LIFE ADVICE
The best advice I could give anyone would be not to be too hard on yourself. I was always very hard on myself during competitions. On myself and also on judges. I walked all over people who could have been friends, I just didn’t realise it. I wasn’t unfriendly, but I could have been more integrated, not the outsider I sometimes was. The truth is I was a rider going for titles, always. I was focused and determined, not the nicest combination. I not only tried to be the best on the water, but also to have complete control. I was so much into competing and put so much pressure on myself that I was blind to anything else but me sometimes. The problem with this is that you don’t allow yourself to have a deeper connection with anyone.
RESPONSIBILITY
I was in the top ten of the World Tour, was crowned European Champion twice. But with success new problems and fears arose. What will happen next year? Any dangerous newcomers? A move I won’t be able to learn? An injury? I was always worried. If you base your life on competing and you don’t have anything else, it’s difficult. The life of a professional windsurfer is filled with uncertainty.
I see the young guys doing the same as I did. Competing becomes everything. They put themselves under a lot of pressure. But for what? A few Euros? They will have fun, but there will be one or two kids who will be under too much pressure. Not even the most talented guys will make it if they don’t invest all their time and effort. People can go over their limits, sometimes so much that they get sick, like I did. I feel the companies in windsurfing should guide their riders, make them aware of what comes after their careers. They should protect their riders when things go wrong, in case of an injury they cannot overcome, etc. The companies have a very big responsibility.
SECOND CAREER
The reason I started filming was that I broke my hand back in 2004. I couldn’t windsurf but had a lot of promotional ideas. The injury gave me a chance to discover other areas of the sport. I started doing web clips, that got longer and longer. Then I decided to make a real movie. Four Dimensions was a huge success, with thousands of pages of publicity in magazines and newspapers. And this success only came about because I couldn’t sail! Ironic and fun at the same time. It was a step into my second career. None of this was written in my contracts, but I did it to play a bigger role in the team, be less replaceable than others. I knew that if I lost my sponsors I wouldn’t be able to afford my lifestyle anymore.
