I flew out to Brasil at the beginning of October to prepare for the last world cup of the year in France! Couldn’t think of a better place to train freestyle, wave and slalom.

My main goal was to push my limits in freestyle. Jeri is such a fun playground and it really allows you to play around and be creative on the water. I even brought wing gear because Oda convinced me that riding waves on a foil board is amazing.

And that’s exactly what I did those 4 weeks. Every week the conditions were a bit different which means I was practicing something else all the time.

The first week was probably the most fun I have ever had in Jeri. I landed a new move every day the first couple of days. No handed burner, no handed culo, air chachoo, culo 360 on port and air kabi. I think I probably also got overconfident. One day Oda was filming me for the “sunny sessions” clip that she made of me, and I landed an air chachoo on camera. After that I wanted to go bigger so I hit a bigger wave at it’s peak and literally got catapulted and flipped through the air without the gear. That’s when I had to get off the water to not get hurt haha. But oh man! That feeling of progress that week will stay with me for a long time!

Besides freestyle we had 3 days of really fun wave riding.
And in the morning it was really fun to go long boarding as well. The locals are so stylish!
As soon as the tide was not suitable anymore we headed towards the lagoon.

The conditions were not as good as I remember from there and the sandbanks changed a bit but I was still on my 4,4 most of the time. I think at the lagoon I was able to practice my double popping moves. Here I didn’t improve as much as I hoped for but in the end I did get a better feel for doing air funnel pop funnel and tried air funnel burners. Some day!

My winging experience was an emotional rollercoaster! When I got there I still didn’t understand what the hype was. I couldn’t jibe, I couldn’t tack, I was falling off all the time and I felt like a total beginner. After a couple of sessions where I was literally cursing I finally figured out where to position my foil for the most lift and stability for me. All of a sudden I was jibing quite easily. And the moment CC films arrived in Brasil to film Oda and I winging is when it clicked. The moment he pointed his camera at me I magically learned to do foiling tacks, jibed like no other and I started waving etc ahhahah..

Our last session in Brasil was a wing session. And I couldn’t think of a better way to end it!
Oda was right, riding a swell and connecting sections while holding the wing behind you is SO MUCH FUN!

Being in Brasil was amazing down time and training at the same time!