Ballistic winds and some incredible waves graced the rocky shoreline of Tenerife for the 2012 PWA World Cup Wave Event.

Gaastra/Tabou riders Alex Mussolini, Thomas Traversa and Dario Ojeda showed they have the goods to deliver top results.

Results After Double Elimination - Men’s Wave

• 2nd Alex Mussolini (Tabou / Gaastra)
• 6th Thomas Traversa (Tabou / Gaastra)
• 9th Dario Ojeda (Tabou / Gaastra / MFC)

Alex placed 2nd with some incredible jumps and superb wave riding. After a major injury earlier in the year, Thomas Traversa was all smiles as he jumped to the 6th position with his double forwards and front side 360's!

We got a chance to hear from Alex about his recent success and here is what he had to say

"The event was a big challenge for me as I wanted to make a great result, this is my home so I didn't want to disappoint my people. For the event I used the 67 and 74 DA CURVE together with almost all my small sail sizes, from 3,7 manic, to 4.5 IQ. It was disappointing to see that every event we have to battle it out against our friends and team mates, but this is competition and we cant do anything about it. For me the toughest heat was against everyone, every heat is hard as this is the world tour and their is nothing like an easy heat!
I want to thank my sponsors and family for the support and special thanks to Fabien for making the sick boards for me to get almost 2 wins since I got to the team!"

Thomas and his take on the event…
"I've been using mostly the 4.0 I.Q , and sometimes the 3.6 I.Q, with the wind blowing from 25 up to 35+ knots everyday.

Concerning the boards, I used only one, it is a 65 liters prototype from Fabien, very similar to the da curve 67, same bottom and rocker line but just a bit thinner overall for my light weight.

I used this board in the tri-fin set-up, i think it is the best for cross-on, the board feels very free! I use 14 cm in the center, so I have good speed for jumping, and 9 cm on the side, this way the board is fast and still turns a lot.

I had 2 really tough heats in the single elimination, against Robby Swift and Philip Köster- the conditions were very good, with some decent overhead waves, and I managed to sail good enough to beat Swifty and reach the quarter-finals. Then I met Philip and had one of my best heats ever, with a good double loop, wave 360, and some very good waverides, it was enough to go in the top 4, but not against Philip who scored 2 perfect 10 points waves and a perfect double loop...

In the double elimination Dario and I had to meet, and we had a very close heat, both having a double loop and some good waverides. I won this one, but we had to re -run for some stupid reason, and this time only I had a good heat, Dario didn´t show his best performance.. so i won again.

Right after this I won against Kauli, again using my double loop to score some good points, together with some classic waveriding.

My last heat was against my team mate and friend Alex,I started good with a clean double, but couldn´t score good waves as the wind picked up and was a bit too strong for me at this point! In the same time, Alex was ripping every single wave into pieces, so in the end I knew he had killed me in this heat!"

Dario Ojeda went on to say:

"I was using 85 dc thruster and 4.0 to 4.7 sail as the conditions were up and down.
Tenerife event was difficult as the conditions was a bit tricky, some of my heat I had good wind and some others not really but I got 9th place and I will focus on Denmark to get a good result and get back in the top 3 hopefully."

Overall a great event for Gaastra/Tabou. Keep an eye out for these guys on the podium…… They have the talent and they have the goods to deliver.