Josh Angulo

Yann Sorlet

John Skye

Scott McKercher's wave riding in the tricky conditions was world class but he lost early on to Thomas Traversa who executed a double loop and a one handed backie. Sometimes it helps to be small and light!

Yann Sorlet surprised everyone by beating Kevin Pritchard in the second round with some really impressive jumps. Because of the conditions sailors were getting only one decent ramp per heat and Yann just seemed to be in the right place at the right time fully powered up.

Nik Baker came up against Antoine Albeau in the second round and the ramps certainly favoured the French man. Baker only managed a semi-high forward and then an over rotated a table top forward (see movie). Where as Albeau managed to get in some solid backloops. This heat highlighted how little room for error there was.

Josh Angulo beat Jason Polakow in the last 16 heats. He had the better of the waves whilst Polokow struggled to make the most of a slack sections.

Starboard tack master, Alex Mussolini, was sailing really well but got knocked out by Kauli Seadi in the last 16. But the fact that Kauli tried his pushloop forward in his heat against Alex showed how close it was!

John Skye beat Ricardo Campello in the second round following a pushloop with a extremely delayed tweak. Bashful John said he simple got stuck at the top! But he then lost to Yann Sorlut who was having a blinder of a competition. Ross Williams was another British sailor sailing well with good wave selection and long rides. He was more than a bit miffed when he lost to Marcilio Browne in the third round.

Robby Swift was sailing really good and looked like he really wanted it, but got beaten by the guy who won (Victor Fernandez) in the last 16 stage so there is not much you can say on that!

Levi Siver just didn’t get the waves for riding then didn’t get the ramps for jumping! He was more annoyed that he didn’t get the chance to show what he can do rather than coming all the way from Maui to lose early on. Although Boujamma Guilloul, who disposed of Levi, had the best PWA event of his career finally living up to all the hype.

Kauli Seadi was quite lucky to get into the final following his battle with Josh Angulo in the semis. It went down to a complete split decision which meant the heat was to be decided by overall impression which was awarded to Kauli. This decision went to the rule book, since Angulo sailed the 'drier' heat. We soon found out something that not many sailors knew; in the PWA rule book overall impression is won on pushing it rather than overall impressive sailing.

So finally to the event winner, Victor Fernandez, who was super consistent, never looking like he was going to drop any jumps. Nice one-handed, tweaked table tops, pushloops with a tweak not to mention his powerful riding. In the final against Kauli he stayed right upwind and got all the jumps sorted before looking for waves - smart move!

In the Ladies fleet, Daida Ruano Moreno was the better jumper by far but Karin Jaggi had better rides. Looking at our movie it was quite close and you can see how passionate Daida is about her victory when the results are read out. Jaggi, on her return to wave competition, knocked current World Champion Iballa Moreno into the losers final. Move of the Ladies competition; Daida Moreno's massive, neat, stalled forward in the last heat of day one.

The Moves

Push Loop forwards.

Boujamma Guilloul and Kauli Seadi were both landing some before the competition. Kauli got a good gust and managed to get a wet one during his heat which you can see on film, but his other 'drier' jumps counted more.

Air Chachos

There were quite a few air chacho’s going down which seemed to score highly. Perfect when sailors just couldn't get decent air for more standard jumping moves like the backloop.

Wave Moves

No one was really doing any radical wave moves; it wasn’t really windy enough on the inside for taka’s, goita’s or 360’s. Although as you can see in the movie, Marcilio Browne tried a taka on the face. There were some nice, tweaked aerials from Polakow and Guilloul and if you got the right section you could get nicely boosted but many sailors floundered in the light winds and inconsistent sets.

So with two very contrasting events under the PWA’s wave belt (Cape Verde & Gunicho) it is off to a totally different venue; the port tack, jumping fest that is Pozo!

NEXT PWA Freestyle: Costa Teguise (1-7 July)

NEXT PWA Slalom: Costa Teguise (1-7 July)

NEXT PWA Wave: Pozo (9-18 July)

Photos courtesy of PWA/John Carter

Ross Williams

Robby Swift


Kauli Seadi

Victor Fernandez

Karin Jaggi


Daida Moreno

Guincho Top 5 Men

1. Victor Fernandez
2. Kauli Seadi
3. Josh Angulo
4. Marcillo Browne
5. Thomas Traversa, Yann Sorlet, Boujmaa Guillol, Jonas Ceballos

Guincho Top 4 Women

1. Daida Rueno Moreno
2. Karin Jaggi
3. Iballa Rueno Moreno
4. Junko Nagoshi