“It’s quite flattering to look at the rankings and see your name mixed in with the best sailors in the world”, says Adam Lewis (K-516). The UK windsurfer has been living on Tenerife for the last couple of years and he is improving year by year. He finished the PWA Wave event at Tenerife on the 9th place and besides the competition, he spent a lot of time with Ben Proffitt in the commentary container. We hooked up with the 27 year-old wave rider to chat about his performance, other’s performances, the judging and more.
Adam Lewis with a onehanded Backloop in the storm of Cabezo (Pic: Carter/PWA)
Interview with Adam Lewis
Continentseven: All started like a night mare for you, with a mast snapper during the first round of the single elimination at the PWA World Cup Tenerife.
Adam Lewis: Yeah, gutted. I was pretty close to come back in the heat I broke my mast. I was just missing one wave, I’d swam for 5 minutes of the heat and there just wasn’t enough time. It was a shame.
Continentseven: Do you think you would have achieved an even better result without the mast problem in this first heat?
Adam Lewis: Yeah I guess so, I had Philip Köster in the next heat and this year he looked quite beatable in lighter wind… In strong wind it’s a really different story. He destroyed me in the double elimination in 3.7m weather.
Continentseven: What sail and board sizes did you use most of the time?
Adam Lewis: This event I think I managed to use pretty much all my gear… I used from 5.3m and 95 liters right down to 3.4m and 80 liters.
Continentseven: What was your personal highlight of the event?
Adam Lewis: I guess the Siam Park… it’s a really fun addition to the Tenerife event, you have all the spectators cheering and loads of people getting interested in the windsurfing. I think things like that are really important for the sport.
Adam Lewis is happy about his Siam Park performance (Pic: Carter/PWA)
Continentseven: A 9th place at the event, a 2nd place at the Exhibition Session in the Siam Park and 10th overall after two events. Sounds not bad? You stated in our interview in March 2015: „This year I’m just going to see what happens, try to take it heat by heat and wave by wave. I’d like to finish in the top 10, but there is so much out of your control. I’ll have to wait and see.“
Adam Lewis: Well, yes and no, I think I’m not in a bad position, but to be honest free sailing before the event I felt like I had a pretty good chance to finish a lot higher than 9th. I’d say 9th isn’t a good result and it isn’t a bad result. I’d really like a PWA podium so I’m going to keep pushing for that and hopefully I can climb a little higher in the rankings this year too, it’s quite flattering to look at the rankings and see your name mixed in with the best sailors in the world.
Continentseven: You are a local at Cabezo. Would you say these were awesome summer conditions this time?
Adam Lewis: In a word no. I think we had ok conditions. It was very windy, but the waves were really tricky and closing out a lot. It was pretty choppy, too… To be honest it wasn’t much like classic Cabezo at all. That said we managed to get a double elimination in. So it was a great result and at the start of the week the forecast was so bad that what ever conditions we got we have to be grateful for!
Continentseven: The other Canary islands further east were affected by a heavy Calima stream from the Sahara in this period. The weather was brown in brown, the wind was much lighter and the swell down, but it seems the wind on Tenerife was not really influenced by the Calima.
Adam Lewis: Well it seems that for Tenerife Calima is a good thing for the wind. Actually if the wind has a little more east it seems to be the strongest. I think we were lucky to get the waves though, because it can be very flat and very windy sometimes with the Calima storms.
Adam Lewis went to the max (Pic: Carter/PWA)
Continentseven: You not only spent a lot of time on the water, you as well spent a lot of time in the commentary container. We really enjoyed listening to your and Ben’s comments. Is commentating something you really like?
Adam Lewis: Thanks! I really enjoy it. It’s good to get a feel for what’s going on in the event, who’s sailing good and what the judges are looking for, even down to whose gear is looking good. So from a personal side I find it really interesting, but it’s also cool just to be a little more part of the events getting in touch with the windsurfing community a little more, too.
Continentseven: You followed almost all important heats. How was the level compared to the previous years out of your view?
Adam Lewis: The level on tour right now is insane! Almost every heat could be a close one and everybody could pretty much beat anyone else. I think compared to 3 years ago, when I joined the tour it’s a lot higher. I almost think because it’s so hard to get a good deal at the moment everyone is really pushing hard!
Adam Lewis – Pic: PWA/John Carter
Continentseven: Who were the standout riders and why?
Adam Lewis: Personally I’d say Jaeger Stone was the standout for me before the event and during. I like the power and the fact he uses the rail to turn. He sails heats really smart, too which is something I would like to learn. I’d say the standout move I saw would be the frontside wave 360 from “Musso” (e.n. Alex Mussolini) too. I don’t know how he didn’t get a 12 for that.
Continentseven: Which moves were the top ones?
Adam Lewis: It looked like doubles in the light wind got people through heats that would have been beaten on waveriding otherwise.
Continentseven: Any surprises or upsets?
Adam Lewis: Ummm I don’t really remember, I’d say maybe Lampie was pretty unlucky with the heat he had that probably should have been cancelled. I don’t know if that was an upset, but it’s something that sticks out in my mind.
Continentseven: Let’s discuss the judging! Happy about it?
Adam Lewis: Overall yes, perhaps it still seems easier with 2 jumps and 2 waves to rack a high jump score than to get a good wave one…. You see quite a lot of 10 plus jumps scores and I think only 1 10 plus wave score… I don’t think you should be able to score more than 10 whatever.
Continentseven: Do you guess that the height of the jumps influences the points given by the judges enough?
Adam Lewis: I think the highest jumps seem to be rewarded. I would say perhaps the judges could look at the control during the jump and perhaps the radical-ness of the jump more… they seem reward quite ugly looking less radical jumps that are landed (perhaps by luck) cleanly rather than more radical progressive moves that might be a little wet… personally I would score higher the radical moves and less critical on clean landing but that is also my person taste I guess.
Clear results in between Adam and Philip (Source: PWA Livestream)
Continentseven: Were given points maybe inconsistent on quite similar moves?
Adam Lewis: I don’t really know. It’s hard to say. because the scale can change in different heats so to compare in that sense can be quite tricky.
Continentseven: Are less good ranked riders judged lower sometimes?
Adam Lewis: Umm, perhaps some riders seem to get more points than you’d expect sometimes. I guess that’s just the style that the judges want to see.
Continentseven: What are the current difficulties in judging? Is it the fact that jumps can get higher scores compared to wave rides?
Adam Lewis: Yes, it got a little better I think but perhaps a good way to do it in the future could be a multiplier, when it’s 2 jumps and 2 waves to count. So the jump score would be x2 and the wave score x3.
Continentseven: Jaeger won the single without a double Forward and Jaeger lost the superfinal without a double Forward. Are the conditions making the winner?
Adam Lewis: I think when it’s 2 jumps and 2 waves to count the double forward becomes more critical because the jumpers seem to be able rack up the point easier. Without a double you only going to be able to get around a 6ish for a Pushloop and maybe a 7 more a Backloop. Whereas a good double is going be be 9 something plus the 7 for the backie so you kinda missing 4 points which is a lot to beat someone by on waves scores.
Continentseven: How do you see situations with resail. For example, there was one heat with Flo Jung and Moritz Mauch leading against Ricardo Campello and Marcilio Browne and the heat got cancelled quite late. Should there be a rule about the latest possible moment of a cancellation?
Adam Lewis: That’s a tricky one and there was a lot of talk about it… I think you should be able to leave the cancellation up to the last minute in case both guys get a score. I think there was a lot of talk about why heats are cancelled and if certain people are losing perhaps heats are cancelled.
Adam Lewis enjoyed the late night show in the Siam Park (Pic: Carter/PWA)
Continentseven: Did you learn anything in that event and will you change tactics in Denmark?
Adam Lewis: I am going to try and get my doubles better! So bring on the neck brace and the concussion headache again!
Continentseven: Where will you prepare for the Cold Hawaii?
Adam Lewis: I’m heading back to the UK next week. I’ll be training there and I will try and go to Denmark little early too!
©continentseven.com 2015
