Naxos

After spending 5 months at home, I felt it was time to fly out to Europe.
Even though most events got cancelled, the training must go on.
I flew to Holland with a loose plan of wanting to be in Europe for the next 2 months.
My initial plan was to head to the Canary islands but the best destination with all the travel restrictions looked to be Greece. I flew to Naxos and met up with the usual suspects, Oda, Balz and Eva.

Woah! I definitely lost the hang of travelling in only 5 months.
When you’re used to jumping in and out of a plane you always know exactly where you have your stuff. This time I was dropping my passport, couldn’t find my ticket, my headphones were in the way and “where’s my phone so I can call the guy for the transfer to pick me up “ ?! and on top of that… “Should I change my mask again?” and “Where did I put the hand sanitizer this time!?”

I haven’t flown to a new destination in a while! Let me tell you, booking that ticket and figuring out how to get there was quite exciting. First I flew to Santorini, where the locals picked me up and after an hour of sightseeing put me on the ferry to Naxos. I loved that walk around town and all I can say is that I felt so happy and blessed to travel and explore again.

At the port in Naxos, Oda the great was there to grab me.
When we arrived at Laguna beach park, Eva and Balz already prepared lunch. What a welcome!
Anastacia and Stam are the owners of laguna beach park and they have been the most welcoming towards us. Their kids Constantino and Stefanos are 5 and 7 years old and are planing back and forth and duck jibing. Also Constantino at 5 years old, already knows how to wrap all the ladies around his finger hahaha. 

We lived in the old town, which has such a lovely vibe and the food was so tempting we were eating out three times a day. It took me a day or 2 to find out how to make it to the house as the old town felt like a labyrinth. Easy to find though as it was right across from the apartment: Thanos, the best barista in town serving me the best coffee every day.

It was great to see Lennart Neubauer’s homespot. and I understand apart from how talented he is, how this place has helped him to reach the level he has now.
It’s a total playground. You can literally sail to three different spots in two minutes.
You either windsurf in the skatepark-like lagoon, where you can launch off of this perfect piece of swell on starboard tack, run after run. Cross over to the bigger lagoon, where the water is flatter and train moves on port tack. Or you sail upwind out of the bay and sail in the waves. 

What a variety of conditions in such a small area.
Looking back at the stay I didn’t get as many windsurfing days as I had hoped for. But the ones I did get were solid. The highlight for me was the local competition that was held.
This was the most challenging contest I’ve ever done. Both Oda and I were competing in the women’s and men’s division, so we sailed heat after heat.
It’s a total different ball game to perform tricks under pressure, out of breath and fatigued muscles. ( or should I just get in to better shape haha). But I enjoyed the challenge. 

By the end of the day I finished first in the women and actually made it to the final against Lennart in the men and finished second. I loved the feeling of having to go all in, and I think I’ve sailed some of my best heats ever, which I am so stoked about.
We had the best crowd and it was so much fun to cheer for the riders and be cheered for as well, as we were able to perform the moves so close to the beach. 
It was definitely a great show.
Thanks to Anastacia and Stam for organising and a great job to Balz for being the head judge.

We had plenty of action the other days though.
A super cool Tow-in practice night in front of the Flisvos centre during sunset. 
We had a beautiful boat trip to the island Koufonisis.
The water was so unbelievably clear. It was a dream spot to go for  kite session.
It was a hassle to launch off of the boat, but let’s say that was another lesson learned!

We kited a lot at Migri vigla. Oda and I were having a crazy horse contest. It’s a strapless kiting trick where you pop the board up between your legs, soar through the sky and then you need to land back on the board. Neither of us managed, but it was well fun just goofing around and floating through the air. Balz would come out and practice 360’s too and we tried some wing foiling with him and Eva too. Other than that we drove a Panda that whole trip. We would pack that car to the brim, for the adventure of the day and it was a sport every night to try and find / “create” a parking spot in the port. That car fits everywhere!

I went there for training, but ultimately spending time in Greece felt like a lovely holiday.
Looking forward to explore the greek islands more in the future. 
These islands have so much to offer!

Check out the video Balz made me and the event video below that one.