What stood out in your sailing the year you won the PWA Wave World Title?

Francisco: The double was the move that got me through a lot of heats. But also the consistency of doing all the jumps; push loops, back loops, table top forwards and doubles. Yeah, the double was the best move that got me though, oh, and the (wave) 360 that gave me the extra points.

Kauli: Not any specific move, I just set in my mind that I would do well in each heat. I had a very good board for each condition and I worked on that to make sure I had a good range of boards for all the conditions you get in competition. My sails fit really well and I liked sailing all sizes, 5.4 to 3.6. So that time just before a heat when you think, ‘Ah, have I got the right sail, right board’ I just pushed that all away, I knew I had the best kit for me and that helped.

Did you train any differently the year you won the Wave Title?

Francisco: The year I won the world tour I was training with Scott Sanchez and the rest of Team MPG and it was pretty intense. We worked on heats, rather than manoeuvres. I did short, three minute heats forcing myself to do 3 jumps and 2 waves in that time. So when the real competition came and I had 8 minutes to do that, it was a walk in the park. Also just before my heats in Sylt, Scott would send me out on too big a sail, rigged really badly and I would do a 5 minute practice heat. Then I would get my properly rigged kit and go and sail the actual heat. The PWA judging is changing now, they are looking for quality not quantity, but when I won we had to get 3 waves, 3 jumps and 2 transitions in 8 minutes which favoured the more experienced guys even if they weren’t doing the ‘best’ moves – that was saved for free sailing. It was a bit boring but that’s what you had to train for.

Kauli: For me, I had to learn to compete. You are going out to get points, rather than do your own thing. You have to be smarter, get the waves and then at the end, pull out the moves. Freestyle helped me learn this. You can go and make the hardest move ever but if you fall in on everything else, you won’t get through. In the waves, I worked on sailing bigger gear and trying to collect those points.

Francisco: Yeah, I remember in Sylt, I went out and did a double on the first jump then landed on a wave and got trashed – that was the end of my heat! You have to build things up slowly. If you land a double first and you get a 10, then any move after that will have to have less points. But if you do a good jump, then a really good jump…they can only go up on the points. I would prefer if it would be like in surfing, when they have 30 minutes with a jetski tow-in and they get up to 20 waves.

Kauli: That is how kids get into the sport as the younger sailors just want to do the raddest moves and they just go for it from the beginning of the heat. That is how the sport will progress.

Prize money: Your thoughts gentlemen?

Francisco: The sport is so directed by prize money and I think that is a good thing that kids (and parents) see that you can earn big money from the sport. So I think the money should be concentrated into the top 5 or 10 at competition. So the kid can say to the Mum, ‘Kauli made your salary for two years in one cheque!!’. I think that would get the Mum to take the kid to the event.

Kauli: I don’t think kids think about the money. When I won Fuerte and someone said, you’ve won $10,000 and I said, ‘Really?!’. I wanted to just win, I didn’t think about the money until then. But after that, for sure, at some point, you’ve got to make money out of it. When I told my Dad I wanted to do it for a living, I don’t think he thought I could make money from it. No matter what you are doing, you have to like what you do.

You both sail completely different boards. Explain the thought process behind this.

Francisco: When I am testing boards I go through the whole experience of sailing a ‘board’. I think about carrying it down to the beach, getting going, landing jumps, gybing, turning on a wave…how does the board handle, does it feel secure…? I try to bring up all those things so each new board I work on. With construction, it’s just trial and error. We try different materials and lay ups. That’s the same with everything else, foot pads etc. Then the graphics; we just grab the ugliest one and put it into production!!

Kauli: Everyone has their own style and then develops that into their own boards. Francisco was one of the guys that I wanted to follow, especially with his style of wave riding. So from that, I have been working with Keith (Teboul) and I had the idea to go with shorter boards, like a surf board, so you can get really into the wave, doing tight turns. So that’s what my shape is; real short boards, 7’2 7’3. A 7’6 is my biggest board which I use at Hookipa on bigger days where you need more area in the nose to hit big white water. My outline was always too round to begin with (due to the short length) but we changed the concave and now my boards have a lot more drive, more speed.

Have you tried each other’s boards?

Francisco: I got on Kauli’s board earlier this year. The first thing I notice was that they were quite a bit smaller than my boards. On the wave, it was asking for a turn. It felt really good, always wanting to make a turn, and I could turn on the meaty face of the wave. I was falling in on the cut backs which I think was Kauli’s small fin although when I saw the photos, I didn’t look that bad!

Kauli: When I tried Cisco’s board I felt that it was really flowing, it would never get stuck on the rail. Off the top it does feel different, not stiff but it has a different length and outline. Every person has a different style – I try to capture a bit of Keith, of Cisco, of Angulo and Polakow…

How do you go about choosing your board quivers?

Kauli: I work with Keith (Teboul) in Maui at the beginning of each year. We make about 15 boards, from there I choose five. A 58 width board for light winds, then a 55, then a 53 width board and 7’4 long which I used in Pozo last year, then a very small board for Hookipa , a 51 width board and a high wind board. Last year everything was single fin with concave bottoms. This year, I want to work with different fins like the twin fin boards.

Francisco: Maybe it’s time to try twin fins again now lots of things have changed in board design shape since '93, '94. Now we have the CNC for fins and the CAD-designed boards rather than all by hand.

Another point is that I would compete and test at the same time. I’d take 5 or 6 boards like Kauli. Although for one month in the Canaries I took 28 boards – that’s my record!