BWA Contest Quivers

From cross-off to dead onshore, competing on the British Wavesailing Association tour can take in all the conditions a UK wave sailor can expect to face on home shores. The pros have to be equipped for all conditions and all weathers; so how do they plan, choose and tune their quivers - John Carter investigates.

- James Cox, Adam Lewis, Ben Proffitt, Andy Chambers, Phil Horrocks, Andy King & Timo Mullen

ADAM LEWIS

I have a set of 3 Fanatic Stubby’s, the 94 is a prototype and then I have an 88 and an 82. I generally use these most of the time unless the waves are properly cooking or it’s really windy. If it’s really windy or fast and hollow waves I’ve got a Grip 82 with a quad set that I use, but in the UK that’s quite rare. I do normally have a spare 82 stubby in the van also just in case.

For sails, I have a set of Duotone Super Hero’s, 5.3 all the way down to 3.4 in roughly .3 increments. I have a few spares in the key sizes too in case something gets broken mid-heat, I’ve learned that the hard way! Planning my quiver is pretty easy as generally, I choose the boards I get on with the most, boards that are a little better upwind or faster onto the plane. I normally take a slightly bigger board to compete on compared to if I was going to free sail, nothing is worse than bogging around med heat. Sail and rig wise I always like to be able to rig pretty much every sail, so I have a lot of masts and extensions.

Again on the day I normally would edge on the side of very powered up to compete, that extra power can give the moves or waves an extra dynamism that can help when being judged.