At the 5th stop of the PWA Slalom World Tour in Hvide Sane, Denmark, the PWA had to ‘batten down the hatches’ when the sailor’s equipment tent nearly blew away in gale force winds. In some of the wildest slalom racing in years the sailors battled the elements as well as themselves. The colder, stormy conditions compared to the turquoise waters and warmer temperatures of Fuerteventura bring their challenges. Armed with his thermos flask, wellington boots, woolly hat and gloves, John Carter was dispatched to interrogate the world’s slalom elite on how they cope with cold water competition!

Words  Ross Williams, Antoine Albeau, Matteo Iachino, Pierre Mortefon, Sarah-Quita Offringa, Lena Erdil

  // Photos  John Carter

Originally published within the November ’17 edition.

ROSS WILLIAMS
When it is cold I find my fins feel a little bit different. They feel slightly stiffer maybe because of the colder water. The chop in Hvide Sande also required a stiffer mast for me in some races. It helps to come to these cold water events early so you can figure out all these minor advantages before the racing. If you just rock up a few days before, where they may not be any wind, then you are just learning as you go. You need to identify which things are not working the same in the colder and choppier conditions. I try to approach every event the same, warm or cold water. My main focus each morning is just to be ready so I am often the first one down to the beach. I like to be well prepared and cover all my bases. I like to have all my rigs ready, go for a sail early to test the conditions and be in my wetsuit changed and all set to race. For my mind space that is what I need to do. I can also be stressed in other ways but by having my gear all set, then I am free to battle those stresses. I try to limit the amount of things that I need to be rushing around doing so I can focus on racing. The racing on the windiest day in Hvide Sande was so much fun. It was awesome. It was slalom as it is supposed to be. The wind was strong all the way round the course. There were no other factors like weed, lifts, headers or tide to cloud the perfect racing conditions.

Ok, it was raining, Denmark is not the Caribbean but you’ll take a bit of cold for that kind of quality racing. It was a classic slalom day. I got a little bit cold. I was using a short arm 3/2 mm suit. Towards the end of the day if you are standing around stop and starting it can get a bit cold so sometimes you need to change out of your wetsuit and get warm again if you have time. For me that was something I could have improved on during the races. Staying warm is important. I had enough wetsuits from Mystic but I decided to stick with the one I had on which can get uncomfortable if you are wearing it all day.

ANTOINE ALBEAU
Normally in a cold place we always use slightly smaller gear because the wind is denser. On the windiest day we were all on 5.6m or our smallest sails but I don’t think it was 40 knots. In Fuerteventura in the same wind we would have been on bigger sails. For the cold I wear a long sleeve wetsuit to keep warm but aside from that there are not too many differences. We just use smaller gear. The first final on the stormy day was super hard; I think that was the windiest. I had a lot of power in my sail. The water was kind of easy to sail on but it was difficult because we were going so fast. We could go full speed in those conditions. I went almost 37 knots on the first reach, which is fricking fast on my GPS.

You go so fast that you arrive at the mark full power, which was tricky as it was so choppy. It was too fast!, then you can lose control. It was super hard to see the buoys because they were yellow. In the brown water with driving rain it was not clear where to go. I just looked at the boats and hoped they were following the marks. I really enjoyed that racing though. I had been hoping for a day of slalom like this from the moment I heard we would have slalom in Denmark. I love the big storms and we can get these in Sylt but can’t race because they can’t get the boats out or they are doing waves. It is a shame for the racers in Sylt because we never get to race in high winds. When we stay a long time in the wetsuit we get cold out on the water. In Denmark we were on the water six or seven hours a day so you need to stay warm. It can get much colder than that I suppose, it was only the beginning of September!

MATTEO IACHINO
In the cold I find it easier to stay focussed in my mind. I am not sure why but it works for me. I feel I get more stressed at warm events. For the body, colder events are more difficult because you need to change wetsuits a lot of times to keep warm somehow. The whole day in a wetsuit is not as easy as it looks from the outside. After testing my equipment I put a different mast on my 5.6m and a different mast on my 7.1m but all the rest stayed exactly the same as the other warmer races. I found some better masts for my setups, on 5.6 a touch stiffer and on 7.1 softer. For some reason my big gear was working much better here. I had exactly the same setup as Costa Brava and it was working amazing. In Costa Brava it was nice but in Denmark I was going very fast. It must have suited the conditions.
I loved the stormy day in Denmark. It was amazing sailing in the strong winds and the fight we had in the first final was awesome. Antoine, Ross, myself and Pierre all arrived to the first mark in the lead all lit up on our smallest gear. It was super close. I love it! It was a proper fight between some very good sailors. It was not dangerous because we all respect each other. It was amazing. That is what we all live for and train for, a big battle in epic slalom conditions. I would love to have it like that every race actually. It is nice to fight with 8.6m and 7.8m but steady 5.6m / 6.2m conditions are the best for racing. The wind was between 25 to 35 knots in the gusts, it was not so windy but really choppy.

My 5.6m was feeling easier, which was a mistake in the last final. I should have been on 6.2m. In the first final of the stormy racing I was on 5.6m and leading at the first mark. All four of us were fighting on the first reach. I was leading but Ross was above me, with Antoine in the middle of us. Antoine slowed down to get the inside while Ross was pushing to be first to the mark. I did not want to give him space so I pushed as well and we both went wide. I went wide, Ross went wider and Antoine just slammed in on the inside. The way out was tighter, that’s what I thought. The wind had shifted a little bit more onshore. I was super tight to the mark so Antoine had control. It happened a couple of times in Fuerteventura already this season. I should have learned from that. I was keeping up with him but I could not make the mark. So I had to slow down to let him pass and then make the mark. Then he was in front of me, I could keep up but I had no chance to overtake anymore. After that the course was kind of tighter. It was an amazing battle, super nice!

 PIERRE MORTEFON
Racing in the cold is a lot harder as you need to wear wetsuits to keep warm all day. You can lose a lot of energy in the cold if it is a long racing day with many hours on the water. It is a battle when you warm up, then get cold on the water and keep doing the same after each race. This makes racing much more  difficult. But we have the best equipment for it these days. The ION wetsuits are amazing now. We also have booties, gloves and hats to keep us warm. It is not my favourite part of the year to be honest. I prefer to finish in New Caledonia than in Sylt that is for sure. But it is like this! Even in south of France it can get super cold so I am used to it. It is not as cold as England though I think!My equipment setup is almost the same as in Fuerteventura. On the stormy day the wind was more intense compared to warmer places. I think in Fuerteventura in the same wind I would have been on 6.3m but in Denmark we were on 5.2m. This is a bit different but just the sail size and nothing changes with the tuning.

The racing was fun. The stormy conditions were the best day of the event for me. It was the fairest conditions during the week. The wind was steady but the rain was nonstop. It was not so easy to see the marks. There was rain, a lot of chop and super strong wind so the visibility was not great. I could not see where I was going some of the time. But it was still pretty fun. There was a lot of action, a lot of crashes and a lot of good fights. The first final was pretty intense because we all arrived at the mark at the same time. We all nailed the start and were flying down the first reach. I was in the middle and Ross was pushing down on me. At one moment I had to slow down because we would have all crashed. If Ross had touched me I would have hit Antoine. I unhooked about 100 metres before the mark and slowed down a little bit. I passed behind Ross and even then his boom touched the nose of my board. Then we arrived full power but because I slowed down it was easier to gybe. At the second mark I fell so Ross took me again. We had a big fight until the finish but 100 metres before the line I just checked the mark and went full power to the finish. There I could not see anything. There was so much rain and wind! I was going pretty fast. On the first leg of the first final the chop was perfect and we were sailing quite downwind so we were really motoring. I think we were going more than 35 knots!

SARAH-QUITA OFFRINGA
Cold events take more mental effort than the warmer places to get through the event. For me personally it works like that. Because I have to race I don’t really think about the cold anymore. On the stormy day I jumped into the coldest wetsuit but barely noticed it because of the adrenaline. I am cold sometimes during the heats but in the end it is mind over matter. I am from Aruba but I have spent a few winters in Holland and am used to wetsuits. The barrier is a little higher to get in the water but after ten minutes I am fine. My equipment does not change. I just make sure I get it right. The hard thing when it is cold is to tune your gear. Your fingers don’t work as well and any little changes you make are a bit harder. The stormy winds are not my favourite conditions. From past experience I know I am not the greatest in strong winds. Also not when it is that choppy. I was battling to get round the course on the first race. I was trying to survive. Honestly for me I felt I won the day for my standard even though Delphine won the two windiest races. Delphine and Lena Erdil are both very good in those conditions. In the last race I was kind of comfortable.

I started to understand why people like high wind slalom. It was hard-core but fun. I was on my 5.6m sail and 87 litre board. Some guys were on smaller gear so I should be proud about that. It was more survival than anything else. In the end it was fun. I was quite scared in the first race because it was just not my thing. After that I got a bit more settled and tuned in. I set my gear for high wind conditions. I put the boom down and the base forward so I had more control. I was not thinking about speed, I was thinking about being comfortable and staying in control. If you don’t fall at the gybe and can go straight without your board lifting then you can win races in these conditions!

LENA ERDIL
It is essential to have a really cosy and comfortable wetsuit to stay warm. I don’t like having long wetsuit arms because it makes my forearms cramp up. I am really using my forearms a lot racing and when you are stressed as well they can cramp. So I sail with short sleeves. Most of the time I have to cut the arms off my thick winter wetsuit to be able to compete with them. Denmark was one of the coldest events I have competed in especially with the wind chill. Sometimes I did not feel my hands. That makes it a lot more difficult to race, especially at the gybes. It is the same for your feet. In one of the races I was using my small board, which I am very used to sailing in Turkey, and so the footstraps were how I would use them there; but in Denmark I had so much less feeling in my feet and it was a lot choppier so I struggled to take my back foot out. I think it was because I had less feeling or something.Between races the challenge was to stay warm. I was in the hot tub all the time.

The hot tub and the sauna were a saviour. They were keeping me alive I think. At least between the heats I was warm. When I went out after the sauna I was shivering. Jumping up and down is another good trick, just keep moving! My equipment was the same but the guys were saying the mast’s curve is different in the cold. It was crazy choppy and 40 knots so I did not really notice. I never used my 5.0m before so I could not compare it to anything. I love storms and enjoyed the racing. It was tough to see what way to go around the course with all that rain! I made some mistakes but I still enjoyed it!

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