Xavi Torres interview

Xavier Torres Isaac, national secretary of the class funboard.

What’s your role in the federation?
-I’m the national funboard secretary, and my job is to represent the class, the sailors, coordinate events, push the sport forward a little bit.

There is no funboard federation, so, does it depend on the sailing federation?
-No, there’s no funboard federation, there’s the Royal Spanish Sailing Federation.

What’s the situation now in the federation, because there seems to be a little hitch, right?
-Yes, a few months ago there were elections in the Spanish federation, and although windsurfing is not what motivates them most, because what motivates them are the Olympic classes, as they then provide grants, at least allow us to do, and that's much, so we are in the organizational system of the federation itself, so we are doing competitions, having results and that’s a lot.

What’s happening in Catalonia that appears to be the most active area of Spain in windsurfing?
-What has happened is that I started here, I’m not just national secretary, I’m also Catalan secretary, that’s where I started doing things, and when everything was working at regional level, then I did the jump start at the national level to see if people still wanting to do things.

What prompted you to get into such trouble?
-Well, It comes from blood, and in 1992 we created a club in Premia de Mar (near Barcelona) for which I am president there and we used to do races, competitions and that was rising, so in 2002 I went to the spanish championship, it was when Mr. Pavón was giving up (the national secretary at that time), and the funboard class wasn’t in a good situation and no one was eager to do anything and then I said, good first we start in Catalonia, and learn how it works and from there we will be expanding and that’s how it was.

By the way how have you seen the Spanish cup here in Pozo Izquierdo?
-At the organizational level is to be congratulated, Eduardo Diaz from Secondreef did very well, everything has worked very well, at the judges level we work with the federation and we have a team of people that works fine, the level of the participants has been very high, very good, and well, organization has to be congratulated and all the people who have registered and have contributed their bit too.

And finally what do you think about Pozo Izquierdo?
-It’s such a good place for a windsurfing competition, there’s infrastructure around, is perfect for events and competitions especially for the waves as it has been proved by all the years the World Cup has been done, but basically , Pozo is good, is easy, the participants are comfortable ... have to keep doing things here.