Thrown straight from injury rehab into 50 knots – my first ever 5-star World Cup in Pozo was anything but easy. With no training time at the spot, I faced the wildest conditions the event had seen since a long time.

The buzz surrounding the very first 5-star World Cup event was undeniable. Pozo, on Gran Canaria, is notorious for its brutal port tack winds, hammering almost directly onshore into a reef of boulders. A combination I had so far carefully avoided – which is why I had planned eight solid weeks of training at the spot in the run-up to the contest. But life had other plans.

At the end of my Morocco trip in April, I suffered an injury. A pinched nerve between my shoulder blades kept me off the water for a full two months. The pain in my shoulders and neck was excruciating, making any form of training impossible. Only a few days before the contest did I finally manage to sail pain-free again – meaning I had completely missed my preparation time in Pozo.
Not exactly ideal circumstances for my very first 5-star event. Still, I decided to go ahead and compete – I had nothing to lose, and every bit of contest experience counts!

The opening two days were ferocious. As the organiser himself put it: the windiest competition days ever recorded in Pozo. The women’s fleet had to wait until day three, when the average winds finally dropped from 50 knots down to a “mere” 40 – still gusting up to 50 knots. I went into my first heat with the smallest sail in my quiver. Controlling a 3.0 in more than 40 knots and throwing forward loops is nowhere near as easy as it might look. Still, I was stoked to land my very first moves at one of the world’s biggest contests.

Unfortunately, after tying on points with one of my competitors, I just missed out on progressing to the next round. The same happened in the double elimination, where I couldn’t quite rack up the scores I needed, leaving me with a 21st place finish for this event.

It was, of course, a disappointing result. But given the circumstances, just missing the Top 20 was no disaster at all. Pozo is a unique spot that demands a huge amount of local knowledge – finding the waves, timing the jumps, dealing with the sheer power of the wind. I’m confident that with proper training in Gran Canaria next season, I’ll be able to raise my game. One thing I can say for sure: going straight into 50 knots right after an injury is something I definitely wouldn’t recommend!