Andrea Cucchi about his change to Patrik boards

Andrea on his new weapons at El Medano, Tenerife (Pic: Point-7).

C7: Why did you change to Patrik boards?

Andrea Cucchi: A lot of people were amazed of my change. It had been great being on the Starboard Dream Team for 10 years, specially with such a great leader as Svein Rasmussen. The way he is handling the team is unique.

C7: Why did you decide to go into this direction and did you choose Patrik boards?
Andrea Cucchi: It was a hard decision as I think everyone dreams a spot on Starboard international team, but on the other hand Patrik is a friend of mine and I appreciate, that like myself, he is still racing even if he has the business to run. It’s shows real passion for the sport.  After trying his product I beleived in it and  I thought it would have been interesting to be part of a new and exclusive brand. Patrik has a very competitive character and due to this he does not like to hear that something else is faster then his boards…and that’s what relaxes me on the fact that the product will be always very up to date in performance and structure quality.
With Patrik we end up often testing together, as we live in the same places around the world. At this point, I thought ‘let’s go for it!’

Andrea works on the sail trimm at land (Pic: Point-7).

C7: You are fully on the production of windsurfing products with Point-7. Most of the sail brands have a related board brand (NP/JP, Northsails/Fanatic, Gaastra/Tabou, Gunsails/Angulo, Severnesails/Starboard). Will there be a closer connection of Point-7 and Patrik boards in the future, or perhaps even an online distribution?

Andrea Cucchi: Patrik is an independent brand, as Point-7. We have some distributors which do both our brands, but there is no business relationship till now. We help each other out sometime: for example if one of his rider needs sails or vice versa.

C7: Did you test the boards before you decided to go into this direction?

Andrea Cucchi: I saw how fast Patrik could go on them. I had short runs on all the boards but enough to understand that they were highly competitive.

Andrea Cucchi with the new Patrik racer (Pic: Point-7).

C7: Will the Point-7 products be tested on Patrik boards in the near future?

Andrea Cucchi: My team is using different boards. We have riders on RRD, Starboard, Mistral and on other boards. It’s important for us to have testers on different boards as it assures that our sails are 100% liked  on any board brand. I will be personally testing them on Patrik boards.

Thanks for the interview!

Interview © continentseven.com 2011