Back to Racing in Cadiz
Hello all!
Bryn here with an update about my time in Cadiz, Spain! Cadiz was filled with a lot of learning and improvement which were exactly what I set out to achieve. After three years since seeing the international fleet, I knew there would be some rust. On top of that, after essentially sailing alone for the last four months I was immediately faced with having to make decisions around other boards. I could no longer sail my ideal course—instead, I had to adapt it to every board around me. This is no small feat but over the two regattas in Cadiz, my decision making was getting sharper, and my racing instincts were coming back to me.
The first regatta, the Andalusian Olympic Week, was a small regatta that saw a large range of conditions and eight races completed. The first day of the event was fairly light and we did four downwind slalom races where I primarily focused on the starts. I was struggling to find myself in the right position at the right time in relation to the time left to the start and the boards around me but as we set progressive goals throughout the races, my starts improved. Then the second day was unfortunately too light to race after being on the water for a bit. The third and final day brought over 20 knots and flat water, and we completed 4 course races. Since we were now starting upwind, the starting strategy was a new one to conquer and I found improvement throughout the day and learned a lot about the decision making near boards. Overall, this regatta was great training and potentially most importantly, helped identify key areas of improvement, nothing tells you that something isn’t going right like losing a race because of it!
Then we had a week before the next event where we focused on the areas of improvement identified during the first event. This included practice racing with other girls and working individually on some key areas. I also had a major breakthrough with my equipment setup that significantly improved my speed in stronger winds and would have certainly been nice to know before the last event, but now I know for the future! Then I unfortunately caught a bit of a stomach bug that threw off my eating and training leading up into the second event but sometimes that is how things go, so just rolling with the punches!
The second event, the iQGames Cadiz, was a bigger event that had primarily light wind and sixteen races completed. This event showed me a bit of everything including my first time trying a new course format, my longest day on the water at a regatta at 7 hours, and some of the best slalom starts of my career! Over this event I continued to see big improvement and most noticeably in my slalom starts as the first day of slalom racing, I was primarily looking at the back of boards and on the second day, I was in the leading group. This event gave me more things to work on and more key experience as I continue to reintroduce myself to racing and the international fleet.
Overall, I am really happy with my time in Cadiz. It brought constant improvement, valuable lessons, and a growing confidence in the process. If this trajectory continues, I know I’ll be exactly where I want to be very soon.
After the event, we had a few days to explore Cadiz and even visit Sevilla before heading to Palma. Now, we’re back to training and preparing for the final, and biggest event of this trip, where all the lessons from Cadiz will be put into action!
