Pol - 1111

Justyna Sniady has become one of the world’s best women wave sailors despite being born in Warsaw, Poland, working a full time job and breaking 15 bones over years of trying to make it to the top. Her journey is an unconventional one, but testament to her strength of character and passion for windsurfing. Finn Mullen and John Carter caught up with the talented Polish sailor to find our more about her success.

- Finn Mullen & John Carter

WS – How did you get into windsurfing and where did you learn to sail?

JS - Windsurfing came into my life when my Dad’s friend got a hold of a second-hand windsurfer and tried it on a lake. We went with the whole family so my Dad could have a go. The gear was prehistoric, but my Dad got hooked there and then. After him, my brother tried and that was the turning point! Even though I was scared and not really keen, I always had to do everything my older brother did to prove I could also, even if I’m a girl and smaller. I guess here you have an answer to where my motivation comes from! I was 7 and managed to go along a bit. It wasn’t until I was 12 that another opportunity to try came up. I semi-planed for the first time and was hooked for life. From then onwards all my notebooks were covered in windsurfing drawings and my walls in windsurfing. Every summer I would go to the Polish seaside to try and get as much water time as possible. I used to camp in a tent at Puck Bay on the Hel Peninsula. Yes, I learned to windsurf in Hel haha. When I got better I did my windsurfing instructor course and worked there every summer. At some point, probably because I watched “About Time” too many times, I decided to drag the gear through the forest to the open season the other of the peninsula to try windsurfing in the waves of the Baltic Sea. I was on my own and terrified, even though the waves were not even head high. I absolutely loved the feeling of being in the waves and from that moment on the obsession has never stopped.

WS – Tell us about your move from Poland to Western Australia?