developments as well as being able to see the action live via the PWA live stream.

To see all the latest from the event — including the live stream, elimination ladders, entry list, images and live ticker simply click HERE and scroll to the bottom of the page.

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