Pritchard Windsurfing

Well that is not how I invisioned starting off the event... in the first round I had a huge blunder by not making the final when I was caught out there with too big of sail. I just coudn't gybe out there and was going too slow trying to make sure i made my gybes. So that was out first round. THe next round, made it to the final, I was on 6.0 and 86 Isonic with my 32 SL 4, and was going good when out of the blue Patrick Dietem smashed into me. The guy was out of control and is a lunatic sometimes out on the water. Anyhow took us both out and I ended up doing terrible in that final.

In the last one of the day, stayed on the 6.0 and the 86 and it was really windy. Maybe should have tried the 5.5 but it is so gusty and shifty here that it gets scary. I ended up 3rd in the last round which was a good recovery.

Tomorrow is a new day and I am ready to come back!

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Well we are back to Fuerte for another year. Fuerteventura is always different than Gran Canaria. It's water is more blue, it is warmer, it is flatter water, gustier wind, and SANDIER.. You always think that you cant wait to get to Fuerte cause it is going to be nice and sandy and perfect.. but by the end of the week you have sand everywere.. anyhow I will wait unitl that happens until I worry about that.

I am ready to go. Tommorow we get started on the comp, and that is what I came here to do!! Time to go out and dominate. Take no prisioners and go for being my best!!

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Well I am still in Gran Canaria and we have been relaxing of all relaxing. And it has been nice, that is for sure. My feet are almost starting to heal from the Pozo Rocks.

I did managed to go down to Playa Ingles where the Bike Shop Free Motion is at and man the people there are so nice. They helped Ross and I out with all the Powerbar suppliments that we needed for Fuerte to be fueled and ready to go. We figured that the bikers would know what we need to keep hydrated in the sun and when we are out there working so hard what we need to recover. So hopeing to be with more energy and well hydrated for Fuerte. If you ever come to Gran Canaria and want to go for a bike ride this is the place to go. Any of there staff will help you out and will make sure that you get the right stuff for the job. They have good road bikes, some nice mountain bikes and all the gear to go with it. If I wasn't so dang tired I would go for a ride with them.. maybe that would help me get un tired. I sure dont know how Lance can get on a bike for that long and enjoy it..

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Well that was a hard week that is for sure. 14 rounds of racing, a double elimination in waves, and i am gald to be done with that. We had a nice awards ceremony and it was very cool to see the 15 year old up there claim his wave champion of Pozo for the year. When you can make sure to go and find some video of Phillip Koster out windsurfing yesterday. It was simply amazing. There was quite a lot of champions sitting on the beach watching in awe. Bjorn was there watching and he was like, that was amazing. He doesn't say that too often. Kauli was there watching too and he was like wow, that kid is ripping. All I can say is Amazing. Nice work Philip.

As for me, I got up on the podium for the first time this year and that was nice to know that I still had it in me. It has been a long road this year and definately was nice to be near the top again. I am still impressed with Antoine because he is just rock solid. Consistant, strong, fast, and is amazing as well at what he does. He is a great wave sailor, speed sailor, the guy can windsurf so good it is impressive. 

So now we have two days of relaxing and then to Fuerteventura to what usually is a long tough event as well. Only 4 days of racing so that is good. After that it is off to Turkey. The time is going by pretty fast and it is nice to have a little break to catch up on rest and relaxation. 

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It was super windy today 5.5 over powered, did two rounds then quick switch over to waves and tried to do some heats in waves. Was down the beach in competition mode from 10 am till 7:30 at night. Long day at the office. One more day left. It is really close in the racing, we can do one more race tomorrow, but as it looks now, it looks like we will go and try and get the double elimination of the waves done. I think 14 rounds of slalom is good enough.

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I love this last shot.. nice speed blur.. especially cool when I am the one in front of Finian and Micah.. those guys are fast..

Photos by JC/PWA

I think Pozo is more like a mini tour de france than a windsurfing event. This event is pretty darn grueling. 12 rounds of Slalom in hard core conditions is challenging. Being on the top level, competeting on the edge definately takes a toll on one's body. Maybe it is just me getting older but man the rocks, the board starts working away on your feet and toes and everything starts to grind down. You have to be consistant every race, making no mistakes, no room for error, and as soon as you do, bam there is someone right there to jump in your spot.

Today we did three rounds of racing. I didn't have my best day every but I did get a third in the last round of the day. Today I used my 6.7 Gaastra Vapor and my Starboard Isonic 86 with my Deboichet 34 SL 4. I didnt really have the speed I wanted to have, I think it was more a problem with starting again today, I wasn't banging out the starts, hitting the line full speed. I was early then trying to sheet in and go and every one above me would just roll over the top of me. When you start at the pin end of the line like I like to do, you need to be spot on full speed or you can pretty much forget about it. 

We have three more races we can do left, plus the double elimination of waves, two days left so we are on the home stretch. 

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Tough day for me today. Got to all the finals and just didnt make it happen. I dont know what the deal was, I was on the same gear as yesterday, the same starting position and just didnt put it together. The only change was to the course which was 6 gybe downwind which should have suited me better but just didnt for some reason. The starting line was bad today. It wasnt really favored at the boat or the pin, from the starting line to the first mark was super short so the people who were going fast, had less of an advantage to get time to get out and make a good run at the first mark. As you can see from th picture above the first mark was full of people. Everone was there at the same time and for some reason,  I should have been out of the mark first but still wasn't. In the first race of the day I had a good start, and then got to the first mark and there was no wind and I didnt start plaining until nearly everyone had gone bye. You might say, NO WIND, in Pozo, well when there is a hole in the wind, and you are on 6.0, they are really hard to pump and make it happen. So I didnt do very good in that one. In the second race of the day, I made it to the final and just still didnt perform how I wanted to. I was focused, ready, but just didnt do it for some reason. We went for lunch and then for the third round of the day, I was like ok this is my time... got great starts and then when we got to the final, everyone came down to where I was starting and I chickened out and didnt go hard and go for the pin end so I was conservative and still did a good start but just wasn't in the right spot. For some reason I just didn't have it today. Tomorrow will be more and tomorrow is a new day and I will be back. I want to do it. I want to do good, I am doing the best I can. More to come tomorrow. 

Check out this cool video from Continent Seven!

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Finally a good day for me in the racing this year. It has been a long year for me and to finally get in the game feels pretty good. I have worked hard in the off season and things haven't been going to plan. Today, I had a great day, and finally won one round. It has been a while but there is more to come. Today I was using my Deboichet 34 SL 4 in some of the heats, with a 6.7 Gaastra Vapor and that seemed to be going really good. Then went to my 6.0 and my 32 SL 4 with my 86 Starboard Isonic.

We did four rounds today. In the first round I  managed to get 2nd on the 6.7. The next round Ross had a killer start and put it together ahead of Antoine and myself, making me finsih in third. In the 3rd round of the day I got second after a bad start, and just worked my way through some traffic. On that last mark, Finian gybed on the back of the swell and I came swooping in to take second. Boy was I happy. Then we went for a break and one last one round in the afternoon. I made it to the final, and I can tell you it is really hard to make the finals, and then Ross and Finian went overearly. Ross had been hogging the pin end the entire day so with him out it was mine for the taking and bang i got a great start and threw it down with the Albeau right on my tail the entire race. Man that guy is fast and consistant. Stayed in front of him and won my first round of the year!! I was pretty happy!! Woohooo.. more racing to come tomorrow I suppose!

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A perfect day for the event organizers.. slalom in the morning, waves on the afternoon, on a Sunday to make things even better. Slalom started at 10:30 and it was very nice wind. I was on 6.0 with my 86 Isonic and it was going pretty well. Had a great start in the first one and won that heat. Then made it to the final whiich was pretty good. i had a a great start and then just got rolled down the first reach. I was pissed. Finian had a perfect boat end start and was flying to the first mark. He led the entire way around and that was a great race for him. I managed to get 4th after some ok gybing and some terrible gybing by others. I am on the gas as hard as i can go.

The next race started up very soon after. I made it to the final where I got a shocking start and had to make up from there. I was on my 5.5 Gaastra Vapor and got to the mark I think in last place and then started my moving up.. I didnt have as good of luck as the last one and I made a couple tackticle errors on passing people but I ended up in 6th. I was using my SL4 Deboichet 30 and it seemed to go pretty good. I really need to get some more speed somehow somewhere. Maybe it is my confidence I need to get back. I am working on it, fighting as hard as i can to get in that top position.

After that we switched to waves which wasn't so bad casue we got to rest.. Two rounds in 35 knots is a lot of work. Anyhow, the waves were not amazing but the sailors were really ripping. It was hard to judge a couple of heats, because from what I saw, there was a lot of tricks with no real waveriding being scored. For the most part it seemed ok, I thought that Kauii looked to win his heat because he was the only one that was turing out there. Something I saw was like these guys would do these cool tricks, SICK, Amazing, but that was it. It wasn't like they were turing on the waves with any power whatsoever. But as you know some people like fish, some people like steak. But in the end, the right two people were in the final, Phillipe Koster and Victor Fernandez. They were really ripping. And to top it off, Phillipe is only 15 and he won the Gran Canaria Single Elimination!! That is sick. Youngest ever to win a PWA Wave event. Well it is not over but the guy is sailing amazing. Great to see and his bag of tricks is unbelieveable. Double forwards, pushloop forward loops, you name it, he can do it. Amazing and congratulations to him! I still say if you are reading this... get to Maui and learn how ride there, or Cabo Verde... Get the other tack down and you will be the man to beat for many years to come...

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Well we went for waves again and I cant say that it was the wrong call because it sure looked like it was going to produce something good. But it never did and we ran the event in terrible wave conditions. I guess you got to go at some stage but it is hard to swallow when you train so hard and get such terrible conditions. Well i can't complain, i feel like I sailed as good as I could. I nailed a one handed one footed back loop, a one handed push loop and a pretty gay forward loop.  On the waveriding I felt ok, I mean there was nothing really to ride but I thought I did pretty good. Anyhow, I won on one sheet and lost on two others. Need to step it up in the double elimination.

The two standout's today was Phillipe Koster sailing on the Starboard Evil Twin, and Victor Fernandez who was sailing amazing. Phillipe is only 15 years old and OH MY... WOW... is all I can say. If I was him I would move to Maui NOW and learn to wave ride the other direction becasue he has whatever he needs to win this contest here. I hope to see him and Victor in the final with ballistic conditions cause that would be a sick heat!! He has it pretty together, a full support team, his mom and dad here, friends and family and is ripping. It would be cool to see him take this event at only 15 years old. Today I saw him do a goiter, sick backside 360's, takas, the guy has got the full repertoire.. 

I saw Kauli struggle a bit but I am sure he will turn it up once he gets going. He just beat Peter Volwater who sailed a good heat. Ross Williams took out wave guru Thomas Treversa which was impressive. Robby Swift had a disappointing day loosing out to Dario Ojeda a local favorite. 

 Tomorrow could be slalom, could be waves, who knows. I guess they would push for some waves, seeing as we have only 3 wave events and about 10 Slalom events. But you never never know..

 I was also cruising the net and found this really cool real estate site on Maui. Check it out here if you are interested in Maui Real Estate. Going back to the news, it stated that “halfway through 2009, Maui Real Estate market is nearly 57 percent of the size it was the same period last year.  Number of sales are way down and prices are down significantly. Although they also pointed out that these low prices are still not worse compared to other parts of the mainland. A single-family sales averaged $761,252, which was $125,000 or 14 % less than  a year ago. There were 285 closings on a singel-family homes for the first six months of the year, giving the turn over of $217 million, which is 49% off of last years mid year sales of $425 million.”

Interesting factoid of what the market..

 Ok time to focus on Tomorrow!!! Go fight WIN!!

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