Pozo Worldcup 2023
July 15, 2023
Sylt World Cup 2023
October 10, 2023
Woah! Winning both slalom and freestyle in Fuerteventura this year may be one of the biggest highlights of my entire career!
After competing in Pozo, I realized how tough it was to compete against the foil on a fin.
So, I was not sure what to expect for Fuerte and felt like I was in over my head competing in both disciplines.
Especially doing slalom before freestyle.
One week before the contest I had some epic sessions with the boys freestyling.
I Have not seen such amazing conditions in Fuerteventura in years. We had a blast.
Yentel coached me through some Paskos, and my goal was to land one in my freestyle heat! I was having so much fun on the water.
That really got me in the right mindset to compete.
Freestyle is what keeps windsurfing fun for me, so by the time I had to compete in slalom I was pretty excited to get out there.
Pasko practice
For the Canaries I gambled on strong winds and only brought my one small 63 Isonic, 6.5, 5.6 and 5.3. The races in Fuerteventura were some of the most epic races I have done in my life.
After day one I scored 3 bullets and a second place and was leading the event.
I did not expect that. I did make some changes to my setup compared to Pozo, and I was definitely much faster. As long as I was powered on my 5,6 I felt like I had a fighting chance to stay ahead of the foils. Even though there were some moments, even performing at my utmost best that I just could not keep the foil behind me. One time I had a drag race with Blanca and right on time I realized that a 2nd place finish was perfectly fine for me.
Blanca and SQ dragrace
Another time I was racing Marion and I aimed for the pin, right at the end I got an off shore gust, spun out and missed the finish line all together. Of all the slalom mistakes I’ve made, this was by far the worst feeling. I did all that hard work to stay ahead of the foils and I just threw it away like that! Halfway during the contest I was still leading the event, but everyone was improving on the foil as well and it was just getting harder and harder to keep up. I would have been fine with a top 3 finish at the beginning of the week, but since I was leading.. I did not want to let it go.
SQ jumping over finishline
Come final day, it was the windiest of all and most girls opted to go on fin. I switched from my 5,6 to 5,3 and was completely overpowered. Blanca stayed loyal to the foil and I was impressed how well she handled it. This last day we had the Downwind Speed run of Death before the first mark, Jenna Gibson really showed her speed here. What a daredevil. The angle was super downwind and I was more focused on staying consistent and finding the shortest line to the first mark. In both races I was able to take the lead after the first mark and finish the last two races of the event in first.
This slalom win in Fuerteventura is one that I won’t forget! It was an epic battle.
Slalom podium Fuerteventura
No time to waste as we went straight into freestyle the next day. At this point I was exhausted from slalom, but at the same time I had a good rhythm and was lookin forward to get out there. We had super fun waves In the single elimination. This was probably the windiest I’ve competed in. I could just about hold on to my 4.0 and had to carefully choose when to do certain moves. In my heat against Lina Erpenstein I had so much fun. I saw that she was bringing her wave game to the freestyle, and I knew she could score a lot with some big jumps, so when the ramp came I launched into a backloop and landed that one perfectly! I was SO stoked on that one, I don’t even remember what other moves I did!
My final heat was against Oda! So happy to see her come back from injury and launch into some crazy moves in the semifinal to make it to the final.
That was inspiring to watch! I won the final and had to wait to defend my 1st place in the double elimination.
Oda & SQ in the final
In the double elimination it was Maaike that made it to the final. The conditions got a bit lighter and trickier.
It was so crazy to think that I could win a title in the next 15 minutes. Or lose it in 30 min if Maaike would beat me twice in a row, and I’ll tell you, she was on form.
I managed to relax and just focus on what I had to do.
Focus
I felt like the final was a game of chess as the wind was very patchy! I managed to land my standard power moves like Burner and culo’s even both ways, and right on the buzzer I landed my first pasko in a heat. It wasn’t perfect but I was so excited to push myself to do new moves.
I took the final win and that was such a good feeling.
Freestyle title #12 and 21 overall. WHAT!?
It was the cherry on top of an awesome week in Fuerteventura.
Thanks to all the locals there supporting me there and my friends and fam supporting me from online.
Massive thank you to my sponsors for supporting and believing in me:
Starboard, Neilpryde, Brunotti, Maui ultra fins, Papia Mia
Celebration
