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.

Tuning wise most of the time I seem to use thrusters, especially in the UK where the waves are slower and the wind is gusty, even on the stronger days. I don’t tend to change the front fin settings, but I do tend to move the rear fin/fins further back by about 5 mm if the waves are bigger or it’s more side off. Generally, as I said I use thrusters, but I’m getting slowly back into quads, but only if it’s fast down the line waves or if it’s really windy, 3.7 or 3.4, otherwise I’d almost always choose thruster. I use K4’s mostly, a Scorcher rear and Ezzy or Shark fronts.