ARNON DAGAN
It was challenging and fun racing in Korea. If your gear is not tuned for those type of conditions then you can lose straight away. On the first day I lost because the type of equipment needed for that day was not working for me. The second day, when it got wild, my gear clicked. I was fast and went straight to the final. I had a lot of confidence once I found the magic formula. I liked the wild conditions a lot. The extra wind helped me. Personally my 7.0m and medium board don’t work so well for me. My medium board is pretty big. I think it is the only weakness that I have this year. In the PWA you cannot have any weaknesses. I went down to my small board and I was flying. I am light on my feet so I am one of the first to go down to a small board. Other guys were on medium boards and I had the advantage straight away. The comfort makes confidence. I used pretty small fins, even down to a 31 on the second day. Some guys were on 36cm. I can do that because with my height I get a lot of lift. In that chop I was also using longer harness lines just to get in the toilet position! For me, I like 33-34 cm lines.
It was total chaos out there. The conditions were very unusual; you wouldn’t go windsurfing in those seas for fun. There was swell and chop between the waves. We were full power with current and breaking waves. If you were not in control it was a nightmare, but in control you could have the time of your life. Until I had a crash with Taty Frans I was having a blast. It was strong wind and Pierre Mortefon and Pascal Toselli did not roll me, I was in my element. Normally in these conditions these guys overtake me. I was waiting for them to smoke me but it did not happen. It was scary racing. Especially with the weed as well. You just did not know what you were going to hit next. I saw some major crashes. If you made any hesitation you had no chance, so you had to go full power and hope you don’t hit obstacles. It was a bit like Russian roulette. Everybody had trained for this chop so it was no problem. The sailors on tour are the best in the world and they can handle this stuff. This was quite unusual though with all the weed and debris on top. We had to use all of our resources and experience. I did some big jumps just for fun. I did a 6 metre jump on my slalom board, which I have not done for a very long time!