An AWT Year in 5 Minutes from Kevin Pritchard on Vimeo.
INTERVIEW WITH KEVIN PRITCHARD
Continentseven: Partied hard at the closing ceremony?
Kevin Pritchard: Hmmm….
Continentseven: Congrats winning the AWT tour for the first time! You were able to hold off Levi Siver and Morgan Noireaux. How does this feel?
Kevin Pritchard: It feels good. Like I said going into it, it was not really my life goal or anything, but man it sure feels good to win. Morgan and Levi both rip so hard. They are both part of my inspiration of how I sail and to be on the top step of the podium, well it feels great..
Continentseven: Does this title victory feel the same like your other earlier titles?
Kevin Pritchard: Way better!! ha ha.. Well maybe not but still, was fun to win. The AWT is no joke, there are some great riders and some great events. Anytime you can go out and win a title, against some of the greats of the sport, it feels awesome.
Continentseven: Are you disappointed you did not win the AWT final? What did you miss to win?
Kevin Pritchard: Yeah for sure. I thought I sailed pretty amazing in the final. Everyone on the beach was 100% sure that I won. They even carried me up on the stage and then to have the judges say I didn’t win, that kinda sucked. After watching the heat on replay it hurt even worse cause from my side I thought I should have got the win. We all know wave sailing is a judged sport, and that is part of the game. I can’t complain, I have had a great run at winning, and I am sure there have been a lot of heats where I snuck through somehow and lots of people were surprised. That is life.
Continentseven: You definitely dominated the AWT tour in 2014. Older, but skilled and experienced, a good description for you?
Kevin Pritchard: I don’t know about dominated but yeah for sure older. It is funny because these kids are keeping me young. I love what I am doing and right now, the past 4 years of my career have been some of my most fun memories of my life. I definitely feel like I am getting older, but at the same time I made an Air Taka in one of my heats, and had a nice 360 in the final as well. As much as I have the old school moves down to a science, I feel on the right day I can throw down all the moves that the other kids are doing.
Continentseven: In the past you finished in 2nd overall a few times, now you won the AWT title, another career highlight at the age of 38. Is that the moment you think about to stop competing or is it an extra boost to push even harder? Robby Naish got 7th in the PWA Aloha Classic with 51 years.
Kevin Pritchard: We will see what is in store for me. I don’t really know what I want to do as far as competing or not. I will just wait and see.
Continentseven: Do you think you still improve your windsurfing skills? What’s your personal feeling?
Kevin Pritchard: Not really. I think this spring I was sailing really good, driving the board hard through the turns and going fast and hitting the lip. I love it when I do fun tricks. I have been enjoying my equipment quite a lot and I think that is what improves everything. Maybe when you get new gear, you improve your sailing because it allows you to do things better, faster, easier. I think things like the Ezzy 3 batten sails have helped me a lot cause I really like how they work.
Continentseven: You were participating in the PWA event, too. What was your personal impression? 7 of the 10 top ranked riders are below the age of 30. Did we see a revolution of young crazy rippers or did the older ones just have bad luck?
To read the rest of this interview, please visit Continentseven’s website.
