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ALEX MUSSOLINI – FLYING HIGH

Two-time PWA vice-world champion in waves, Alex Mussolini reflects on his long and illustrious career that has seen him come full circle to work as a PWA judge, all while training to become a commercial airline pilot.

PHOTOS – JOHN CARTER / pwaworldtour.com // WORDS – ALEX MUSSOLINI

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CURRENT STATUS

Right now, I am still working with Challenger Sails and AV Boards, but just in a sort of friendship partnership. I still help a bit with testing prototypes and basically have free gear! Before Covid I was still fine as a pro windsurfer, but with Covid there were no more competitions, so the budgets started to go lower and lower. At one point, a lot of riders had their salaries cut. I was one of them. When 2022 came along, I did not know what the future was going to be like. The brands were not to blame as Covid hit hard and support was just not possible. What I was offered was just not enough for me to continue as a pro and do all the tour, so I decided to quit, but still remain on very good terms with my past sponsors.

STUDY TIME

The last three years I have been studying for my commercial pilot’s license, which I have now. I finished the last exam in June 2021. Now in 2022 it looks like tourism is coming back to normal. I have a couple of companies that might be opening slots for pilots soon. As soon as jobs become available, I will go for the assessment and try to pass that and get the job. I started studying in October 2017. I have been studying like crazy for three years, usually eight hours a day, six days a week! You start with fourteen subjects, which are all really hard. There is a lot of mathematics and theory that you need to know. After all those years on tour, it was tough to go back to the academic side of things.

PILOT

I almost was going to do this many years ago after returning from Maui, where I went to the Ocean Academy (a small private school run by Luke and Levi Siver’s parents). When I arrived back in Spain, I was still at high school. I did not have much chance to sail because Barcelona was the worst place on the planet for scoring wind, so I had a lot of time to work on something else. I liked aviation, so I decided to start on my flying license and maybe after that go for commercial airplanes. This was probably the hardest decision of my life at that time, becoming a pro sailor, or going to the USA to become a commercial pilot. I chose to be a pro sailor, but now I am back chasing that original passion.

After windsurfing for so many years and not studying at all, it was hard. I also have a wife and kids, and at the beginning was still on tour. Basically, I had to be one of the best windsurfers in the word as well as study for really difficult exams. I managed to do it, so I am really proud of that. Now I can fly planes that take passengers, for companies like Ryanair or EasyJet. You just have to take a special exam to fly the planes they use, like an Airbus 320. You make what is called a ‘tie breaking’, which means you are specialized on that airplane. Now if I get a job at Ryanair, I will have to fly a 737, so I would have to make a course just for that plane, which is several more months of hard studying. I need to know about every single button that you see in the cockpit.

So far I have flown a twin-engine propeller plane that can take six passengers. But I go to the simulator and train on all the types of aircraft as much as possible. The inertia and forces that are involved with the plane are the same. Once you are in the cockpit you don’t think about the fact that you are flying people, as you are concentrated on the job of flying. I finished my career in windsurfing in the worst moment ever for this new path, with the advent of Covid. It was really bad timing, but hopefully things will turn around. Now things are slowly coming back and many people are desperate to travel. I am really hoping that 2022 will be my year!

PWA JUDGING

When I was in France, I already had the gut feeling that my sponsors were not able to give me what I needed to continue the tour. I talked to the tour manager Rich Page and put myself forward as a potential judge. I told him that I didn’t think I would be competing in 2022, so that maybe with my experience in competition after eighteen years, I could help with judging. I know the sailors, I know their styles and I know how difficult the moves are. I offered myself and then in January they invited me to Cape Verde. I am really happy about that. I judged the event and also had the chance to sail Ponta Preta again after ten years. I have been in the front line for many years as a competitor. When I first started judging I was really nervous. I was also in a position where I was judging my friends such as Thomas Traversa. I love the way he windsurfs. So for the first heats I said I would not judge him. Later in the competition I did judge him and was not scared of doing that. I felt it could work both ways. Maybe if he was my friend I would be too hard on him. At the end what I like a lot about what I saw with the judging was that we all help each other. Honestly now I can say that the judging in the PWA is fair for every sailor! Being an athlete, I thought that there were some weird things going on. You just didn’t know if some of the judges wanted to score you well or not. But in the end I have seen it and it is fair. Bernd was the clear winner of Cape Verde and we did not overscore him for anything. The same for Brawzinho. I am really happy to see it was fair from the other side.

I never thought I would have this opportunity to be sitting this side of the fence. I am really thankful to Rich Page and Duncan Coombes (head judge) for accepting me there. I am trying to be fair with everyone and I think I am. I think with my experience I can say that I know what I am talking about. I rewarded some moves with quite high points because I know how hard it is to windsurf in Ponta Preta. If I see a rider making a big air, I will score it well because I know that it is tough to do. I can see the way they approach the lip and the style in their bottom turn. The rest of the judges have not sailed much in Ponta Preta so I think I can give a different point of view to them. I have eighteen years experience at all these spots. I know how hard it is. I reward very well my ex-colleagues when they are ripping.

POINTS

Setting the scale is very difficult. On the second day Josh Angulo rode the first wave with a really decent style. We were all excited on how well he rode that wave. He had a big air, a big hit and some powerful turns. But we knew we could not give it eight points because maybe someone would do that plus a taka or something. So if we gave Josh an eight, what would we give the next guy? A ten or eleven? We started with a high score for Josh without going too crazy and then slowly as the heat progressed, we had something to work from.

I think Bernd was really fluid and always in the right spot at the right time. For me, my favourite riders were Antoine Martin and Thomas Traversa. I like their style and Antoine was just going massive. The final of the single was a bit sketchy, but they made the best out of what it was. When I went in the water it made me even more impressed by how good the sailing was. There were a lot of new faces that I liked to watch sail also. I think windsurfing is quite secure in this aspect with the new guys coming through. Marino Gil, Takuma Sugi and Takara Ishii are all amazing, as well as Marc Pare who unfortunately was injured, but we all know how good he is. I think windsurfing is in a good place right now.

CABO VERDE 2007.

I think in 2007 we took windsurfing to another level because we never saw windsurfing like that before. Those huge airs, those turns in the pocket and those rides in perfect waves, I think the level of that year was insane. I had never seen people riding like that. Everybody still speaks about the 2007 Ponta Preta event. This year it was not the same size waves, but still the level was through the roof.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

As a professional windsurfer in the PWA, my first win in Sylt was the highlight of my career. My final was against Josh Angulo. Which is funny that I am now here in Cabo Verde, his home, having come full circle as judge for the PWA. For me winning that final in Sylt was very emotional. Even today I get really excited thinking about it. Also, we did not have live scores. It was with paper. So we did not know who the winner was until we were off the water. That is what I miss about windsurfing from back then. You came out of the water and you still did not know who had won. Now there are guys waving from the beach who know the scores on their phones. Before you had to wait until Duncan gave the result. For me that moment when they called my name was really special. Finally, I had made it. I was vice world champion twice and third once. I have really good memories of those years on the PWA.

PLAN B

I feel I lost all that excitement of competing when Covid hit. Competition went away for a few years, and I was really focussed on my career as a pilot and finishing my studies. This was my plan B. There were no events. I was watching the guys competing this year and I was not jealous. I was not bothered which was quite incredible. I lost the love for competition. I lost the rush. When I did do it, it was incredible to win heats. I always said that when I lost, the feeling was much stronger than when I won. When you win you feel good for one or two days, when I lost, I felt bad for months. Why had I crashed that 360? Why didn’t I make that turn, or why didn’t I jump? I think if I could put everything into one sentence from my PWA career it would be, ‘I suffered more than I got pleasure out of it!’. I guess I was too passionate. I suffered. I was not enjoying competition. When I won it was more of a relief than happiness. I was keeping my job going for the next contract almost. It was like getting a bit of extra oxygen or water to stay alive and survive. I think maybe it was because windsurfers are not paid big money like Formula 1 drivers. I think when you get highly paid you only concentrate on the sport. Here in windsurfing we have to concentrate on the money and the sport. We have to survive. I feel towards the end of my career, every single year was survival mode. That is why now with my kids, I want them to study and have a normal life! I don’t want them to be professional in any sport, I don’t want my kids to suffer what I suffered!

It wasn’t so bad. Windsurfing for me is going to be there forever. Today was an awful day at the beach and I still went sailing. Once I get a job, I will have the money to travel where I like. I will always windsurf. It has been there since I was seven and I first learned from my dad in Ibiza. I am now based in Madrid. My kids are settled and have their friends, school and my wife has her job there also. We are not near the beach. My family is happy, so I am happy! I can adapt myself to where I need to be, I can easily get to Portugal and Tarifa. I am not that far away, it is like a six-hour drive, and I can stay at a spot for two or three days, windsurf and come back home. I am on great terms with AV Boards and Challenger Sails. I called them after the 2021 PWA France event and told them that I didn’t think I would be competing in 2022. They are still making custom boards and sails for me. They are all my friends at the end of the day. I will not change sponsors now for sure.

LOOKING BACK

A lot of people ask me if I am not sad that I was not a world champion. I just did my career my way. I think that little step that it takes to become a world champion, for some reason it did not work out for me. I was not willing to go to the gym and do all that stuff. I was not feeding myself like a champion. I was not training like a champion. I was just enjoying windsurfing. I am happy that I did it my way and it came out pretty well. Ok, I was not world champion but I think I can say I had a good career. People will remember me for a while and in a couple of years I will be forgotten. It will take a while. I invented a wave move! The Clay is my son’s name. It is a 360 into a taka. I never made it in a heat in a wave event and that is a regret. But there are riders that are doing it in Pozo and Tenerife, so I am happy that I invented something like the way Mark Angulo invented the wave 360! So for me I left my little mark in windsurfing in the waves and I am happy about that!