Marseille freestyle cup
June 25, 2015Gran Canaria 2015
July 18, 2015Aw0o0oraa! I have not written in a while. I’ve been on a heck of travelling rollercoaster. Last time I wrote was somewhere in November at the end of the season. I thought I would have some time off before the next season. But guess what it’s 6 months later and I’ve already competed at my first world cup of the year and am now in the Canrary Islands with 8 more competitions ahead of me. I’m in shock. I need more off season time!
Here’s a mini list of the places I’ve been to since January.
I’m going to include stop overs also. Well, just because it makes the list longer 🙂
Ready? Deep breath. Here we go:
Thailand, Myanmar, Australia, malaysia, Holland, Aruba, Chicago, Los Angeles, Maui, Back to Aruba, Holland, Seoul, Istanbul, Cologne, France gruissan, Dusseldorf, Iceland, Aruba, marseille.
A whole lot of new destinations for me. And they’ve all been really cool.
The main project for this year is a movie I’m working on with Julian Robinet.
We’re taking you on my travels & competitions of this year and show you my life as a pro windsurfer as it is now.The good. The bad. Everything.
Until now filming this has been an experience of a lifetime. It really takes a lot of time and effort, from both the camera man and sailor. Every film session you really have to set a goal for what you want to achieve that session.
But finally when you see that a certain shot worked out, it’s really rewarding.
We travelled 5 weeks to Australia to get some wave sailing actioin. It’s been quite the experience. Although I love the outdoors. I learned that I love the comfort of having a shower and a bed. 7 days in blistering heat, without showering and sleeping on the back couch of our car or in a tent on the hard ground got me really, really cranky. I made acquaintance with that side of myself for the first time and had no idea what to do with her! But all good now. So to whomever says they’re going to do the eat pray love and discover themselves in Asia thing, I say go to the desert, have a camera pointed at you, camp and eat flies for 3 days. You will find yourself much quicker.
I promise.
After Australia we flew straight to Aruba and would have two amazing weeks where we sailed everyday. We got really lucky and scored amazing waves at Westpoint. Something that only happens once or twice a year. It was great because a bunch of the older crew came over to sail there as well. Such a good vibe! We flew Taty & Kiri over as well. I think we got some good action from Aruba.
Straight after filming in Aruba I went on to maui for the photo shoots of Neilpryde and Starboard and scored some wavesailing sessions.
After quite some faceplants I got some pushloops down. Yes !
Then it was time to fly back home to Aruba before heading out to the first event of the year in Korea. Slalom action! I took home the top prize so that was great.
Finally it was back to filming for the movie in France and Iceland.
The Défi wind in France was insane.
Sailing 40 km with 1200 people in 60 knots is really incredible.
I’m happy I survived it all.
But then came the biggest challenge of all. Two weeks in Iceland, with the intention of getting me in the water.. Yes it was cold. No I didn’t enjoy getting in the water. But after a while I learned how to deal with it a bit better. I had some really fun sessions and was blown away by our surroundings. It was beautiful.
My last trip was to the Sosh freestyle cup in Marseille. An extreme sports event organized by the mousilmani brothers.
And now. It’s time to get back into competition mode.
I have 6 weeks ahead of me in the canary islands.
First I’ll have to sail waves in Gran Canaria. Then I switch to Freestyle in Fuerteventura and straight after it’s back to waves in Tenerife.
I’m looking forward to it all. Lezzgo!!
P.s: Rest in peace Peter Volwater.
A true windsurfer ripping in all disciplines with really the biggest smile possible. And by far outdanced everybody at the PWA afterparties 🙂