MUSIC
My music is nothing too serious. My family is very musical and I was taught to play the piano when I was young, however I became bored of the piano and left it like many people did. When I started travelling I was missing it a lot, so I now have a small keyboard I take to events when I can. I think I have a good ear and feel for music. It’s a hobby and something I love to play about with. I wrote a few songs and I got really into it a few years ago. I can’t do everything on top of my windsurfing. Had I not been a professional sailor maybe I would have been a musician. I don’t think I am that talented at music to talk about it too much! I would like to develop it more than it is now and there will come a time. I keep having crazy ideas for songs all the time. I envision things in a very strong way and quickly create themes around them.
The XXL harness you tube video was based on a real life situation a very long time ago. With Kurosh’s brilliant editing skills it was just fun putting words together and the whole thing became a super funny thing to do during no wind days around the world just playing piano and guitar. We were scared it was too abusive but people seemed to really love it and took it the way it was meant to be taken: just humour!
HIGHLIGHTS
I have had many highlights in my career and I cannot point to one alone but definitely a standout was organizing the Storm Rider competition in Israel together with Red Bull. It was a dream for my brother and I and it was actually the first Storm Chase before Red Bull went bigger on the concept. We waited for the strongest, most extreme forecast day and went for it. Right now I am a slalom sailor but I came from waves in the past. Our passion was to hunt down storms and this was the highlight when we started windsurfing. It was amazing to have Ross Williams and Josh Angulo in Israel. We did not ever imagine any sailors would come to our home spot. It ended up being an amazing event and it helped Europe realize what we had in Israel. The spot is called Bat Galim (Daughter of the waves) which has a reef break. But the location has a bit of everything from flat water to waves and works in lots of different winds. It is a really good place to windsurf and after twenty five years of travelling I think I am a pretty good judge of a decent spot! I think it is pretty close to being one of the best places in the world actually.
After I won the IFCA worlds in 2000 Red Bull picked me up and supported me for ten years, they were my first real sponsor and without them I would not have been able to have raced around the world for all these years. More highlights were winning some Formula competitions and scoring third in the world in Formula when all the best guys were there and we had 120 in the fleet. In 2014 I won Sylt which was also a dream of mine. I think of Sylt as the Wimbledon of the windsurfing world, at least organization wise. I was a bit lucky there but I have had plenty of bad luck in the past as well. I went over early in the last semi and if they had finished the final I would have lost the event. Thankfully the wind died and I won the title, but there was a lot of nervous waiting before I finally had the victory in the bag.
SPRITZING
Spritzing is a racing term my friends and I came up with. It can be a lot of things. It came from hosing another racer and spraying water in their face as you pass them by. If you get rolled in slalom and a guy passes you and is clearly faster than you then that is what I call Spritzing! The thing you get is this spray in your face so you basically get spritzed! We now have re-spritzed as well. Which means you got spritzed, had the spray in your face but somehow managed to spritz the person back! This only happens once or twice a year.