FM: A lot of sailors have training partners like Swifty and Brawzinho for example, but you mostly sail alone, is that because you are at such a high level there is nobody around to push you?
PK: I am self-motivating but the only guy I really sail with is Skyeboy (John Skye) at Vargas!
JC: He must pull your level way down, I bet you have to sail worse just to make him not sack it all in!
PK: (Laughs) Nah I just like sailing with good friends. I always sail with Skye, that is where he sails.
JC: Every time you sail, do you go balls to the wall? Like jump as high as you can possibly go?
PK: Yes that is just the way I sail. After the competition obviously I will take it a bit easy before Tenerife and I won’t do as many doubles. Of course when I compete again I will do doubles but I don’t need to do them free sailing.
JC: So what jumps do you normally do when you are free sailing on your own at Vargas?
PK: Well I jump, like push loop forwards and big back loops, just normal jumps! I just really like wave riding so I stick to that mostly. When I do jump I go as high as I can! (later Ben Severne tells us about a free sailing session he had with Philip at Vargas during the week, it was an average day but Ben said Philip was doing stuff that he had never seen before, yet alone could begin to describe or name!)
JC: You are not worried about breaking boards?
PK: No, no, no. I don’t think about that. If I would think about breaking equipment when I sail, it would be very bad for me. I would not improve that much I don’t think. I would care too much about the gear. Every time I sail it is flat out!
FM: Do you still get the same buzz as the first time you made a planning double forward?
PK: There is almost no emotion anymore! It is almost robotic! It is not that I land every double perfect but after training twenty or thirty everyday it just kills the emotions. I don’t know how many I have done; hundreds. When I land a very good one I am still happy and if I land one in a heat it is even better. If I land a planning one straight off the bat in a final I can say to myself now I have a decent jump and that allows me to focus on the waves. It helps boost my confidence!
FM: Do you have a heat plan?
PK: Normally all I do is try to nail my jumps at the beginning and then just focus on wave riding but in the last final I did my second jump right at the end of the heat. Sometimes the ramps don’t come or you feel you could have gone higher. It was fine because Duncan gives us plenty of time in the heats.
FM: Rumour has it you landed a push double forward in Margaret River?
PK: Did Ben Severne tell you that?
FM: I can’t disclose that information!
PK: (Laughing) Yes I did a push double forward but it is like nothing really happened because no camera was there. It does not count without evidence! If it is not on tape or camera it does not count. Nobody will believe it so I did not post anything about it.
JC: Did you go for it?
PK: No I just wanted to do a push forward but I was too high so I did a double!
(Everyone laughing)