NICO'S VISION

Nico Prien has not only carved out a remarkable career on the water as a professional windsurfer, but he has also harnessed the power of digital media to inspire a global audience through his highly successful YouTube channel. John Carter caught up with Nico to find out how he juggles his roles as a professional athlete, YouTube content creator, shop owner, coach and PWA chairman!

- Nico Prien

EARLY DAYS

I am from a small village near Kiel in Germany. It is a two-minute drive from the Baltic Sea. Obviously, I went to school just like any normal kid from my area. I started windsurfing when I was about thirteen, my parents got me into it. My father was a windsurfer, probably one of the first in Germany. He stopped windsurfing for career and job reasons. One day they decided to let me try out windsurfing but I didn't have a great experience and didn't continue for a while. Luckily I was persuaded to give it another try and I managed to get planning within a few days of learning and immediately, I was hooked! From those sessions, I absolutely fell in love with windsurfing. So that was when I was thirteen. After that, I just tried to get on the water anytime I could. My parents supported me and took me to the beach as often as possible. They helped me rig and all that stuff. After I finished school, I decided to focus on windsurfing at least for a year just to try it out. The rest is history as they say.

RACING ROOTS

Most of the guys I sailed with in the early days were wave sailors. That is how I started. I saw them doing jumps and moves and that was where I wanted to be. As I progressed in windsurfing, I was able to use smaller boards. My first board was a wave freestyle board. So, in the beginning I was more of a wave sailor. At that time, I also went to the gym a lot. I started getting a bit taller and heavier. A lot of people told me I was just the right size for slalom racing. I started with BIC Techno which is a One Design class. I hated it, it wasn't for me. The boards were too big, and everything felt big and clumsy. Then I tried slalom sailing. I really enjoyed it, especially when I started racing. In the beginning I never trained, in my free time I would go wave sailing, and in competitions I would just turn up and race in the slalom.