MATTEO IACHINO
I think many guys were going over their limits to try to pass one round or to get a decent result. That’s the reason we had so many accidents. In strong winds you have less control and you need to know where your limits are. Many riders try overtaking others just doing stupid stuff that is dangerous for everybody. I’m not talking about Ethan or Taty’s accident in particular. I saw so many other dangerous situations. We have just been lucky until now!
I think we cannot race with rules. I agree 100% with the ‘no rules’ system. We are doing an action sport with high speed fighting with other guys to get in the top spots. That produces risks but this is in the core of the sport itself. You cannot put rules in MotoGP or in Formula One, otherwise there will be no overtaking. At the marks it is dangerous for sure. The windier it is, the more dangerous it is. Riders also lose control on the straights so imagine at the gybe. But that’s what I personally love of our sport and especially of the PWA. We are the top of the windsurfing world, we are professional athletes and we have to be ready for that kind of incident and we have to be aware of the risks we take every time we are competing. We just don’t have to do stupid things and to stay inside our limits! I think you just can’t make it safer. Our discipline is like this and now with the level growing event after event, we get to the first mark all together. It creates a better level on the water, better fights, it’s nicer to see but it’s also more risky. I personally think the rules we have are fine. Maybe we should make the dangerous sailing permanent. If you have a warning, it stays for like two or three events and it’s cumulative. But that’s just an idea! This is the point I want to make for high wind. In every action sport where you race directly against other guys you wear protection. In BMX, boardercross snowboarding and many other sports, protection is mandatory and everybody wears it. We race in high winds, at the edge of control, up to 70-75 km/h super close to the other competitors and we are in board shorts and no protection at all. Imagine if you fall in front of somebody and the guy has no time to react and hits you full power in the head with the fin. Imagine if Taty or Ethan would have gotten the same damage they got but in the head or in the back… that would have ended really bad, same as if the nose of Taty’s board would have hit Pierre in his head. I think every day at the skipper’s meeting the race director, after checking the forecasts and looking at the actual conditions where we will compete, should make mandatory or not wearing a helmet and an impact vest. It is nothing special but it’s already something that can really save you from major injury. It has to be mandatory as otherwise nobody, including myself, would ever wear protection and sooner or later there’s going to be an accident even worse than what happened in Fuerteventura.