Pozo Izquierdo..... Wild and Windy was the name of he game here this year at Pozo. What started off as a rather tame week, wavesailing on 5.0's ended up with the best guys in the World sailing on 3.3's and 3.7's.

I had a decent run the first day of wavesailing competition where I ended up on 5th position stopped only by the double-looping madman, Ricardo Campello. A lot of the young guys are so good at jumping now that some of veterans are resigned to do the best we can and hope for a positive outcome. Pozo is definitely the yin to Cabo Verde or Ho'okipa's yang.

After the single elimination of wave was completed we quickly got into slalom where I competed the whole time on mainly my 5.1 , with a couple races on 5.9 and one race on 6.3. For the most part it was survival conditions to the max. In the very first race I had my only bad race where I didn't make it to the semifinals. IN the following 8 rounds I made it to the semis or finals in every round with a 3rd being my best finish and finishing a respectable 7th for the event. All in all I was very pleased to gain some major confidence and learn a bunch of things that I am sure will catapult me into an even better position in the next event. In saying that I also learned how good all my competitors are and that I can never underestimate any of them. But the jewel of my slalom discovery was that the Maui Sails rigs are as fast or faster then everything else out there...Yee haw!

Wave double elimination was run in some windy action I stayed on a 4.0 but maybe could have been on a 3.7. I sailed a very decent heat pulling a good frontside 360  on my waveride and getting a good one-handed backloop and big pushloop, however all my efforts were for nill as local madman Jonas Ceballos was on fine form, also pulling a 360 and flying just a bit higher on his well-excecuted jumps. .. The double continued to wind down with special mention to Julien Taboulet, who sailed brilliantly to beat Jonas, Ricardo Campello who gave wind to any normal logic In his absolutely radical approach to the 50 kt. Conditions, and of course Victor Fernandez who won his 3rd consecutive event here at Pozo. He's definitely the man in these conditions.

Last but surely not least was the crowning of Aruban princess Sarah Quita-Offringa whose Caribbean smile and beauty matches her untouchable level of freestyle brilliance and dominance in the women's arena. Special mention to Maui's Junko Nagoshi who sailed solid to a 3rd place right between Moreno twin in 2nd.

For the women's wave Daida and Iballa continued to wow everybody with their ever-increasing level, bringing huge credibility to women's wavesailing and also providing a special spectacle of watching two twin sisters battle it out to see who is the best in the world.

Saludos from Gran Canaria... Talk to you soon from Fuerteventura