Our post-Pozo wrap ups continue, yesterday we caught up with Adam Lewis, today John Skye talks about kicking off the season in style and now taking on the slalom fleet in Fuerte.

“Super happy with how things turned out in Pozo. Normally Pozo is my weakest event, so to start the year with a 5th here is amazing. More than the actual result, I am happy with my performance through all the heats, especially against Brawzinho. He is the world champ and finished 3rd, so to have been able to put up a good fight against him gives me a lot of confidence for Tenerife.

“My preparation paid off pretty well though. Although I didn’t seam to catch many of the good Pozo days throughout the spring I did make sure I was pushing myself and trying doubles every session. Sailing with Pons (www.Ponstraining.com) we pushed each other a lot to go for doubles. I dont do as many Philip/Brawzinho, but I made sure I did at least 1 every session where it was possible. In the end that paid off as it was my doubles that made the difference in every heat.

“Also, I have to thank the BWA a bit too. All those years of competing in “not ideal” conditions meant that I think I actually felt more competitive when it was small!

“Next stop is Fuerte to try my hand at slalom. Mainly the purpose is to see where our Firewing sails are really at. You can test speed all day long, but until you put them on a race course I think its hard to know how they are really performing. I have various goals I want to achieve. Firstly just getting through the first round will be hard. If I can do that, then I hope I can make a losers final by the end of the week. There are a few people I want to try to beat too. I was hoping for some crazy out of control windy racing, but it’s looking quite light on the forecast at the moment.

“I did quite a bit of preparation for it. Obviously lots and lots of testing of the sails, but also some buoy training and a few starts. I am hoping my gybing will help me, but I think I will get quite a shock arriving at the buoy with 7 other guys all trying to kill me! Going to be pretty scary I think, especially the first mark, where it looks like you hit the gybe at 35kts! As a wavesailor I am probably slightly above average weight, but as a racer I think I am classed as tiny! Going to be very difficult to keep up with the top guys down that first reach I think. It should be fun anyway.”