Hi Matt,

Sorry it took so long for a reply...

Great that you like the Tricktionary and that you have learnt from it already!!!
Seems that you're learning fast!! and if you're doing ponches, funnels, shakas and so on, you should/could definitely start competing!!!
Start by taking part in some smaller events - national events --national freestyle championships are a good start... You need some experience to compete successfully in the PWA.

You can anyway try to enter one or some of the PWA Freestyle Worldcups...depends what you want...
If you don't have any references it can be hard to get in - if the event is full...if not, you should be able to get a wildcard.
You can apply for that through the PWA website.
You'll receive an email about 1-2 months before the competition to register for the event. You reply and fill in a wildcard application and receive a notice of race if you are accepted (about 1 month before the event).

This year there is just Sylt in Germany left...which is in about 1 month...

I do not know what conditions you are usually sailing in - but Sylt/Germany can get really rough...sometimes it is really hard to do freestyle there...
So maybe not the best spot to start with...

As said, you need experience...how to sail in your heat, what to do to beat your oponent...
You won't look silly - everybody has bad heats sometimes and for sure everybody had to start competing once... as said...experience is the key...

Maybe Lanzarote or Fuerte are good events to start with...
It is windy almost every day (usually) - so you are sailing a lot of heats...if you loose or not, you do at least 1 heat a day...so you can learn how the game works...and besides you will learn a lot from the pro's!

anything else let me know!!

all the best
Rossi