BEGINNINGS
My family has an apartment close to Amsterdam in Holland, so that is my base in summer and place to recharge when I get a small break in the schedule. Bonaire is still home, but that is just between October and April.
I was born and raised in Bonaire and learned to sail in the crystal clear lagoon there. Every time I come back home I am still blown away how beautiful it is. Other places around the world are also nice, but to me there is nothing better than home. My parents are car dealers and also run a repair shop, that is what they do full time in Bonaire. I learned windsurfing in 2002 when they had the King of Bonaire. I saw freestyle windsurfing taking place and asked my parents for a lesson to try it. I stood up and I was gone. The only thing they taught me was when you put the sail backwards it goes upwind and forwards makes it go downwind. That was all I knew. After that I went every day straight to the beach after school.
The first event for me was in Bonaire when I was fourteen. I started out racing and was doing a lot of IFCA events around Europe and then the pro kids events that were happening every year in Bonaire. I started out as a racer but then I saw Tonky and Taty jumping around on freestyle equipment and I wanted a piece of that. I really love both slalom and freestyle and started training for both.