This summer I decided that it’s time to get some more competition experience and so I registered to compete in Gran Canaria on the second tour stop of the GKA world tour and see how I would fair against the top in the world.
I arrived to two days before the comp started hoping to get a bit of training in and get used to the conditions, that didn’t go quite to plan as although my board bag arrived my regular luggage did not make it leaving me without my bars of wetsuits but thirsty for a session, my lovely teammate Nathalie Lambrecht picked me up from the airport and we headed to the spot, after a bit of begging and asking around I managed to borrow a bar and a pair of board shorts and managed to head out for a slightly chilly session without any ins on my board, needless to say that wasn’t the best warm up but better than nothing, for the next day I managed to find some fins and get in another small session before registration and then a dash to the airport to pick up my luggage that had finally arrived!
Gran Canaria is known for strong wind but the forecast was not looking so good for the competition days with just the first day looking windy the skippers meeting was called for 9a on the first day.
For my first heat I was up against some big names, Posito Martinez & Set Teixeira, I managed to ride a good heat landing 5 of my 7 attempts including a nice BS315 finishing the heat with 22.13 points, but unfortunately falling behind by just 2 points, in the second heat things didn’t go quite as well, the wind had picked up and I was very overpowered on an 8m and unfortunately crashed a few attempts, l finished placed in 21st position but feeling quite happy with my first heat and very motivated to train and continue, for the rest of the week most of the time was spent waiting for wind and eventually the girls ladder was completed but the men had to settle for the top 8 riders sharing first place.
This event was a great learning experience and we had some great fun and of course some good parties!
