France slalom and Freestyle world champ!

France came up a bit unexpected this year.
We got the green light for it quite late, but with the lack of contests I was excited to compete.
Getting there though was a logistical nightmare. I love doing all disciplines but until now the events have always been separate. In France I’d have to compete in all disciplines at the same time. Oh my goodness, my mind was racing. How was I going to keep it together for all disciplines, and do I really have to foil ?

I tried to prioritize the disciplines. I was leading the slalom rankings because I won in Israël and I wanted that slalom title badly. After that I definitely wanted to stay on top for freestyle and I felt really good after training in Brasil. For waves I didn’t have too high expectations so I would do what I could and if there’s only little wind then I didn’t want to stay on the beach and watch everyone foil..So yes.. I was taking all my gear with me!

How do you take 10 boards, 17 sails, 6 booms, 10 masts + spare gear with you to a competition? Well, I chucked it all in a Mercedes Vito and drove down to the South of France. On the way I met up with Oda and Lina Erpenstein in Luxembourg and we drove the rest down together. That night in Luxembourg was 1 degrees. By the time we arrive din France, fortunately the temperature went up by 10 degrees. I was so happy to see that number 12 on there!

The event was going to be held at Marignane for foiling and slalom, maybe freestyle and at Carro we’d have the wave sailing. I started unpacking on dat one and tried to organize myself so I could manage everything over the next 10 days.

Well…. In the end we were very very unlucky and got stuck in between two strong wind systems for the whole of the event. Which means there was no wind right in the middle where we were.

I don’t know how it worked out, but we managed to run the freestyle single elimination in Carro. It was such a challenging day! Onshore, gusty, swell from everywhere and I couldn’t really feel my hands! It was fun sailing against Lisa Kloster and Lina Erzen. It’s great to see new faces pushing. I made it through and in the final was up against Maaike. The wind was very up and down and I actually made a mistake going one size down and grabbing my 4,8. It felt like the wind was picking up, but exactly as the heat started the wind started dropping and dropping. I couldn’t believe it. Maaike is lighter than me and really strong in light winds.

My tactic was to fill up the score sheet as soon as possible which meant I went for moves like grubby, double flaka, e-slider. And when I got the gust I flung myself through a burner which in the end gave me the edge and the win of that final.

On the way back to the beach I contemplated how I’d react if I head I lost.. and I felt calm and said, I had done the best I could. But at the beach was robby swift telling me I won the heat. Wauw! How awesome
The highlight for me that day was watching Amado claiming the win and his first world title.

The conditions were not in his favour at all. But this guy sailed for his life. Amazing to see how he sailed that heat and decided that him winning that title was in his own hands. Still have goosebumps thinking about it. Well deserved ! Aruba and Bonaire are taking the freestyle worldtitles back to the Caribbean this year!

At the end of the event I was crowned freestyle and slalom world title. Title #18 & #19.

Mission accomplished !
It feels good to sign of the year having don some competitions and I hope that 2022 looks even brighter!

Top 3 freestyle ladies