JC: What is the one key feature for anyone in doubt to tell you apart?
DAIDA: I think we are really different, so I don’t think many people cannot tell us apart nowadays. I guess the easiest thing is to see that I am 10 kilos heavier!
IBALLA: Our voices are different and also the shape of our faces, mine is narrower. We also have very different expressions too. I used to have a pierced tongue but not for a long time now. I do have one more tattoo that Daida doesn’t have, but it is in a hard place to find, hee hee!
JC: You are sisters, friends and confidents on land, however in the water…
DAIDA: in the water we are competitors and we always try to sail the best we know. Iballa is a tough opponent and very hard to beat.
IBALLA: both of us work hard, and if it is possible to win, all the better!
JC: How important is social media these days to promote yourselves?
DAIDA: I personally think it’s extremely important but you need to know how to manage it and be professional with content. You have to constantly publish fresh news and images to keep your followers interested.
IBALLA: It is really important. It brings us close to our fans all over the world and I love to interact with them. The internet allows us to communicate with lots of interesting people. The good thing is that all our followers are windsurfers that love what we do and we get to show them our lifestyle from all angles.
“ We started windsurfing with a broken board that someone was going to throw away ’’ – DAIDA
JC: How has the windsurfing business changed since you were first sponsored back in the nineties?
DAIDA: We were sponsored for the first time back in 1998. The level of money and equipment offered has clearly declined especially from within the windsurf industry. I think our best years were around 2007-8 and since then the money has been in decline. For a girl today, it is really difficult to live out of windsurfing. I think the top 20th male windsurfer would probably receive more money than any of the top 3 female windsurfers.
IBALLA: Do we need to talk about this? All our sponsors are the best sponsors in the world! But it is true that things have changed to a lot worse and it’s a pity to see how many good athletes cannot afford to do the whole tour because of the lack of money.
JC: Why is it so tough for girls of your talent and obvious marketing potential to score big sponsorship deals in windsurfing?
DAIDA: Girls work really hard on their marketing. Somehow the windsurfing industry and customers always compare females with the male windsurfing level. I believe it’s really unfair! Women will never have such a high level as it’s physically impossible. What girls need is a bigger chance to be able to travel and to be correctly equipped to train. Unfortunately for us windsurfing is still really male focussed. Windsurfing is also still far behind any other sports on TV, we need the sport to be featured more often in TV channels. From this we will have more outside industry sponsors interested in promoting windsurfing.
IBALLA: I would like to get to that point. Not sure how we can change the mentality of the industry and let them know we not only “sell equipment” to women. We are a great image for all genders and windsurfing in general. We not only win contests but work really hard all year to promote the sport, ourselves and our sponsors! You need to be very creative nowadays to be always at the top of the list for sponsors ! I don’t think many riders are getting a big deal in windsurfing except probably Philip Köster who is fortunate to have outside industry sponsors who support him very well. Lucky for him! Meanwhile we keep fighting every day to change things and reach outside industry sponsors and get them more interested in the sport of windsurfing. We are happy to announce our latest contract with ANFI. They are a company from the Canary Islands specializing in luxury and lifelong vacation resorts in the south of Gran Canaria. They believe in the “Moreno twins” and support us by using our image together with David Silva (Manchester City) and Alberto Contador (cycling). We need more companies like them to keep growing our sport but also it is beneficial for ANFI to promote in our market….it’s a perfect deal. You can see more of what they do at www.anfi.com