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PWA SLALOM FINALS JAPAN: THE TSUKUIHAMA SHUFFLE 

It all came down to the wire for the Fly! ANA Yokosuka, Miura Windsurf World Cup in Japan, with the men and women’s slalom world titles on the line at Tsukuihama Beach, south of Tokyo. With wind every day, and conditions from flat water foiling to super choppy hardcore slalom racing, it was a battle for the ages. A selection of racers give us the rundown on the tense competition.

Words: Maciek Rutkowski, Matteo Iachino, Enrico Marotti, Marion Mortefon, Justine Lemeteyer, Delphine Cousin, Antoine Albeau and Nico Goyard.

Photos: JOHN Carter / pwaworldtour.com

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MARION MORTEFON – 2022 World Champion

I am so happy I won the title again. It was a long week of racing with different conditions. I enjoyed racing on the fin and foil. I was also satisfied that I was on top in both and was in front in all conditions. It was a really nice week in Japan in every way from the people to the hotel and the racing. We had an amazing level in the women’s racing. We now have girls coming in from iQFOiL which is super good to raise the level.

The fight was intense for the podium. It is really nice to have this kind of battle in our fleet. I think it looks great for the future. The standard was really high. The starts are close and right from the opening heats you need to be at the top of your game. You have to be fully focussed. It was great to see all the new faces. I am so happy to win again and I hope next year we will have a few more events and not just one. One event is very stressful. I think I used all of my equipment this week. Everything! I used my fin board and my two foil boards and all of my sails. It was crazy. My Duotone and Fanatic equipment is amazing and I am happy with that. We had sun, rain, strong winds and light winds. We literally had everything, so it was a perfect week for racing.

MACIEK RUTKOWSKI – 4^th at event, 2022 World Champion

I am still not really registering what actually happened on the last day of the event, it was such a rollercoaster day. I was out, I felt like I was done after I crashed in the quarter finals. I was crying on the beach and I just could not believe what had happened. I had worked for this moment for such a long time and then it was taken out of my hands. But then it turned out that I still had a chance mathematically. A million things had to happen for me to still win, but they all happened! Johan Soe could not finish more than 4^th, he finished 4^th. Matteo had to finish behind Enrico Marotti and Nico Goyard, he did, so all those things happened for me. I was stood out the back of the PWA container as they were still calculating the results and checking the rules as myself and Matteo were tied on points. It was a tiebreaker situation.

Journey

I had potential when I was young to be a pro sailor, I was living in Poland just sailing on the weekends. It is so cold there in the winters and you can only sail there four to five months a year. Then when I was around nineteen, I quit university and decided to try and do windsurfing professionally. That was around ten years ago. I would have never ever thought that I would be in Japan in 2022 and winning as the PWA world champion in racing. It has been a crazy journey. It has not registered at all yet!

What happened in Sylt where I lost the first place was in my hands. I messed it up. When I came to Japan, I knew exactly how to have my mindset, how to have everything prepared, I was ready. I was really, really on it. I nailed the start of the quarter final. I was going down the reach with good speed and I hit something. I crashed badly, my gear was separated and I was just left there in the water while the race went on without me. I could not believe it. All the emotions came out – anger, sadness and disbelief. I was telling myself I had to be happy because I had done everything right. I was still pretty upset to say the least. I had been so pumped up. Then I had to sit on the beach with everything out of my hands. It was an insane afternoon.

I did not enjoy the light wind racing so much, but apart from that Japan delivered. On and off dodgy conditions make it a lottery, but we had some really amazing conditions also. We had high wind foiling and I even did some heats on the fin. So overall you know it was by far the best Japanese event we have ever had. I loved the fin racing. I rode my high wind foil and I loved that as well. We did almost everything you can in racing. The format we have is amazing. I love it. I hope we will keep it like this. I want to congratulate Matteo, he is such a tough competitor. You can never count him out. From Sylt to Japan, I felt like he got two knots faster. I got half a knot faster, but I felt I was slower than him. I had to race my absolute best to challenge him for the title. It is a true mark of a champion how he raced here. I am the world champion now! That is insane!

MATTEO IACHINO – 3^rd at event, 2022 Vice World Champion

I have a collection of 2^nd places now. That is the fourth time I have been second in the title race. That is hard for me to digest. I am almost speechless to say something now. I was so close and I did my best. On the penultimate day I made one little mistake that cost me. It was the windiest day and I went on the fin when I should have switched to foil. I can’t really say it was a mistake though as the heat before was super windy. I am happy about my racing. I was really fast in certain conditions.

I was ok in others. Looking back at Sylt I could have done better. Here in Japan, I did my best. Sometimes luck goes your way and sometimes it doesn’t. In the end we were even in points for the year and Maciek won because he had a second place in Sylt. Maciek was also even on points with Johan Soe here in Japan, but he was ahead of him because of a better discard or something like that. It really went down to the last race and every tiny result mattered.

Second place is still good. I guess I should have sailed better and I should have won. When we had the strong winds, the fin was still competitive. But it was so patchy and up and down here that when I was on the fin, I should have been on a foil, just in case the wind dropped. In the semi-final I changed to my fin and the wind dropped. That basically cost me the title. In the end you have to go overpowered all the time, so I should have just stuck to the foil. There was about one hour when the fin was clearly better. The fin was faster. But for the fin to win, the wind has to be steady and really strong. I hope next year we have more events when it is like that, so the racing is more complete.

ENRICO MAROTTI – 1^st at event, 2022 ranking – 3^rd

I feel great. I did my best at this event. I won the event and let’s see what this brings me. I also finished third overall. I come from a small place in Croatia. Nobody there would have ever believed that my home spot would produce a PWA event winner, but now we have it!

It is amazing for me. I worked so hard for this moment. I love this format of racing. We have so many possible racing conditions. We could never have had a show like this on the fin. We fight so much up and down the racecourse. I had amazing battles with Matteo and Nico in the last final and with a fin it would not have been possible to have such close racing in those lighter winds. It is possible to still be so competitive on a fin when it is 35 knots on a 6.6m and small board though. That is why I think this format with the foil and fin is something amazing. We should keep this because people are loving the action. It is pure action all the way. There is so much adrenaline when you are racing. My heart wants to go out of my body all of the time. It is really a sport for the brave guys. It is all the time scary. There is nothing bad about fear. Without fear there would be no bravery. We are all scared, but we go for it. Here in the PWA, every guy in the top level goes for it. They are all really brave guys on the top level. To race with them is a pleasure. I am grateful to have an opportunity to race with these people. I worked for it a lot and now I am enjoying it to the fullest. I am the head of development in Neil Pryde and JP and have really put in a lot of hours on the equipment with Werner Gnigler (shaper for JP) and Robert Stroj (Neil Pryde designer) to make the boards and sails as fast as possible. I work a lot to tune my gear to perfection and I think I am one of the fastest now. It came with work!

ANTOINE ALBEAU

I am retiring from the PWA today, but I still have to pack up and clean my equipment like usual. I am still working. I don’t see this like my last event. I decided to stop with the PWA, it is my decision and not because of my results or stuff like this that I have finished. I need a change in my life and to plan some other things. I have been thirty years on the tour. I think that is enough. I want to do some other projects. I am busy already at home in France with my family and business. I have my sailing centre, my wife and children and the Zephir speed sailing project. I want to go to more long distance and pro-am events like the Défi Wind. I want to race against those same guys when they come to France and different events.

When I passed the finish line for the last time, I didn’t have a great race, so my last day was not the best. I could not plane at the starting line, so I was kind of pissed off. It is like this. Bad days happen. It is part of the game. You have good days and bad days on tour and over the years I have had more good luck than bad. There are no regrets for me. Yesterday I had a super final with Enrico and the guys when the winds were strong. I almost got that last victory. I am super happy for Maciek. I like Maciek and I respect Matteo, so I did not know who I wanted to win. Matteo is a good friend and he respects me a lot. I wanted him to win as well. But I saw what Maciek did and how hard he worked for it over the last three years. He was working very hard to train and prepare for this, to tune the gear and find the best equipment. I am super happy for him. He worked for it and it paid off. I am a bit disappointed for Matteo because I really like him and Blanca Alabau, his girlfriend, so I am sad for them.

JUSTINE LEMETEYER – 2022 Vice World Champion

It was unexpected to be honest to come second in the event which means I am second overall in the world. I just wanted to make it into the winners’ finals when I came here. I finished in second place which was just crazy. I am from Normandy in France. It was my first big event on the PWA world tour. This year I had enough money to do the tour, so I went to Croatia as well. The level is so high it is crazy. To get the victory you really need to be flying. I made second but I still have some work to do. It was a great week and I loved the racing.

DELPHINE COUSIN – 2022 ranking – 3^rd

I finished third overall. Honestly, I wanted to be first or second and I had the speed for that, but I made so many mistakes during the week that it cost me. I made the finals but had to settle for third because of those errors. The level with the girls was very high and it was a fight all the way. Third place is still good at this level. We had twenty-eight girls here and with the foil it brings new faces. It was also a new style of racing for me with the mix of fin and foil. It is new for everyone. I like foiling. The hardest part is to choose what you will race on as it gets windier. Some girls are just foiling, so if the wind drops they have the advantage. They did not have to choose. For the girls that can do both fin and foil it is harder. This is the part of it that I don’t like so much. Foiling is really good for the sport. We raced every day in all conditions.

NICO GOYARD – 2^nd at event, 2022 ranking – 5^th

This season has been a hard one for me after completely messing up Sylt PWA and the iQFOiL Worlds! But I think I understand the problem and have begun to find a way to deal with it and I clearly saw that here in Japan!

That’s what I love the most about this sport’s lifestyle, finding your limits, facing yourself, and learning again and again to evolve. That is probably one of the best ways to learn about yourself in life! This result takes me to a 5th place overall for the 2022 season and I’m really happy with that!