49er Training in Puerto Vallarta

~April-May 2023, Mexico~

The day after the end of the Etchells Worlds we packed up and headed to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico to train with Mexican 49er team Equipo Belauste. We arrived in sunny PV, immediately hopped in a van filled with surfboards and tools, and headed to the beach to kite. 

Dan and Ander Belauste graciously hosted us and brought two 49ers to train for 11 days in a 49er training playground. Waves, big breeze, light and shifty - whatever condition you wanted, you could get it. Everyday we sailed a double session, never feeling rushed. This was possible due to the fact the Belauste brothers found an airbnb with a beachfront club who let us keep the boats on the beach next to our Airbnb. We sailed for two hours in the morning, ate a sandwich at the beach club, cooled off in the pool, and went back out for round two. To top it off, we had an experienced and motivated Spanish coach who had spent many years in the past decade working with some very strong Spanish sailors. 

This was a cool opportunity to feel relaxed yet push hard and work on some of the pieces in the background of our sailing that had been put aside. We spent the winter training in large groups, unable to take a significant amount of time to focus on our personal boat handling. In Mexico we spent hours doing the same drill over and over in strong wind and waves, which solidified our comfort completing difficult maneuvers in tricky sailing conditions. Most importantly, it gave us some perspective on the repetitions needed to have high level boat handling, both on the water and on the calendar.

Lastly, Mexico was very enjoyable for me personally. I lived in Mexico for several months in 2019, and have been itching to go back since. Mexico is culturally rich and the Belauste brothers were able to give us a few stories of Mexican tradition and history. To top it off, our coach for the two weeks didn’t speak English, so our conversations were an opportunity to improve my Spanish. It’s difficult to comprehend and translate on the water when your heart is pounding, the coach is yelling, and it’s windy. We went down a few rabbit holes of the wrong technique because I completely misunderstood what we were being told. When debriefing later that night, we’d laugh it off and figure out what I misunderstood and aimed to fix the problem the next day.

Thank you to Dan and Ander for hosting us. We learned a lot in and out of the boat, and found it very rewarding to work with a coach so willing to push your limits.