Windsurfjournal.com : How do you land the "press job" on the PWA World Tour ?
Brian McDowell : I was already judging on the tour and doing some freelance writing so when the PWA launched their new website and the marketing manager moved to another job I got offered the new position of Press and Information Manager, mainly because knew all the moves and the riders and how the contests work, but also because I had web experience and writing skills.

WJ : What are the different aspects of your job ?
BMD : Ha, well mostly I sit in a hot and dusty container all summer!  My job's to produce the live web casts during events to keep the world up-to-date with the atmosphere, pressure and general situation with the event and the action on the water. Additionally I write the daily news summaries which get sent out to all the press, often for translation or use in outside publications, and to update the website regularly, plus help make sure the press and media have all the information they need to do their job and help promote windsurfing as far and wide as possible. In between events I write, source and edit the daily news on Pwaworldtour.com, and make sure the site's got loads of nice fresh content that focuses on our elite athletes and the sport in general. Plus, I have to produce media reports for the event organisers and potential, sponsors which document all the coverage the tour gets world over.

WJ : During each event, you spend all day writing in front of your computer for the PWA live ticker, isn’t that boring or frustrating ?
BMD : Well it's always nicer to go windsurfing than to watch it. But it's also a privilege year-on-year to see the best in action and the standard evolve. When I was a judge I probably had more time to sail as the days are longer for the poor press guy ! But we get to sail now and then. You kind of feel like a dork sailing in front of those guys anyway and it certainly makes you appreciate your sailing more during down time at home. Normally John Carter and Rich Page, the Tour Manager, and I go for an early morning run to get our exercise done. Writing the ticker and the news summaries is a long day, and this past season was pretty hard as we had one stretch away for 6 weeks with 10 or more hour days away from the family and home. At least when you're judging you can get a little time off to go find the bathroom or something. It can get frustrating when the internet connections are slow or the conditions are fickle as you rev the readers into gear and then disappoint them with the news that the wind's dropped or whatever. The off-season is nice, but I have to work really hard at my other jobs as a Copywriter, Web Content Manager and Journalist to pay the bills. It's not all too bad. In Brazil last year we finished the double early in the week and there was still a bit of wind and some small waves around, and occasionally if there's no wind and we finish early we might go for a surf if its on somewhere.

WJ : Do you have any idea of how many people follow your livecast ? And what’s your record number of connected ?
BMD : The traffic's really strong around July and the big Grand Slams. The record's about 17,100 people on the ticker, and we've exceeded 1 million page impressions in a month before now too. 2007 peak of unique visitors per day was 19.000 with 125.000 page impressions per day. 90% of visitors used the ticker ! The most important thing's that the traffic's growing steadily. I'm not sure it's all about the figures as we just aim to provide a good service and have a lot of windsurfers talking about the contests to each other and being interested in the riders and their equipment and what's going on when they see each other at the beach or local store or whatever. Having that buzz about the sport's what it's all about.

WJ : What are relationships with the riders on tour… Is it easier than being race director or judge ?
BMD : They're all really nice to the crew. Things get heated around the judging tower now and then and that's part of an intense contest. I've been used to keeping my distance from when I was a judge as its best to remain independent and professional, even though the whole vibe is relaxed and informal as you'd expect from a beach sport. Sometimes when someone's felt they've been judged badly they've come and seen me to try and see if I thought they'd won it to use in their argument with the head judge, but I'm watching it like a fan and not scoring it so it wouldn't matter what I thought. Generally we all get on well. I used to work in the industry so I know competitors from before I worked on tour and of course I know all the British guys well too, but usually I'm behind my screen writing about everyone rather than hanging out.