SAT NAV: “IN 400 KM YOU WILL NEED TO TURN LEFT!”
JC: Am I in 3rd? This van is slow! Ok let’s do this interview we have been talking about. So Sarah tell us about your early days?
SQ: I am a bit nervous JC! But ok let’s do this! I learned to windsurf when I was 9 in Aruba sailing with my brother Quincy. A couple of years later in 2001 I went with a big group of kids to Bonaire to compete. The atmosphere at the event was awesome and since then I have been hooked on windsurfing. I grew up with freestyle in Aruba. Back then it was freestyle or racing while the Bonaire crew were just about freestyle. That is the era when all the sliding moves were in trend like grubbies and spocks.
JC: Ok we are doing 90 km/h is that fast enough? When did you start competing on the PWA?
SQ: JC you can do 100 in this van, at 90 you might miss your flight! Put your foot down JC! My first PWA event was Bonaire in 2003 when I was 12 and I made it into 5th. I won my first event three years later in Fuerteventura when I was 15. I think I beat Daida Moreno in the final! In 2007 I lost the title to Daida in the final but after that, since 2008, I have not lost a single freestyle heat!
JC: I guess you feel a bit like me at table tennis and chess, undefeated for many years…do you have a fear of losing now?
SQ: Ha ha I will take you down at table tennis JC don’t you worry and by the way you are still in third and doing 75 km/h! Being at the top and undefeated for so long I really want someone to come along and challenge me. I don’t really have a fear of losing, it is more a fear of underperforming. The pressure seems to be building up on me though the longer I keep on this winning streak. I don’t think people want to see me lose but I think the crowd always likes to see someone else win. People just assume I will win at freestyle and it is not quite so simple for me to keep it together all the time especially with so many talented girls rising up through the ranks.
JC: Was that a ‘Roo’ that just ran across in front of us, lucky this stupid van drives so slow? What do you think has made you much better than the rest of the girls?
SQ: There was no Kangaroo JC, I think you might need glasses. Even if there was one he would have been able to hop faster than this van is driving! Well I started windsurfing very early on and I think that has helped me a lot. I always sailed with all the guys like Kirri, Taty, and Tonky freestyling around me. They were always the standard for me. Other girls around the world didn’t necessarily have such amazing sailors to aspire to. I have competed since I was a kid in swimming and windsurfing so I already have the competition mentality to handle the pressure. I guess I have some natural talent but I definitely put in the hours to get where I am today! I am very competitive when it means something to me. I am not too bad when it is something fun but when it comes to windsurfing I am very serious.
JC: So how do you possibly manage competing in all three disciplines at the very highest level?
SQ: JC you have been sitting behind a huge juggernaut doing 80 km/h for the last twenty minutes, you need to overtake! I am actually having a hard time doing all three. The flat water side is fine for me to train but to really get time in the waves I am struggling. What usually ends up happening is that I don’t have enough time for each discipline to totally put my full effort into all of them. At freestyling I have a head start so I can afford to put in slightly less energy than in slalom and wave. Whatever conditions are there, then I will train for what looks the best. But it is tricky switching between all the different types of gear. I love sailing slalom but when you go from big slalom gear one day down to wave gear the next it all feels very different. Freestyling after wave sailing and slaloming feels so strange. The hard thing between those disciplines or juggling them is getting used to the gear again. If you have sailed slalom for a week it takes two or three days to find your rhythm at freestyling. The other girls that just do freestyle are able to keep the momentum going.
JC: Oh no, we are running on empty, how long ‘til the next servo? How do you like your current freestyle setup?
SQ: JC the van is wavering all over the road plus we just passed a servo two minutes ago, we will have to turn round!
JC: OK ill chuck a ‘U-ey’!
SQ: At the moment my ideal board is short and wide with a thick tail. The width makes it very stable but because it is short you can go for the air moves and have control in the air. Because the tail is fat you can go for double popping moves. For the moves that we are required to do in today’s competitions the Starboards Flares are very good. The sail I use for freestyle is the Neil Pryde Wizard and I think it works perfectly for all the power moves. It is a very neutral sail the moment you initiate a manoeuvre and I like the way it works on my Flare.