LENA ERDIL
It is essential to have a really cosy and comfortable wetsuit to stay warm. I don’t like having long wetsuit arms because it makes my forearms cramp up. I am really using my forearms a lot racing and when you are stressed as well they can cramp. So I sail with short sleeves. Most of the time I have to cut the arms off my thick winter wetsuit to be able to compete with them. Denmark was one of the coldest events I have competed in especially with the wind chill. Sometimes I did not feel my hands. That makes it a lot more difficult to race, especially at the gybes. It is the same for your feet. In one of the races I was using my small board, which I am very used to sailing in Turkey, and so the footstraps were how I would use them there; but in Denmark I had so much less feeling in my feet and it was a lot choppier so I struggled to take my back foot out. I think it was because I had less feeling or something.Between races the challenge was to stay warm. I was in the hot tub all the time.