With 14 Slalom eliminations and a full double elimination of Wave sailing, the 2009 Gran Canaria PWA Grand Slam turned out to be a very successful tour stop. Pozo Izquerdo proved once again to be the windiest windsurf spot on the planet on this second leg of the canary islands - the heart of the World Tour.

At the start of the event the single elimination of waves was completed, I used mainly 4,7 and came up against Kauli, who put an end to my run in the waves at place 9th. Still I was happy to come reasonably close on the Wave riding scores and to beat him in Jumps as I have been concentrating more on Slalom this year.

It was truly amazing to see the new kid on the block Philip Koster effortlessly sailing into the lead, and especially his jumping was in another league. After watching him sail in Margaret River and Hookipa earlier this year where he was improving quickly, no one had any idea that he was already this far advanced at his home break. In the double elimination in the end it was no surprise that Philip won again, this time with more confidence and sailing even more technically in the stronger conditions.

The final was a fireworks display of jumps, obviously he liked the stalled doubles Ricardo had been doing, and threw his first big stalled double, as well as a tweaked table top forward, tweaked pushloop tabletop, pushloop in to forward, and many other jumps. In the start of the heat he let Victor go ahead and managed to out-do Victor's moves to show the judges who was going to win.


Robby Swift came up through the double and sailed a perfect heat, putting me straight back to a disappointing 17th place. It was impressive to see Daida perform in the women, going for high tweaked pushloops and doubles.

The Slalom went well, completing 14 races and finishing second and first on the last and windiest Slalom day thus winning the final round. That was my second race win here as race 8 was another victory, finishing in 5th overall. My equipment worked great and all the time spent tuning seemed to be paying off. The TR-5 Sails are so easy to use, reactive and responding to the wind and my impulses. With the leech tension that they have, you can be behind or below someone but not drop away totally because of turbulence remaining grip on the race course.

The 5,5 is magic, although the other sizes are also nice that one is my favorite in those windy rough conditions we raced in. While there where several people winning rounds it shows that the level is really close, with Antoine still being the strongest.


It must be said that the race crew did an excellent job laying the courses, creatively changing between 4 and 6 buoys, with shorter and longer legs as well as a first reach more downwind sometimes.

Aloha and see you at the next event on Fuerteventura!
Peter Volwater H-24

Photos : PWA/Carter