Tenerife World Cup 2017

Time for the second wave stop of the year!

After my rollercoaster ride of Fuerteventura I arrived in Tenerife a bit out of competition mode. I needed a couple of days to recover. Anyway there wasn’t much wind before the contest.

After lounging for a couple of days, motivation started to kick in. The conditions improved on registration day and I got on the water for the first time in a week.
I was so happy about just getting in the straps and planing on my first run that I was near Morocco when I realized that I should maybe turn back.
Yes ! Let’s get the competition rolling.

Tenerife has always delivered for the past years and it did again this week.
The hardest thing there is too choose the right gear because the wind intensity really varies a lot during the day. In one day I would have rigged my 5,0 down to my 3,7. The best strategy was to wait until about an hour before your heat to choose the three sails that you wanted to have rigged.

The contest started easy and gradually got harder.
We had decent waves and 4,7-5,0 wind. Then the wind went nuclear, and finally we had nice waves but light wind. On the first day we had one jump and two waves to score.
Judging from my scores I have definitely improved from the year before, making better use of the wave. But the fact that I wasn’t sure about my performance means I still need to learn a lot.
Then came that windy day that was windier than Pozo.
It was mental and the waves were powerful because of the low tide.

I was up against Iballa fighting for a spot in the final. I was out of my comfort zone on my 3,3 and quite big waves but I managed to squeeze out a pushloop. Then I faceplanted into my sail. A crazy gust back winded me while going for a forward. Ouch. At least I was in one piece. Oh oops, I spoke too soon.
The next wave came and smashed my mast. Well I guess that was it for my run to the final.
Have no fear ! Super Dieter was in his wetsuit and brought me my gear ( Thank you!!) My 3,7. As if I wasn’t already out of control on my 3,3. I did a forward and a wave ride here and there. When I came out of the water Justyna told me I won the heat. Iballa was missing a second jump.

Well that was unexpected. So I was in the final then. ?
Next thing I know I see Daida getting carried out of the water. She bruised her rib on a backloop landing. After the first elimination I found myself sitting in first by default because of that. The outcome of the single elimination was a bit unusual for me. But I guess that’s part of the sport.

On the final day, Iballa made her come back against me.
I actually loved every second of competing in those two heats. Iballa is that good and that just makes me want to do better. In the first heat I just missed out on winning. Apparently I was leading most of it but then Iballa got 2 great last wave rides. I needed a better jump and probably a bigger sail.

In the second heat I didn’t sail as good and Iballa killed it so I took a step down from the top spot to the second spot. Which was fine by me.
It was a good learning experience that week. I learned that I should really start to push my jumping. Apparently height is rewarded much more than anything else. So that’s what I’ll do. And as always my wave riding needs improving but Im working on it.

That was it for the 2017 Canary Saga.
It was a fun but tough two months. Having my mom and friends visit me at all three stops really meant a lot to me.Let’s head to Europe for some autumn wetsuit sessions.

Next event up: Slalom in Denmark.