Micah Buzianis:
Formula World Champion 2004

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Halfway to China?
Not quite yet.

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In the beginning…

Micah Buzianis was born in Colorado, USA on Nov 19 th 1970. Before his first birthday he moved to the state of Utah and then at 16 years old, his family packed up and headed over to the island of Maui so Micah could pursue his love of windsurfing. Here, under the Hawaiian sun and the warm trade winds of the Pacific, a windsurfing world champion was born.

Facts about Micah

• His first world title was the 2003 PWA World Racing Title.
• He is a top class wave sailor and is amongst the few to have sailed Jaws.
• He reckons speed is the key to Super X so has 8 months to learn to spock before his first event in 2005.
• He keeps a dictaphone in his van to record his thoughts on the latest North test sails.
• He lives a matter of feet away from the water’s edge on the island of Maui.
• He named his baby son after the famous cyclist, Lance Armstrong.

"Kit Talk"

The first North sail we made was instantly better than previous sails, so this was clearly the direction we had to go."

So when are Gaastra going to jump on the double luff bandwagon?
"Gaastra have pretty much negatively talked down the whole double luff thing so I think they will find it hard to eat humble pie and join the rest of us."

Testing & North
"I test everything in the North sail range apart from the Superstar which is Nik Baker’s department. Sure, I have sailed the Superstar just as Nik sails the Voodoo and I pass on my comments but generally he deals with that sail. Every time I go on the water I am ‘testing’. I have a dictaphone in my van because with seven lines of sail plus masts and booms it gets kind of confusing when I try and remember everything from one testing session."

Bye, bye Mistral. Hello F2. Why?
"Well they are all owned by the same company so it wasn’t that much of a controversial decision! I had a great set up with Mistral in 2003 because I got to test the Fanatic and the F2 boards, and I decided that the F2 was the better board for me so that became the 2004 Mistral board.

Now Mistral is going away from racing and concentrating on freeride/beach lifestyle sailing and consequently there won’t be a Mistral Formula board anymore, so I simply hopped over to F2. F2 have a really strong team including Finian Maynard and a great shaper in Patrick Diethelm and they are keen to push racing and speed."

Micah and fins
"The fin is basically the biggest variable of the whole kit equation. You get such a different feel from sailing at different locations in a variety of conditions. Because of that, I don’t want to be locked into a fin company. I choose my fin based on the sailing location and registrar at least 2 brands of fins per event (the maximum is 3 brands). Although the majority of sailors use Deboichet fins, I have also worked with C3 and Techtonics fins."

"Master of All?"

Speed sailing: Is that on your agenda?
"I’m going to do the speed events and if I have the opportunity to go to France (the Canal at Stes.Maries) then I’ll have a go. But I’m not going to sit in Europe for the autumn waiting for the perfect conditions."

We’ve also heard rumours about you are doing Super X in 2005.
"Well it looks like the advantage is going more and more towards the racers as speed is the key. I can do forward loops, my spocks aren’t very good but I’ve got plenty of time to practise and I think it’s great for the sport so yeah, I’m giving it a go!"

What about the Wave Tour? "I was going to do some of the tour this year and was really looking forward to going to Ireland, but when that was cancelled and then the PWA Race event was so close to Pozo, I decided not to do any of it. If my schedule will allow it, I’ll try again next year!"

The new Olympic board: fancy giving it a go?
"Firstly, it may not change from the Mistral Imco board, even though most people think it should. There are so many people involved in this decision, all with their own agendas, that no one really knows the outcome. But I would say at the moment, about 60% are still in favour of the Imco board staying because no one has come up with a viable alternative, for example, a board that can be raced in 5 knots to 30 knots.

But saying that, I would love to go to the Olympics. But even if it does change to a Formula board with a daggerboard, I think it will still be a lightweight sailor’s discipline."

How come Nestea sponsor the PWA racing but not the freestyle and wave tours?
"I think they have supported the racing over the freestyle and wave events because race events can be held near cities or on busy tourist beaches. More people get to see the Nestea branding and associate it with this dynamic, healthy sport. A race event is also more likely to happen, as all you need is 8 knots of wind. To get the really nice images then you would want to sponsor wave riding. But wave competitions tend to be held in locations where the public have to make a real effort to get there, like Maui or Fiji, and there are simply no spectators at some of these events. Sponsors prefer a ‘hands on’ event where the public can come down and see the riders and check out the latest products as well as sipping their free can of Nestea!"

"How to beat Micah"

And finally…"Micah and cycling"

Lance Armstrong leading the pack. Micah in full cycling gear on Maui!

"I cycle nearly every day on Maui. I would love to do more road events, but Maui only has 2 or 3 a year and they are more social than competitive. I did a large cycling event in Italy just before the Formula Europeans with over 1500 cyclists including some top pros. I am an avid fan of the Tour de France and of the USA’s 6 times winner of the tour, Lance Armstrong. I’ve never been formally introduced to Lance but I went again this year to see the Tour to watch the Alp D’Huex stage and got pretty close to him right before the start!"