A few weeks later we were packing the car and heading to Tarifa for the next stop and more experience.
Tariff is another destination famous for its strong wind blowing almost all year, the even was a double event with both freestyle and strapless freestyle competitions running.
We arrived 2 days before the competition hoping for a session with the afternoon thermals even though the forecast was not looking the best.
On the first day we only managed a very short session before the wind dropped, the following day was more successful and we scored two sessions.
Registration was the following morning with competition due to start in the afternoon, this event was full and there were several riders waiting in reserve too, lucking my result fro the competition in Gran Canaria secured me a place on the startles along with the worlds best for a total of 32 competitors in the mens division.
The competition days proved to be a waiting game, throughout the week the wind was light and the thermic kept coming and going, on the second comp day there was enough to start the comp but then it had to be postponed again before my heat could get on the water, finally on day 3 my heat got underway and we got through 5 trick attempts in very light wind before the wind dropped off further leaving us waiting again and scheduled up first for the following day.
The judging panel decided to shorten the elimination ladder to have more chance of getting a result meaning that i would need to place first or second in my heat to go through to the next round, in a heat against Maxime Chabloz and Nicolas Delmas that was a very tough call but I wasn’t going to go out without a fight! All the riders were having difficulty to find the right gust to trick, I managed to hold the lead in the heat until trick number 5, I landed a good double hinter scoring 6.97 on trick 6 I went for a BS315 and managed to pull through it with next to no wind but the butt check cost me points, in the meantime Max and Nicolas managed to pull ahead, my final trick was a slim 5 but I also butt checked this one a little and only scored a 4.6 meanwhile Max managed to find a gust and land a massive BS317 and Nicolas landed a heart attach, I finished the heat in 3rd place with a score of 22.6 less than 2 points behind Nicolas and only 3 points behind Max, unfortunately that was the end of the competition for me. The conditions were tough and although I would have liked to have got a bit further it is also good to know that I’m not far behind.
I’m hoping to be able to do the complete tour next year and have set myself clear goals, the competitions have left me more motivated than ever to train and improve and close the gap.
Huge thank you’s to my sponsor Duotone for helping me get this far and supporting my journey.
