4 Questions with Swift
At the recent PWA in Cold Hawaii Robby Swift finally made it onto his first wave podium. Boards caught up with Swift to find out his thoughts and feelings post event and just how he sailed so well in bolt onshore conditions.
HAS IT FINALLY SUNK IN?
“Yes, just about, it’s been a few days now! I have felt like I have the level to get on podium for many years but it has never happened until now, so I was really happy that I finally made it up there!
“The best thing was that these were the conditions that I would least expect myself to have done well in. I really don’t like sailing in that onshore stuff and I put in a lot of work this year making sure that my gear was ready and I was as prepared for anything.
“I love the new JP Thruster Quads and I love the Atlas sails for onshore. Everything feels so light and fast that it actually makes sailing in those conditions fun.”
THAT PUTS YOU IN 6TH ON THE TOUR… WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS GOING INTO THE NEXT EVENTS?
“Well 6th isn’t that bad, but I trained so much this year and didn’t really have the chance to show my level of sailing in any of the events so far.
“We have had mediocre to crap conditions in every event so I hope that in Sylt, la Torche and Maui we will have good conditions so that I will actually be able to show off all the new things I have learned!! Haha.
“I would love to make it up onto the podium overall this year. It will be hard though as everyone in front of me has good results and I have two 9th places so I will really have to be very consistent and place in the top 3 at all of the upcoming events. Still, that is my goal, to be on the podium and I hope I can make it.”
WHAT GEAR WERE YOU USING IN THE FINAL FEW HEATS?
I was using a 99 litre Thruster Quad and my 5.4 Atlas. The gear felt amazing; I couldn’t be happier with it. I had bigger fins than I usually use in the thruster, a 21 in the back and 10cm side fins. It felt good to be able to push on the fins to go upwind as there was a lot of current.
ANY ADVICE FOR ONSHORE SAILING?
As far as advice for onshore sailing goes I would recommend a big board and big fins so that you don’t have be too overpowered with the sail. I hate it when I have so much when the sail feels like it is pulling me around. It makes it really hard to land backloops because the sail always makes the board sink. It is also hard to go clew first on the wave if your sail is too big. You need the power to get around and get upwind but it’s better to get that from the board and the fins than from using too big of a sail.