When you ask a professional wave sailor where they enjoy tearing waves to pieces, you'd expect them to say Ho'okipa, Punta Preta, or wherever they like to call home. But, Ho'okipa is often crowded and not many sailors spend the off-season in Punta Preta. So where exactly do the top PWA wave sailors like to strut their stuff when the judges aren't looking?

This is what some of the guys had to say:

Josh Angulo (Angulo, MauiSails, Dakine): "Ponta Preta, it's a liquid half-pipe. It has plenty of consequence yet is not really life or death. It gets the endorphins pumping and is just all out a perfect wave."

Kauli Seadi (JP, NeilPryde, MFC, Mormaii): "At home in Brazil, just 2 friends out, clean waves, perfect for going off with no risk of going on the rocks!"

Victor Fernandez (Fanatic, North, MFC): "Well, I think I've sailed a lot of very good places in the world but Chile is my favourite because of the long waves which are powerful and uncrowded."

Kevin Pritchard (Starboard, Gaastra, Dakine): "Cabo Verde. The waves are perfect there when they're on, the wind direction, everything about it is perfect."

Robby Swift (JP, NeilPryde): "A little known spot called S-Turns in Maui. I only sailed there once when it was really epic, but had a few OK sessions there. The OK sessions were just that, OK, but one day earlier this year I drove over there to find it about 10 foot Hawaiian, which is well over mast and a half high and just reeling for probably 500-700m. I rushed out on the water with Zane Schweitzer and had one of the best sails ever. Levi Siver came out too and then a bunch of other guys, but the wind shut off after about an hour and a half, so we definitely had the best of it. The wave was so big and clean and perfect, I couldn't believe that we had such a spot right here on Maui and that I'd never sailed there before when it had been good. It takes a special wind and wave direction to make it work there, but when it does, it really stands out above any other wave I have sailed."

Klaas Voget (Fanatic, NeilPryde, MFC): "Denmark. I've had some of my best sessions there with my friends. It's a playground for jumps and wave riding. Unfortunately, it's freezing cold for 6 months of the year. Best conditions I've ever sailed were during the 2007 Cabo Verde World Cup."

So there you have it, no mention of the historic epicentre of the windsurfing world Ho'okipa, but plenty of praise for Cabo Verde. Perhaps we should all move out there.