LOGISTICS
A couple of days earlier I had jetted into Warsaw, Poland late in the evening the day before registration. The next morning the crew were at the stadium at 7am for a full day ofmeetings which would outline the schedule and every detail for the two main nights of the show. One thing for sure, this event was on an unprecedented scale and a huge logistical challenge. My first glimpse of the stadium was from the taxi window en route from the Hotel, with its majestic red and white circular structure dominating the surrounding part of the city it certainly was a bold architectural statement. This was the very stadium that had embarrassingly flooded prior to the England versus Poland world cup qualifier back in 2012 after officials ignored the forecast for heavy rain. The game was abandoned and the stadium subsequently earned the nickname of the ‘National Pool’ ! So it was a slightly ironic venue for an indoor windsurfing event but an excuse nonetheless for the stadium to restore its reputation!
“ I was pumped and fully focused! I just kept telling myself ‘You’ve got this.. you just need to nail the start, stick the gybes and you’ve got this.. come on! ” Ben Proffitt
The moment I stepped into the stunning interior ofthe national stadium through the player’s tunnel, the realization struck that this was ‘one mother of an event’ and possibly a make or break moment for the windsurfing world. The whole scale of this place was ridiculous compared to anything I have experienced before in my twenty years of following the PWA world tour as we were about to be part of a show in the Polish equivalent of Wembley Stadium. Our offices were based right next to the players changing rooms, and behind the scenes, hundreds of people were working meticulously to make sure everything would go ahead without any glitches, the pressure was on!
