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A fresh 11-16 knot breeze accompanied by clear blue sky provided a promising start to competitions second day in Sylt. Unfortunately, the prospect of racing in the perfect North Sea conditions was to be short lived.
Just moments after the sailors of heat ten hit the water to resume racing, the wind backed off, forcing the heat to be abandoned. The subsequent heat had more luck, and successfully secured the only result of the day, when Ross Williams (Tabou, Gaastra), Gabriel Browne (Mistral, MauiSails), Finian Maynard (RRD, NeilPryde) and Jimmy Diaz (Starboard, North Sails) qualified from heat 11, and proceeded into the following round of race one.
Despite the race committee’s repeated efforts to restart competition, the wind refused to play ball, and ultimately resulted in the day drawing to a close with just one heat completed.
While competition was on standby, we took the opportunity to ask Micah Buzianis (JP, NeilPryde, MFC), one of slaloms most emphatic stars (and Sylt’s celebrity commentator), about his injury, and outlook on the 2009 season.
PWA: How’s your recovery progressing?
MB: “It’s going well, but slower than I’ve have liked. I still haven’t been able to go out on the water. Just before coming out here I had some x-rays taken, and the doctors said I should be ready to get on a board again in a week or ten days, but that’ll be real gentle cruising to see how it goes. It’ll take some time before I can really push it again.”
PWA: Do you expect to be fully fit for the start of the 2009 season?
MB: “Ah, yeah, I’ll be fully fit before the end of this year, and back to full strength for next season.”
PWA: Was there ever a possibility that you were going to compete in the Sylt World Cup?
MB: “That was my goal, and I probably could have, but the repercussions may have ruined my training over the winter or even some of next season. Up until a week ago I was seriously considering it, I figured if I could get a week or so of sailing in, in Maui before coming here, that I might have just about been ready. But, if I couldn’t do that, I didn’t want to come here without any sailing under my belt.”
PWA: Why did you decide to come to Sylt and commentate?
MB: “Well I’ve kinda been out the picture for the last couple of events, and my sponsors JP, NeilPryde and MFC really wanted me to come here, so it’s more of a promotional thing, and so I can stay in the loop.”
PWA: Has your injury motivated you to come back and push even harder in 2009?
MB: “I definitely feel more motivated, it’s almost like you need something like this to wake you up, so you can see what you’ve got. Right now I’m just really motivated to come back as strong, if not stronger than I was this year.”
Our thanks to Micah for taking the time out to answer those questions.
SOURCE: PWA
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