JUN 2025

Dreaming big, failing fast

Hello everyone,

This year had one goal, written at the top of every plan: win the World Championship in Los Angeles. What follows is the story of chasing it with everything I had, and the most important lesson of my career so far.

Taking every margin

I approached the season with a full Olympic-campaign mindset. A physical coach joined the team and my fitness was programmed daily. New sponsors came onboard, thank you Vela LA and Element 6 Evolution. My whole life was scheduled and calibrated: training blocks, school, recovery, travel, everything optimized for August.

In parallel ran another race: university applications, and the grades to back them up. Between the boat, the gym, the books, and building the sponsor side of the campaign, no hour was left unused.

The body pushes back

From April to July, I fought mononucleosis. I kept getting sick, kept losing days, and kept trying to hold a schedule built for a healthy athlete. The season went on: a frustrating 28th at the Europeans, a February block of mixed results but real progress, and the constant feeling of being slightly behind my own plan.

Kiel: 7th at the Men's Worlds

Then, one month before LA, a breakthrough. At the ILCA 6 Men's World Championship in Kiel, in tricky, shifty offshore conditions, I finished 7th of 124, racing against the best in the world, in the open men's fleet, at 17. Proof the level was real.

Los Angeles

And then, my worst Worlds result ever, at the event that mattered most, with the last day costing me the ISAF qualification too.

The honest truth: doing too much is doing less. I had calibrated every hour of my life for that regatta, and when it arrived I could not mentally tone down. I arrived at the biggest event of my year with nothing left to give it. One month after Kiel, the same sailor, the opposite outcome.

It was hard. It still is. But this is where my philosophy was truly born: fail fast, recover methodically. Take the failure completely, understand it precisely, and rebuild deliberately. Kiel proved what I can do; LA taught me what I have to change.

Thank you to my family, my coaches, my sponsors, and everyone who stood by me in a year that gave everything and took everything. The next chapter starts now.

— Carlos