After a year with his head in the books, Gunfire caught up with the Severne team rider Jager Stone for a beer and a chat about his PWA events in Pozo and Tenerife…
For the record where did you place?
9th Pozo, 3rd Tenerife
So where did that leave you in the rankings at the end of the tour ?
After those two I was 8th, but I missed the last two events, so I finished 19th overall.
What was the reason you didn’t go the last two events in Klitmoller and Sylt?
I’m studying Physiotherapy, so at the moment that’s kind of my main priority.
How does your result in Tenerife rate personally in your windsurfing Career so far?
It’s my best result so far. I got to the final in the single elimination against Philip Koster, our wave riding was really close, and that’s my strong point I think, but he beat me with his jump scores.
Koster beat you in the single final, but who are some of the big names you knocked out in your other heats?
My first heat was Scotty…haha, and then the next big guy I had was Alex Mussolini who’s a local in Tenerife, then last years world champ Victor Fernandez, and Danny Bruch who lives there as well.
So after the presentations in Tenerife how many cans of Soda did you drink?
Um….well, Tenerife I don’t really remember.
It was a pretty big night that night, there was just a big tent party and beers over there are only one Euro, so it’s just ridiculous. Everyone’s bringing you beers all the time and a few of the judges were feeding me some really strong drinks too. I think I was tripping over walls and ringing wrong doorbells at 2am.
Who did you travel with?
I traveled with Ben Severne and Simon Hurrey from Severne sails, and Terry North from Kinetic IT. These guys were basically my caddies and helped me out a lot and looked after me. Thanks boys!
How important is it to travel with the right people for tour events?
It’s really important and helps heaps. Especially these guys, they’re older than me and are pretty experienced.
I don’t really get too worked up before heats, I normally just go out and sail, but they’re teaching me about how to be more professional.
They make sure I’ve got all my rigs rigged up, and help me look at the positives if I get knocked of heats as well.
How were the conditions in Pozo and Teneriffe?
Pozo was probably the windiest I’ve ever sailed.
I was on 3.3 and it was absolutely ridiculous, I could hardly hold on and I was surprised I made it through so many heats.
At Pozo there’s never really any waves, but we got a few ramps and when it’s that windy you don’t really need a ramp you just need a piece of chop!
Tenerife was fun, the average size sail was 4.3 and we had shoulder to head high waves, so it was good.
The set up in Tenerife is fairly similar to Gero, how do you feel that affected your performance?
Definitely helped a lot because its more wave riding orientated, it made me a lot more comfortable.
Its kind of the same set up as a spot here in Gero where you get the bowl to line up and whack, which is what I practice here at home all the time.
You just have to be really quick in Tenerife cos it shuts down on shallow reef.
How much sailing had you done prior to your trip?
I think the last time I sailed was the Lancelin comp in January.
I did sail once down in Perth while I was at uni but it was onshore flat rubbish.
I’d been doing a lot of training, mostly swimming and bike riding, so I was keeping fit.
I had to finish my clinical placement for uni a day early to fly over, and as soon as I got there the next day Pozo started.
By the end of the first week I had a full set of blown out blisters on my hands….. maybe it helped!
Your obviously focused and committed to your Study to become a Physio, has this years results changed the way you look at your windsurfing?
Not really, I’ve always been passionate about my windsurfing, and my goal is still to be world champ one day, but while it’s hard to get to all the events and there’s not enough money for me to make a career of it, I’d rather get something under my belt. Once I’ve finished my degree I can give the tour a real crack and put full effort into it, but for the moment I’m happy just doing the two events.
You had a foot injury after crashing a double forward a couple of seasons ago, how’s that now and what’s the rest of the body like?
Yea my foot….. Its getting better, it still hurts a little bit every now and then when I push it really hard or if I’ve been doing heaps of jumping for a few hours.
Confidence has been the main factor with it and I didn’t really jump much last season.
The rest of my body is going fine, bit sore from working with a mate doing landscaping though!
How is the gear you are using from your sponsors Severne sails and SSD boards performing?
Its good riding for Severne because their loft is so close in Perth, so those boys always come up here to test sails and stuff so I get to sail with those guys a lot.
The new S1 is just getting lighter and better every year, and their hardware and components seem to be getting lighter and stronger every year as well.
I’m pretty hard on my gear, but I never really seem to break anything which is cool.
Ever since I started sailing I’ve been riding my dads SSD thrusters, but recently he’s been working on a keel quad board. He was riding keel quad surfboards which are just really wide swallow tails basically and he’s put that technology into his sailboards. They seem to be so much faster on the wave and turn really well, so he’s just built me a 65 litre and I love it…. Thanks dad!
Who are your other sponsors that help you throughout the year?
Terry North from Kinetic IT is probably one of my biggest helps along with Severne, getting me overseas. Without Severne and Kinetic IT I wouldn’t have made it to Pozo and Tenerife this year.
Flying Objects help me out a lot with gear, all their stuff is sick.
Here in WA, Blair from Cockburn Joinery helps me travel the WA coast pretty much, he’s awesome. Everyone is really helpful.
What aspect of your sailing are you focusing on at the moment?
Well, wave riding is definitely what I enjoy the most, and that’s what I normally put most of my time and energy into. Because a lot of the tour locations have cross on wind with mushy waves, jumps are a huge part of the PWA scoring though, so this season I’ll be focusing more on jumping.
I’ve been trying a few new jumps this season, which hurt a bit when I crash, but I’m also focusing on getting my confidence back with my double forwards.
Normally in Geraldton we start sessions with cross to cross on wind, so I usually spend the first couple of hours jumping. Later when the wind swings more cross off I’ll spend an hour or so wave riding before sunset.
Your home on summer break from uni right now, apart from drinking beer and chasing girls, what are your plans for the summer?
Windsurf as much as I can pretty much, I think were going to start getting some footage and putting some little clips out every now and then. Hopefully the wind and waves turn on!
