OLYA RASKINA: TRICKS FOR WAVES
Olya is our Russian ripper, who charges waves like an old school gladiator. She dreams of someday riding JAWS. Sometimes she lands her moves perfectly and other times you see her flying off the lip backwards and upside-down. Either way her fearlessness towards a grinding section is impressive. This year Olya entered the Pozo PWA wave event only to injure her knee landing a massive forward badly which took her out of the game for 2012. All was not lost since Olya went to Mauritus after some time spent recovering only to be gifted with some perfect down-the-line wave riding.
A perfect day for Olya unrolls like this, “I wake-up before sunrise, eat a light breakfast, paddle out at the first light, surf perfect waves until it’s crowded, have another good big breakfast at home, relax, work, put windsurfing gear in my car, wavesail the whole afternoon, get back home, dinner, work, movie, boyfriend.” Though it would seem that Olya has been frolicking in the waves for most of her youth the opposite is true. Olya used to be an ambitious snowboarder but frequent serious injuries made her try something different, less painful – this happened to be windsurfing. Twelve months after learning Olya was already out trying to ride waves in South Africa, though she admits the conditions kicked her butt and she got a rinsing on almost every attempt. You’d never know that she learnt just 8 years ago the way she tears around, pulling freestyle tricks and hitting monster lips. She was one of those sailors who learnt to windsurf in one month and was pulling her first freestyle tricks two months later.
Through a connection with waves, Olya has learnt to meditate, enjoy, have a lot of fun with her friends, chill, reflect and feel genuinely happy inside after a good session in the surf. Olya cherishes the freedom she feels when she is wave riding. Olya always like to keep her thinking positive in the waves, she tries not to get angry or negative as she saw an amazing scientific film called, Water, which had a lot of interesting ideas. Long story short: it’s better always to stay happy and positive when you’re in the ocean. Though Olya loves sailing in mast-high waves she’s also scared every time she goes out. Big waves are powerful but they are the ones you remember and think about for the rest of your life.
When Olya isn’t chasing down surf in some remote corner of the earth she runs her Windsurfing Beauties camps in Dahab. Check it out windsurf.beauties.com
