Boards caught up with this years most successful UK freestyler before he jets of to Maui for more testing and training. Over the last few seasons Max Rowe has set about on one mission, to consistently improve his results year on year. Goal achieved, Max is now showing why he is the one to beat in the UK with a pretty damn good set of results on this years international scene – 15th overall on the PWA and 5th overall on the EFPT. On top of this Max has been nominated for UK Windsurfer of the Year. With such achievements it would be pretty hard not to vote for him, so if you are feeling up for it, be sure to follow this link and choose who you want to be crowned as the UK’s top professional windsurfer – ukwindsurfing.com/woty.Over to Max.
The absolute high of my year though was taking 9th place in Holland. Its my best result since 2011…
My year started off pretty good with my first ever trip to Maui to partake in the development of the freestyle sail for North and of course the annual photoshoot. I spent a lot of time on the water with Gollito over this time and although in some moments its just depressing how much better he is!!! I think it set me up pretty well for the year and it definitely helped me to up my level.
Going into Austria I’d had a lot of time on the water beforehand which I always find helps me with my confidence. Low and behold my first heat of the event I was up against Bubble! Apart from at a few UK events I’d never beaten him head on head at the PWA. It was obviously a big deal for me to get my first win against him on the Tour but at the same time a bit of an anti climax as we are such good mates that I want to see him right up there as well!
..it was one of the highs of my year I definitely felt I had a decision go against me in that heat that will always haunt me..
After finishing 13th in Austria I went to Russia to start what would be my first campaign to compete for a good result overall in the EFPT. It’s fair to say I was pretty surprised to end up sailing in the losers final of the single elimination, it was 5.2 weather which is far from my speciality. Although it was one of the highs of my year I definitely felt I had a decision go against me in that heat that will always haunt me. I had one move right at the end that I took off on next to the buoy and 540’d around it… of course the judges didn’t score it and that would have been enough for me to clinch 3rd place in the single.
Always my favourite time of the year is when I get to head out to Vassiliki to work for Club Vass. I absolutely love it out there and it feels like going home as I’ve spent more time there than anywhere else over the last 7 years. I get plenty of time on the water and the level of the other instructors always pushes me to up my game.
I went from Vass to Fuerte for the second PWA event of the year. Fuerte is one of my favourite events as I feel the conditions suit me pretty well. This year it didn’t let us down and it was 4.4 weather for the whole week which was good but that’s pretty much everyones favourite conditions so the level was insane. I personally would of loved some full power 4.0 weather as I think that could of divided the fleet a bit. I lost some important heats and had some tough draws but at the end I was almost relieved to walk away in 16th after placing 17th in both doubles. Not what I was hoping for going into the event but when considering everyones level I was pretty happy.
