Nicola Placed 6th

We just returned home from the Pan Am Games. It was an amazing experience to be competing with a home crowd cheering us on all week.

We get so few chances to be home in Canada and being able to compete in a major games in front of friends and family was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

We arrived the day before the regatta, jet lagged and run down from a week of big breeze in Denmark but that did not stop us from getting in a quick training session and making sure everything was prepared just right in time for the first race.

While there was a buzz in the city and an excited crowd, the conditoins over the week were less than thrilling.

A huge contrast to the Nacra World Championships a week previous and the majority of our races were sailed in 3-5 knots which can make racing mentally challenging and frustrating at times.

On the RS:X Windsurfing course the light and lumpy conditions meant one thing, pump, pump, pump!

The sailors must pump their windsurf sails continuously around the course to create their own wind, an extremely physically taxing task.

Nikola’s fitness was great, her hands held up despite not holding onto a boom much anymore these days, but the pumping definitely takes a toll on the forearms – a windsurfers weakest link.

Nikola struggled with her speed in light wind as she no longer has her RSX fighting weight, where as all her competitors had specifically trained for the light winds in Toronto which meant she would have to work harder to keep pace.

In the end her training partners from the last Olympics took Gold and Silver,  Nikola finished 6th.