POZO 2015
Words FINN MULLEN // Photos JOHN CARTER
‘The best competition at Pozo we have ever had’ – Duncan Coombs.
Duncan Coombs is the head judge of the PWA; his accolades don’t come without reasoned consideration. Duncan has been coming to Pozo for 25 years but even he struggled to process the seismic shift in the level of wave sailing on show. To put this in context, in the trials for the main event, sailors were doing push loop forwards. Until very recently, this was the sort of move you’d normally expect to see in the finals. From the moment the green flag was raised on day 1 of the event, it was like the pressure cooker of 7 months of training for the first wave event of the year was unleashed all at once. What made the contest so special wasn’t just the level on show but the brutality of the conditions themselves. Pozo is windy, in summer it’s probably the windiest beach in the world, but this was another level with winds gusting well over 50 knots at times. Just getting in and out of the water was a struggle let alone sail and compete. ‘’I’m rigging my 3.0, I last used a 3.0 10 years ago’’ said an excited but clearly nervous Iballa Moreno, Pozo local and 2014 women’s world wave champion. And there was waves, logo to over mast high at times. Last year Pozo was becalmed for the PWA, this year it was in danger of being engulfed! Make no mistake; this was windsurfing at its very limit by sailors going beyond their limits.