ETHAN WESTERA
Yes the racing was a bit out of control this year in Fuerteventura. When I received the call and heard that Taty was coming my way to the hospital I was speechless. For sure there are some scary moments in windsurfing. My incident looked like a normal crash, but ended up pretty nasty. I was heading into my third gybe when another racer tried to gybe inside me but spun out and cut my foot. I didn’t even see him coming. I only saw the fin slicing my foot. From then on I was screaming on the water because I could not believe that this had happened! It was not from pain, just the shock and realization this was going to keep me off the water! I made it onto the Jet Ski and was treated on the beach to stop the bleeding. I was then rushed in the ambulance to the hospital. It took three hours or more before they knew what they needed to do and then I had surgery on my foot.
I really don’t know how this will affect my racing in the future, I can’t tell you. It is really scary if I keep thinking about it and I did think about this question. I will be fighting to get on that top spot again, so at the end of the day I think it won’t affect me too much, but for now I really just don’t know! I think slalom will always be dangerous and I guess that’s what most of us kind of like from it, the adrenaline rush. To always be on the edge of making it or just destroying yourself is exciting.
Slalom can be dangerous everywhere on the racecourse! Everyone is pushing their limits to go to that next round in every second of every race, so for me the whole race is dangerous! On the straight line, the start, at the gybe, close to the finish line, everywhere!! I was also thinking about what can be done to make slalom safer. I really don’t know if changing the rules will change things. What happened in Fuerteventura were just people getting out of control and just making those small mistakes, which turned out to be big accidents. I like to sail on the limit and to push it the maximum that I can, so I would not like to change that. I think many more riders would also not like to change that. Yes I agree on that there should be more stringent rules for dangerous sailing but then again when is it dangerous sailing, there is such a fine line? What happened with Taty and I is just losing control and bad timing, mistakes that cost a lot. Yes, after my collision I was also thinking a lot about safety apparel, but for me I like to be comfortable when I’m sailing and competing. So I think I won’t be using any extra protection. However, after a situation like this I don’t have much say in the decision, because my mother thinks in a different way! I really think it won’t be a bad choice if we wear certain safety protection on the racecourse.