JC: If you talk to any of Brawzinho’s close friends they can usually tell when competition time is approaching for the young Brazilian. Within days he goes from joking and laughing to quiet and serious as the pressure starts to build. The Aloha started as the penultimate event on tour but midway through, when Chile was suddenly cancelled, the title was on the line!
MB: The first heat I had fun, but in the second round – because Philip and Musso had already lost – I felt nervous. I saw the door was open for me, but it got into my head too much. I just couldn’t sail. I had to wait until the Double Elimination, clear my thoughts and go into that with a different mentality. My brother told me ‘if I lose but lose trying and sailing my best’ it’s ok. It’s just worse if you get too stressed and start sailing safe because you don’t want to fall. If you lose that way, it can feel really bad. If you go for it and crash, it’s fine – at least that way you go down fighting like a man.
That change of attitude helped me a lot. There were still a few nerves in the last heat with Josh, Musso and Swift, but I was saying to myself all the way through “at least try some moves” and I went for it.