THE BRITS
For the Brits it was a mixed bag of results but that really didn’t tell the whole picture – Skyeboy (17th) was extremely unlucky in his heats. Probably the only father of two in the world consistently banging out double loops, in this competition he wasn’t just banging them out more like firing them off at every opportunity. Those opportunities just didn’t come at the right time though with ramps or waves not lining up when he needed them and his progression was halted by an on form local, Josep Pons, who Duncan Coombs rightly named as one of the top 5 jumpers in the world right now. Ben Proffitt (17th) ran into some similar bad luck with his heats and was extremely unlucky not to advance against Simmer team mate Klass Voget but could hold his head high with some strong sailing in the double elimination and certainly being the online crowd’s favourite as he continues to bring windsurfing to life across the internet as the well versed voice of the PWA live webcasts.
Adam Lewis continued to show his port tack prowess in his adopted home away from home in the Canaries with an 11th place finish. In his own words on the event, ‘’We always talk about how windy Pozo is but this year really took the biscuit! It was ballistic; I didn’t use a sail other than 3.4 in any of my heats. I guess the main difference compared to pretty much every other time I’ve sailed Pozo was the waves! It was pumping, it didn’t even feel like sailing Pozo, all the little line ups you have to get a good section were totally different and a few sets came through you could have even described as solid logo high! From a personal point of view, I was pretty gutted with the result. It was conditions I’d normally really enjoy; I guess a few key moments just didn’t quite go my way. I also can’t ignore Philip’s triple either! I mean wow! It was so freaking high and so so close, I mean he water started straight out of it…I think he was feeling the impact after, I know he had to have someone drive him home because he was so dizzy! Good effort!’’
Robby Swift (9th) is world class and at this year’s Pozo he showed why neither new fatherhood nor the legacy of past injuries will slow him down this year. Robby went out to Jaeger Stone in one of the closest and most radical heats of the day. A solid push forward and incredible tweaked out aerial was backed up by a perfect stalled double forward but without a high scoring second wave he took his loss with sanguine sportsmanship and will no doubt look to the rest of the year with increased motivation to put his hands back on a deserved trophy place finish.