I really enjoyed the WKL juniors event, it’s always a great atmosphere in St Pere Pescador, most of the kids stay on the campsite and we all get to hang out both on and off the water, this year there were 80 competitors from over 20 different countries.
I really wanted to take a podium spot again this year, but unfortunately I ended in 5th place.
As the wind preview was not looking so good at the beginning of the week the WKL decided to make a shorter ladder to be sure to get results, that meant in my age category (U15) we had 4 heats of 5, with the top 2 from each going through to round 2, and the rest going out. In the first heat I was up against my teammate and good friend Tom Seager. We had 6 trick attempts with the best 4 scores counting, I started off with a Blind Judge which scored nicely, but then the pressure got to me a little, on my second attempt I had a bad take off and could only land a railey, followed by a crash on attempt 3 and then another bad takeoff ending in a railey on trick 4, for trick 5 I wanted to land and SB2B but again didn’t get the right start and only landed an s-bend, after trick 5 I was in 3rd place, 1st was not reachable, but Tom was in second to get to second and stay in I needed a 4.5 or higher I knew I had to land something that would score well, I went for an S-mobe and landed cleanly, then in to the beach to wait the score to go up on the screen, it was a 6.5! I made it through!
That got me a place in the semi finals, but the competition was strong, I had to be more consistent to keep in the game, for this heat I decided to wait my turn just off the beach away from the crowd to keep myself focused, it paid off for me as I was able to land my first 5 attempts well, with 5 different passes, but unfortunately my score was just a little lower than needed, leaving me in 5th place in the event overall.
I’m happy with my riding this time, and ready and focused to train for next year, hoping to bring my bigger tricks to a more consistent level and nail a few new moves.
Watch this space!
