The fleet turned up in Sotavento expecting calmer seas and lighter winds than Pozo, but instead they got 40knot gusty winds and really choppy water. This saw every pro sailor have a ‘bad race’ where they crashed a gybe, got catapulted or simply couldn’t handle their kit around the course in the brutal conditions. But this led to a thrilling event week as at any moment, the leading sailor could crash & burn leaving the final rankings wide open until the very last day. (Photos: PWA/John Carter)

Yes, Antoine Albeau won…again…with Kevin Pritchard in second (again) and Bjorn Dunkerbeck in third. But it was not so straight forward for any of these guys and often it was the mistakes of others that gave them the advantage.

Firstly Micah Buzianis who had a great Day 4 winning all three rounds and moving into second overall, and then a miserable Day 5 where he was caught over the start line on two of the three rounds and sent back to the beach allowing Bjorn into third while he had to settle for fourth.

The next thing you need to know is that Matt Pritchard didn’t show up. After coming third in Pozo (and could have won the event going intot he last race), we were hoping to have both Pritchards on the race course in Fuerte, but to the relief of the fleet, he stayed away.

Who else needs a mention? Ross Williams had a cracking start in the howling winds and was leading the event after two days. How he did this with his 84kilos of muscle against the 100kilos plus guys, we will never know but he was loving the ‘out of control’ conditions.

The only two rounds not won by the top four were Round 8 which went to Cyril Moussilmani and Round 4 which went to Cedric Bordes (more on that later).

Then, of course, there was Josh Angulo who has got back into slalom, even if it was on Micah’s JP/ Neil Pryde kit and also, for one round, on Karin Jaggi’s F2/North kit!! He finished 12th overall including a second in the last round. Josh did get caught over the start line a few times and had some spectacular wipe-outs but he was generally smiling his way around the course. He will be back for more no doubt on Angulo boards and the new Ezzy Slalom sail range!

Then of course there were the pile ups at the gybe buoys particularly in Round 9 courtesy of Peter Volwater and in Round 15 which saw utter carnage at the first mark. Not to mention the women’s fleet where in Round 7, all but one sailor out of the eleven starters fell in at the first gybe mark.

Ok, onto the women where, as of last year, it was the Karin & Valerie show! Out of the 15 rounds, Karin Jaggi won 8 and Valerie Ghibaudo from France won 6. Now if your maths is good, you will work out that we are a round missing and that went to Iballa Moreno. Yes, the current PWA Wave Champion decided to warm up for her freestyle contest by enduring five days of punishing slalom. Now Iballa and her sister did used to do a bit of racing way back and they were pretty decent so it wasn’t a total shock.

Photos courtesy of PWA/John Carter.