If you're travelling to Pozo on Gran Canaria in summer, you can usually be sure of one thing: there's wind! On the light wind days, even a heavy chunk will ride 4.2 square metres, on the normal pozo days it's 3.5 square metres and on the strong days you don't ride at all and pray that the wind will die down at some point.
However, the spot is currently showing a completely different side: Pozo is as smooth as glass and has been for days. Normally at this time of year, an extremely stable high is established over the Azores, the well-known "Azores High". A balancing movement towards the equator, the north-east trade wind, then flows from this. Local effects then strengthen the trade winds on the east coast of Gran Canaria to gale force. Currently - researchers assume that this is due to the El Nino weather phenomenon - the Azores High is simply not in its usual place. As a result, the trade winds in the Canary Islands have come to a standstill. This is why almost the entire world elite is currently standing on Gran Canaria.
Because the conditions at the storm spot are so extreme, most pros usually arrive one to two weeks in advance to familiarise themselves. This time it could be an absolute cold start, as the wind is not expected to really return until the weekend, i.e. the start of the event. This should play into the hands of the Pozo locals in particular, especially Philip Köster, who probably won't need any time to acclimatise to his home spot. However, it remains to be seen whether he will be fully fit again after his bone fracture. He had to miss the last event in Fiji due to injury ( HERE there's the report).
You can also see how things are currently looking in Pozo in the Send it Diaries by World Cup presenter Ben Proffitt. In it, the talkative Brit also takes a look back to 2009, the last time the slalom discipline was on the programme at the World Cup Pozo - there will be a comeback in 2023.
So let's hope that the weather gods have mercy on the beleaguered PWA World Tour. A spectacular event with wave and slalom would be just right at the moment. With triple loop attempts and lots of drama, too.
We will of course keep you up to date on a daily basis at www.surf-magazin.de!
Manuel Vogel
Editor surf
