
Last weekend Alex Mussolini won the PWA wave world cup of Sylt. In up to mast high waves and strong onshore winds our Catalan poster boy proved that he can do more than sail in perfect down the line starboard tack conditions. ‘A lot of people think I am a starboard tack sailor, from when I lived on Maui, but I think I am even better now in port tack. Sailing El Cabezo, Tenerife teaches you that!’ We had a chat with Musso in Sylt’s ‘one and only dance club’ Z1, where he talked to us about his contest, his game plan and the worst waiting experience ever.
Alex, congratulations on your first PWA victory, did you ever think you would get this far?
‘Not really. So many times I start good and then it just doesn’t happen. I didn’t think I was going to win, it never goes through your mind. But after the third or fourth heat I thought I had a chance. Every heat I was sailing the same way, I had the same plan. You sail the wave like this, you jump like that. So I thought maybe if I keep up with this same plan I can get to the final!’

Can you talk us through the day?
‘The first day we had wind from the right, cross on to onshore with the waves building throughout the day. My first heat I was up against Eleazar Sanchez, Jonas Ceballos’ little brother. Then I kicked out Jason Polakow in the second round, after that local Klaas Voget, who knows exactly how the spot works, how the waves break… I got to the last eight and was up against Robby Swift who was sailing really well, he is one of the guys who really knows how to compete. I won that one as well and then got Antoine Albeau, who I think nobody expected to get that far, but he was sailing really well. I got to the final with Josh and though, wow, maybe now it is possible!’


How did you handle the pressure and the cold?
‘Dany Bruch was a great help for me, he was taking care of me the whole day so I wasn’t getting too cold, he gave me soup, water, bananas… Mentally he was also pushing me. “You have a big chance, this is your day”, he said.’
Turns out it was!
‘Yes, incredible! When the final heat was over I saw Josh’s face and he said: “I think you won.” I couldn’t really believe it, I thought maybe he is bullshitting me. And then when they said my name… it was a dream come true! To win the single was a great success for me, my sponsors and everyone who has always supported me. When they say your name, when you are number one, that is just crazy, a magic moment.’

What’s the first thing you did after the final?
‘I walked back to the tent and everybody was yelling and screaming my name, I will never forget that. I called my girlfriend, she had been checking the live ticker the whole day and saw me getting through a couple of heats and just knew I was on fire. Her female instinct told her I had a big chance of winning it. I then called my dad, he just finished working and never checks the live ticker. We have this tradition that if I don’t call him during the competition, something happened to me, bad or good. So when I called him he already thought the event was over, that I was back in Barcelona. When I told him I had just won the single he thought I was bullshitting him! I could hear in his voice that he got emotional. It is a dream for him too, he has been windsurfing for 30 years now. That his son can actually win an event is a dream.’

After the single you came to a new situation: having to wait on top of the ladder.
‘The waiting was the worst experience ever, I had to wait for seven hours until it was my heat. Every hour that passed I was getting more and more nervous about what I was going to do in my heat and how my body would react to the cold weather. I just thought of my plan for the heat, about what kind of moves I know how to do, then pulling the radical moves when it’s the right moment. I mean: how many backloops have I done in my life? How many pushloops? How many stalled forwards? You do the moves you are confident about and then you start to get serious. And that’s what I did.’

You were up against Klaas, who fought his way up the ladder through eight heats before reaching the final.
‘Yeah, after watching the whole day on the beach I knew that Klaas was going to be the one sailing against me, he was sailing good and with intelligence, the true art of competing. The final was crazy, the wind was strong with some wind holes, I was expecting something else. Probably the worst part of the conditions was the way the waves were breaking: from very flat to very steep, making it impossible to wave ride like I wanted. I was trying to make the hardest highest scoring moves, but also I didn’t want to lose my gear and have to sail again on those conditions. I could hear Dany, Ross Williams, Mike Clancy and my sail designer Dan Kaseler scream when I got close to the shore, some extra motivation which was nice. When the heat was over, they told me it was over and the battle was mine, so when they announced my name I kind of knew it was for me, but I still got the same adrenaline like I got when they announced my name in the single elimination. Magic!’



All pics © John Carter/PWA & umi 2009
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