Gran canaria 2016

Pozo is king kong

Yes !!! Pozo this year was the bomb.

I arrived a month early this year and got familiar with the heavy conditions so that I wouldn’t be caught off guard during the contest.
During that month I had my pushloops down pretty well. I was landing a couple of backloops every session and taka’s here and there. I just received my new Ultrakodes and they rock! So I was really looking forward to showcasing that in my heats.

There’s a saying there that goes:
“Ho’okipa is king. Pozo is king kong”
When it comes to wind that saying definitely holds true.
I did have a 3.3 this time but didn’t want to use it until it was absolutely necessary. Lo and behold come competition day Pozo was blowing full force.
Around 45-50 knots if I’m not mistaken.
Had all my preparation been for nothing ?!
As the heats starting running I stubbornly rigged my 4,2. Then realized I was going to need my 3,7. Finally as I struggled walking in a straight line it dawned upon me that I would have to unpack and actually use the 3,3.

I’m not going to lie! I was having a hard time calming myself down. In those stormy conditions you really think twice whether or not you want to launch yourself into a forward or backward rotation. A little mistake will cost you dearly as the crashes are much more violent.
When the green flag went up however I told myself that it was mind over matter.
In my first two heats, I did my moves quickly before being too powered and sailed quite safe. It went better than expected!
I made it into the semifinal and would be up against Iballa. By then the waves had dropped though and we were released until the next day.

Great. I had all night to think about how I wanted to sail my heat. I knew she was much better free sailing, but in a heat everything is possible and it was the first time I felt like I would have a chance if I stuck the moves I had learned.
I was SO excited when I got to sail against her the next day that there were hardly any nerves. I just wanted to do well.
I landed a perfect pushloop in the opening seconds of the heat and pretty soon a good forward. I thought those were good enough so I started focusing on wave sailing which is my weakness. It didn’t go as I wanted and then decided I had to go for broke if I wanted to pass and finally tried this a taka and stuck it right in front of the judges. Win or lose this heat I was extremely delighted!
When I finally heard I won, I accidentally lost control and started shouting into the judges tower when I saw the scoresheet.. ooops!!

Booom! A final against Daida at her homespot Pozo. That’s all I wanted. I tried everything I could. I was inconsistent but did go higher and tried things I would normally not have done, I landed one of my best stalled forwards but also crashed my pushloops and taka’s as well as lost control during a forward coming in. Daida sailed a perfect heat and won it. But I had already achieved what I wanted. Finally we weren’t able to run a double elimination so I didn’t have to defend my second place, but it still means so much to have finished second in the single.

Pozo was once again a challenge, but I really enjoyed it this time. It made me push my limits in wavesailing a bit further.
I’m on my way to Fuerteventura now for the freestyle contest. Looking forward to seeing that huge beach and sailing on those crystal clear waters!