NIC HIBDIGE
It was pretty tricky surviving the shore break with my 5.2, only just floating most of the time on the inside. But I did have a great warm up in Sylt a few weeks prior on a freestyle board. I opted for my 5.2 freestyle sail and the Tabou 87 Pocket. Skippers was at 7am and during the spot check the wind was light so I took the biggest gear I had, but I would have liked a bigger board for wobbling over the shorebreak! I definitely put more effort into duck diving to make sure my sail wasn’t lying flat under the lip! The freestyle sail I don’t feel holds the bottom turn as well in bolt onshore, but the early planing and power was a bonus in those conditions.
For the wave contest it was really nice to sail a ten minute heat only having to do one jump and catch two decent waves. I was much more relaxed than when competing in freestyle where you have to perform 8 moves in 7 minutes. With it being bolt onshore I made sure I went for a back loop before catching any waves. On the wave, you have to take them all the way in to rack up the points, which leaves you downwind back in the shorebreak and currents. I went for some shiftys in the warm up Saturday but that was it, I opted to leave freestyle out of the wave heats. Adam Lewis was busting out the freestyle in the lagoon before his heats, he’s still got it!