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PWA GRAN CANARIA: AIR GAME

The second stop of the 2022 PWA wave calendar took place in Pozo, Gran Canaria in July and delivered shocks and surprises as the men and women of the World Tour battled it out in the surf and most of all, the air, to claim glory. A selection of riders tell us more about their experience of this year’s event.  

WORDS – Philip Köster, Marcilio Browne, Marc Paré, Daida Moreno, Lina Erpenstein, Liam Dunkerbeck. // PHOTOS – John Carter / pwaworldtour.com 

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Philip Köster – 1st Men’s 

It felt amazing to have a contest back in Pozo! Ever since I started competing, this has been the most special and challenging event for me. Having trained more than ever since the last event here 3 years ago, I was feeling really confident to sail against the other top guys. I guess that was the one positive thing of being stuck on this island in quarantine times.  

Having no event for such a long time makes you a bit insecure in where you stand in your ranking against the others, so in a way, I felt a little bit of pressure and excitement at the same time. But once the green flag comes up in a heat, I am happy to be doing what I like the most, pushing myself to do everything I can in such a short period of time! 

This year, at the beginning of the event, we had a lot of ‘Calima’ winds, a dusty wind blown over from the Sahara, which made the conditions warmer than normal and very unpredictable, even though we had a great forecast! With possible fickle weather, I needed to have all my sails ready from 3.7 – 5.3, and I think I actually used every single size. Some heats were really hard; I can remember the one against Dieter where I had to sail on a 5.3 and 99-litre board, which is very unusual for Pozo. Otherwise I sailed a few heats on my 4.0m sail and 87-litre board, which are my favourite sizes to jump! This was my first event in Pozo where I used thrusters instead of twin fins! I feel I get more drive out of the thruster and tons of speed to get the height in tricky conditions. 

When I won, it felt like a big weight dropped off my shoulders after preparing for such a long time! I have not had that feeling of winning an event in some time, and it felt amazing! Also having my family on the beach cheering made this event very special.  

Sailing against Marcilio is very exciting because you know that he will bust out the biggest moves in a heat and this motivates me a lot, having somebody in the heat that sails like him or Ricardo is always fun and pushes me to my limits. 

My high point of the event was definitely winning the finals! The low points were the days waiting on the beach not knowing if you are actually going in the water with weird conditions. Unfortunately, this is a sport that relies on nature and so there can be a lot of waiting involved! Overall I am very happy that I won this year after having such a frustrating event in Cabo Verde where they had me in the water for a 45 minute heat without any waves or wind, competing in under the borderline conditions. This event victory at least made up for that frustration.

Marcilio Browne – 2nd Men’s 

Coming back and sailing in Pozo was fun, everything felt fresher after not going for so long and there was definitely more excitement during the training sessions. After so many years competing, the break had its positive side and I think we all felt a lot more motivated to be back in the game.  

When I was knocked out in the single elimination it was a mix of emotions – anger, disappointment and frustration, but not towards anyone else. I was annoyed with myself for the way I sailed during the heat and the way I lost. I was bummed to not have been able to get my normal level wave scores and based on the forecast there was a risk we were not going to finish the double, so I had some down days for sure.  

Especially in the single, there were not many waves, so it was hard to rack up wave scores, at least for me. In the double the conditions were very good and I was having lots of fun competing. During the single elimination I rode 4.5m and 4.2m with my 89 quad. It was windier in the double elimination, so I rode my 4.0 with my 84-litre board in every heat.  

Making that comeback felt surreal and I finished way beyond my expectations. I was so stoked by the end of the day and couldn’t believe the turnaround of events from that morning. It was one of those incredibly special career days I will never forget for sure. It was not a win, but it felt like it for me at least.  

In the final Philip ripped, and on top of that, I was so tired and my left leg was cramping. I was starting to feel like my reflexes were not there and I almost had that feeling like I could hurt myself. After the event, I was beyond happy, but also so tired, and we had to pack to go to Brazil the next day. I had promised my son a big ice cream, so the four of us just went to the mall, had some ice cream and went home, where I passed out for eleven hours!  

Marc Paré – Joint 7th Men’s 

It was awesome to be back competing again, but nerve-racking at the same time. After so long without being in a World Cup event, it’s tricky to keep your mind calm and in the right place. But luckily, I just felt like I clicked quite easily in the heats and I found my mental sweet spot, as the rest (all the training and preparation) was already done before. I was happy that I didn’t really think about my foot during the contest any more, which was a great sign of recovery from my injury! 

The competition was tough. Everyone is ripping at the moment and there are a lot of threats; unfortunately I got the two toughest guys, both in the single and the double. Philip was on it, but it was really upsetting for me to lose by a narrow margin when I know I could have beat him with a second better wave score. At least I’m happy my strategy of matching him in the jumps worked! In the double Marcilio stopped me earlier than I would have wanted to, but he sailed really well and did a hell of a comeback all the way to 2nd place. 

I was happy with my sailing in general, not as much with the results though. I felt like I had a good chance to make top four, so I was quite sad to lose and finish equal seventh. But I guess I can’t complain, I recovered from my injury and I’m able to windsurf and compete again at my highest level, which is priceless! 

I think one of my high points was my consistency with double forwards and my low point was not having the table-double forward down, as that’s what made the difference in my heat against Braw, as it scored as two different moves. So I better start training them! 

It was brilliant to see all the competitors and my friends at the event after a long time away. Let’s hope we can keep the ball rolling and have more and more events again.  

Daida Moreno – 1st Women’s 

This event was so different, as I was no longer the event organiser. For ten years my sister and I had to deal with the stress of the organisation and also the stress of competing, that was really hard for us. People cannot even imagine how hard it is to put up an event of this magnitude and managing public money. Not being involved in organising the event was a plus for Iballa and I, especially for Iballa who got 4th in 2019 here and now 2nd in 2022. I think they are amazing results due to consistency and training on a daily basis. As for me, I had also been training a lot in my wave riding, trying to push my own limits. Shakas, takas, wave 360s and aerials have been my goals and all I want to do is to compete and show my moves and level during the event. I have won here 21 times in Pozo and people always expect me to be beaten. But my motivation comes from this. The level of the boys is rising and also the level of the girls, big time. I am immensely proud to be a part of this movement and to see all the girls pushing their limits makes me happy and proud. For the single elimination, checking the forecast, the head judge decided it was important to have at least a result from the women’s fleet and he went ahead with the woman’s single elimination. I have to say that I have never sailed in Pozo during competition with such marginal conditions, but the level of the girls made it look great. Of course, sailing with 4.5m and an 80-litre board is not typical Pozo conditions, but after two years without competition we had to have a result.  

I felt confident in the semi-finals against Sara Quita and managed to pull a taka in the wave and landed my jumps! I was so happy and excited to beat her after hearing all the time she wanted to win here in Pozo. In the final against my sister, I think I relaxed too much and could not find my timing and my waves, so she was a clear winner, especially after landing a crazy one-footed forward! 

After a long week of waiting, we weren’t expecting to run the double until we saw the conditions and got ready for action on the final day. Finally, we scored 3.3m weather and it was more like classic Pozo conditions, so I had a great chance for a comeback.  

Firstly, I was up against Sara-Quita Offringa once again. I knew with smaller waves on offer, that both of our jump levels are similar, so I felt I had to concentrate on my wave riding. Then that 360 came along! Landing it was an amazing feeling.  

And then in the final I had to beat Iballa twice, which is never easy. But everything came together for me and I managed to force a super final and beat her twice. It is always hard mentally to have to beat your own sister and ‘steal’ a first place on the last day of the competition. She sailed great and proved to be one of the best sailors in the world. I honestly thought that the single elimination result would stay as it was, but on the last day of the comp I was excited that there was a slim chance to get to the finals. Pozo gave me the chance to also prove myself once again. My motivation was to be on the stage with my son Axel holding the trophy, so it was a dream come true for me to win this event again. Also winning the Red Bull Rockets competition for the highest jump gave me a lot of satisfaction and extra money to help pay for school for Axel next year! 

As I said back in 2019, I haven’t competed on the tour since 2017 and I won’t be doing any other events until next year due to logistical problems with having a baby. I wish my sister the best of luck for the rest of the season. 

Lina Erpenstein – 4th Women’s 

Getting knocked out in the first round against Sol Degrieck, who is only twelve, was really frustrating for me. I had trained a lot ahead of the event and really tried to push my sailing to another level. Finally, after almost three years, I had the chance to sail a heat again, but I couldn’t show anything of what I had learned or what I am capable of, because the conditions just didn’t allow it. 

The whole week of the event I was disappointed and frustrated, but still hoping I would get a chance to fight my way back up in the double elimination. When the last day arrived, and it was properly windy, I got super excited. When I finally got to compete, I just tried to sail heat by heat and most importantly have fun sailing.  

The conditions were actually firing and I had a lot of fun pushing my height in my jumps. When I know I will get points for the jumps that I do, I lose my fear and will go higher than I normally do in free sailing. That’s what I like so much about competing. In the end it was a super fun day and I got so sail a lot of heats, which I really enjoyed. Climbing back up to 4th place was a really cool experience for me and off course now I am hungry for more! 

Liam Dunkerbeck – 1st U20 / Joint 7th Men’s 

Competing in Pozo for me is just amazing because it’s the spot where I grew up and where I train most of the time and to win the under 20 category feels even better with all the support of family and the local crowd. During these two past years of Covid-19 I put in a lot of work on and off the water and that was the key for me to improve so fast. It felt so good to be competing again and now I’m more motivated and focused than ever for the upcoming competitions.