PWA World Wave Champion 2014 and still one of the best waveriders in the world, Frenchman Thomas Traversa discovered the new PWA IWT Unified Wave Tour earlier this year. In an interview with Windsurfjournal.com, he gives us his first impressions...
Windsurfjournal.com: What do you think about the connection between PWA and IWT?
Thomas Traversa: I think it's only positive for windsurfing in general. It makes more events, it avoids the confusion between different tours and different titles. So it's clearer! The most important thing is that from the smallest national events to the most important competitions, all events will count for the ranking. The IWT had already started in this direction by taking over the national events in Japan or the French championship last autumn and wanted to extend it this year. The idea was to take advantage of the existing competitions. In this version, getting everyone together on the same circuit is already very good!
WJ: The calendar was published a few days ago, what do you think?
TT: Basically there are PWA events that have been held in previous years and IWT events, so there are no surprises. We end up with five five-star events, three PWA and two IWT and then the final in Maui. The most positive thing is that we have a final in Hookipa. There will be no Cape Verde this year. After that, there are other events with fewer stars, such as Chile and Peru, which already exist and will not have a big impact on the annual ranking. In fact, it is the 5-star events that really count for the top 15 to 20 in the ranking. The rest are more for the youngsters, those who can't afford to follow the whole Tour or the local riders.
WJ: Waveriders will have to be "tactical" from now on by choosing 3 events (or all of them!). Have you thought about your options?
TT: The 5-star events will be like the PWA events before, first place is 10,000 points and then it's down. The two 4-star events will only count for 40%. Basically, the winner in Chile or Peru will only get 4000 points, which is less than for 9th place in a 5-star event. Since it is the 5-star events that count, there are not that many events in the end. There are five, and of those five, three will count. If there is no wind on one of them, we will end up with the same system as before. Basically we have to do them all because it's enough if there's no wind on one or two events. I will be skipping Fiji because it will be the birth of my third child. I don't think I could have gone there because it's really too expensive. It's the only event in the 5-star calendar that I find a bit special, because if you have to pay 5 or 6,000 euros and there's no prize money, it's not very fair. I'm going to Japan, that's for sure, I've been there before, and I liked it a lot, and then it's going to be a bit like usual with the Canaries and then Sylt in Germany. I don't think there's much room for tactical decisions. If you take the example of a waverider who is very strong on the side on portack conditions like the Canaries or Sylt, he can't say he's not going to Japan or Fiji because all it takes is no wind on one of the three and he'll end up way down the leaderboard. I don't think there are any big calculations, the only weird thing will be Fiji because not everyone will be able to go from a financial point of view. There might be five or six guys who can play for the title, but in the other events, I think everyone will be there.
To find out more about Thomas Traversa: www.instagram.com/tomtraversa
Source: Thomas Traversa
Photos: Carter/Pwaworldtour.com