2018 PWA Slalom Women’s Vice World Champion Lena Erdil suffered a serious foot injury last year in Pozo, taking her off the water for over 8 months. Lena talks us through her rehab, valuable life lessons learned and reflects on the art of risk-taking in her chosen profession.
The biggest fear of every athlete is to injure themselves, especially when it’s an injury that could impact you permanently. However, having been injury free my entire career, one of my biggest fears was to compete in the waves in Pozo. Competition always pushes you to your limits and with the hardcore conditions there I always saw it as a risk maybe not worth taking during an unfinished slalom season. German philosopher Volker Caysa says, “Sport is the school of dealing with risks. Sport as the art of risk-taking is the ability to choose dangers and uncertainties and turn them into calculated, manageable and justifiable ventures”. So with my slalom season having finished early and the 2018 PWA Vice-World Champion title in my pocket, I believed it was time to overcome my fears and travel to Pozo for the PWA wave event. In the spirit of sports philosophy, self-improvement and avid to take in all of life’s lessons I was ready to push my jumping skills to the next level in some wild conditions. Little did I know that this trip was going to have much bigger lessons to teach me.
OUCH
This story is from the Issue 386 - June 2019 edition of Windsurf.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the Issue 386 - June 2019 edition of Windsurf.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
New School
Slingshot’s windsurfing brand manager, Wyatt Miller, has noticed that kids are drawn to playing with wings and puts forward an interesting case as to why he thinks this could help entice them and others into windsurfing.
Changes
Wave sailor Flo Jung reflects on our changed world during his lockdown in Germany.
THE LAST WAVE
Lockdown stirred the creative juices of reader Björn Alfthan, who peers into the future to present a fictional story set in the wild waves of Norway, five years from now.
STILL IN THE GAME
After a horrific fracture in his leg from a crashed aerial in 2018, Alessio Stillrich is back! John Carter talks to the highflyer from Gran Canaria about his move to the Simmer team, recovering from injury and how he learned to windsurf in Gran Canaria!
MOVE ON UP - GET ON THE FRONT FOOT
This month we look at how our front foot weighting can affect and improve different aspects of our main windsurfing moves.
SOUTH' KIPA
Nik tweaking it over home waters.
A NEW NORMAL
On a trip to La Tranche-sur-Mer in France last year, Tris Best estimated over 80% of the windsurfers were foiling. This summer in Portland Harbour, foiling activity has increased dramatically too he reports. With the market offering plenty of choice to recreational windfoilers, our test team check out some of the latest foil offerings.
TACKING – THE SEQUEL
Having given you time to practice, Harty concludes his tacking series by critiquing various tacking options, including the carve tack, as well as offering solutions to common slip-ups.
‘NO VAPOUR TRAILS TO SCAR THE SKY' *
Realising we may be about to enter an extraordinary period in our lives, Harty decided to keep a windsurf-centric lockdown diary. Here are some of his choice excerpts.
REDEMPTION DAY!
Renowned for its windsurfing and variety of spots to sail at, Kimmerdige Bay is a wave sailing jewel on the south coast of England. Timo Mullen gives a guide to its shores while reflecting on why a recent session there was a reminder that there is no place like home!
