“Let’s keep training” is the latest clip featuring the Spanish windsurfer Albert Pijoan from Catalonia. We had a chat with him about the video, the summer on the Canaries and how he is going through the trials at almost all events. Read more in the interview below the video.
Albert Pijoan with summer windsurfing action from Gran Canaria, filmed in 2014
Filmed by: Stefan Hilder, Ben Proffitt, Sarah Bibby, Adam Taylor, Heleen Muijsers & Justyna Sniady
Continentseven: How was the summer on the Canaries so far ?
Albert Pijoan: At the very beginning of the summer the conditions were exceptionally amazing using the 3.3m and the 3.7m regularly and the waves were great. I had a lot of motivation in the water. A few PWA riders travelled to Pozo straight from Maui and it was very good for us. Later in the summer the wind didn’t get the expected strength, but it was good enough to keep on training every single day in the water. Pozo always helps to keep you fit.
Continentseven: You are running a guest house directly in Pozo. Were you booked well?
Albert Pijoan: The Guest House is fantastic!!! Ben Proffitt and Justyna Sniady spent almost 2 months at the house doing the pre-competition warming up and the Training Diaries. It gave a very nice vibe at the house. Bookings are regular during the summer and I love to do it because at the end you end up meeting the people better and share all this windsurfing experiences about windsurfing in Pozo.
Continentseven: Wind and waves. Less than usual. What are the reasons for that? Too good conditions during the winter months already?
Albert Pijoan: Yes, it can be this as well. A few people complain that it wasn’t good enough… but come on… I have been sailing or surfing or SUPing since May every day unless maybe 5 or 6 days… I had maybe one of the best surf sessions I ever had on the islands during this summer, maybe nothing epic on size, but glassy and no crowds. What else do you need? For me this is our European Paradise!
Continentseven: And the conditions were enough for making a nice video?
Albert Pijoan: Totally agree and all thanks to all the friends who spent so many hours just behind the camera. The clips were mainly for training but considering the amount of funny crashes I just thought it was good enough to complicate them and do a clip. I like the name I put of Let’s Keep Training because it really mean what I have been doing since I moved to Pozo Izquierdo 4 years ago already.
Continentseven: At which spots did you film?
Albert Pijoan: It’s mainly Pozo and Ojos de Garza, one of my favorite location on Gran Canaria, where you can wave ride in different conditions, sometimes different is always better, right? One of the advantages of Pozo is its consistency on its conditions that allows you practice over and over one move.
Continentseven: You trained during the winter months in Vietnam. Was it a good preparation for the Pozo high wind conditions?
Albert Pijoan: Vietnam has been an amazing experience! My Singaporean friend, Deborah Khoo, told me about the place and the conditions. She is a passionate windsurfer that travels around the world to enjoy the sport without limits on distances. So she knew that Mui Ne in Vietnam would fit me. I contacted the Starboard importer Pascal Lefebvre and I started to work with them at the Jibe’s Center. Finally I ended sailing much more than expected on slalom, freestyle and wave gear and all on a coast of 20km carrying all my stuff behind a motorbike on a trolley. I totally recommend the experience you can gain there. This year I will return there again.
Continentseven: You made it through the trials into the main event at the Gran Canaria Wind& Waves Festival 2014. Was that hard for you?
Albert Pijoan: It’s an extra step to think about before the event, but I just see it as another heat. The trials system has still a bit of controversy going on. People, who have been doing the tour for many years, can suddenly be out. Just out of the event.
In Pozo you can find heats with local riders, who are sailing at home exceptionally well. Then you lose your chance of doing one event because of a 14 minutes heat against a local rider that probably won’t even follow the whole tour.
Do you think this system will attract Maui locals to come to Pozo as a first event of the year? Do you think riders like me will fly to Chile or Maui to try to make it through the trials? Why there are no trials in the freestyle or slalom discipline?
All this is just because the PWA and organizers wanted to safe the costs of having more professional judges at each wave event.
Continentseven: Again at Tenerife you will fight for a place in the trials. Prepared?
Albert Pijoan: I am ready!!! I would like to compete a lot, doing many heats and face other riders performing nice moves. What I really, really want is surfing well. I’ve been trying it the last competitions on the single eliminations against Ricardo Campello and Victor Fernandez, but I also would like to have the chance of facing my equals in the double elimination. The forecast looks promising for it. (editors note: Albert will compete in the trials in heat 3 against Boujmaa Guilloul vs. Graham Woods vs. Philippe Mesmeur)
©continentseven.com 2014
Must say. He imresses today in okt 2022.
Very nice video! I am very glad to hear that you will be back in Vietnam next season. It really motivates me to get fit for more of your clinics. Take care and all the best to you for the PWA!
Very inspiring person and nice video! But his thoughts on trials are a bit crude to me. Watching the live stream, many heats of the talented but not top guys are pretty boring to watch. It is just not the same to present save stuff in heats, or produce a video with crazy tweak push loop attemps. In slalom for instance, you can handle more people at once, so less preasure for trials.
Like the video and the interview .
For me, Albert is a model to look up to. He has a dream: to become one of the top wave sailors and he does everything to make this dream come true, from moving to Pozo a few years back to training super hard on a daily basis. This is dedication. This is love of a sport. I wish you all the best to make it to the top, Albert! I hope to stay at the hostel one day!