SIMPLY THE BEST: WHAT DO THE PRO'S LOVE ABOUT WINDSURFING!SIMPLY THE BEST:Whether its your first time getting planing, nailing a new move, winning a heat or overtaking your best mate, the sport of windsurfing offers so many magical experiences for all levels. Join us as we hear from a selection of sailors as they recount their personal best moments where each ride echoes tales of glory and so many moments that are simply the best!Words: Robby Swift, Nik Baker, Oda Brdholt, Blanca Alabau & Matteo Iachino // Photos: John Carter & Carter / pwaworldtour.com / Fish Bowl Diaries and Valerie Mouren.ROBBY SWIFT MOMENTS YOU DONT FORGET I have quite a few Simply the Bests. Windsurfing just gives you so many moments and they are all different. I still remember, somehow, the first time I got planing at the tender age of eight. I remember sitting down in the car daydreaming about the feeling of the board coming up out of the water and getting on the fin. Since the early days it has progressed a bit and the limits of Simply the Best! keep getting stretched.WINNING AN EVENT Another amazing moment was the moment when I won the PWA Freestyle in Fuerteventura. Back then it was such a hard event, where we used to do four dingle eliminations. I won the first two and got into the final of the third one and when I won that, I already knew I had won the event without even having to do the contest the next day. The feeling of joy, relief, incredulity, was just incredible. At that point I was only 19 and I thought I was going to win a bunch more events, but sadly, it still hasnt repeated itself with a couple of third places being the best individual event results I have achieved. Strangely enough, after all these years, even just hearing that I have passed a heat still brings goosebumps to my skin and makes me feel ecstatic.PEAHI Jaws is special because there is just so much water moving around and it goes so fast. Its hard to even catch the wave, then you have to hope that you are in the right position on the wave, not too deep, or you risk getting completely mowed down when you drop in. Once you are on the wave though, its so smooth, it is kind of surreal. I love the feeling of the endless drop and then laying into a bottom turn simply as hard as you possibly can, being inside the wave so deep that you think you will never make it out again onto the shoulder, and then just squeaking past the giant whitewater to do a turn before repeating it all over again. Its a crazy experience.LANDING NEW MOVES Landing moves is so rewarding because it can take months or even years to land something for the first time. The pushloop forward is one that springs to mind. There are rarely days on Maui where you can even go for a push forward as you need really strong wind and a good sized, steep wave. And when you do get those days, a lot of the time, its extremely windy and very gusty and scary to even do a backloop, so you really have to face your fears and say I am going to do this today and just go out and do it. Even on those days, you probably get two or three chances maximum to actually do one of them and when it goes right, the feeling is quite incredible. I remember the one I did in the Red Bull Storm Chase in Ireland like it was yesterday. We had been having a judging meeting on the beach before and I was asking if you would get points for a pushloop forward and a pushloop tabletop forward as if they were different moves and everyone laughed at me and teased me: You really think you are going to even try a pushloop forward? It really fired me up to go and try it and I think I did one literally on the first run out. Still to this day, it remains the highest and most perfect one I have ever done too. It was quite surreal to have overcome the massive amounts of fear that were going through my body and actually be able to pull that off in those conditions.BEST DAY EVER TIME AND TIME AGAIN All in all, there are so many best days ever. If you ask my wife, I come home probably twice or three times a month in the winter saying, That was the best day ever and she just laughs at me, but it really is. You get better and better at sailing, you have more experience and knowledge of what you would like to, and are able to do, and then when you get conditions to do it, its such a surprise that it feels amazing and the fact that you are now better than you ever were before at windsurfing makes it the best day ever. So dont get surprised if you hear me saying that over and over in the future as its true!NIK BAKER 1999 ALOHA CLASSICMy best experience and memory in windsurfing was winning the Aloha Classic in 1999 without a doubt. A kid from Shoreham, West Sussex doesnt get to win the Aloha especially against his lifelong hero Robby Naish. I had dreamt of this day all my windsurf life. I watched all the great Aloha videos over the years and played out the scenario in my head many times, but to go through the emotions of getting to the finals in the first elimination and win it was amazing enough. However, this was then followed by three or four days of not sleeping and watching the double elimination roll out all the way to the final day where I had to compete against Robby in the double elimination finals. It was light, tricky and mast high. Robby had already sailed a few heats and was in tune with the conditions and was sailing well on his big kit as the wind was really light. Robby beat me in the first final, while I got my head around the conditions, so it was down to the last attempt. I had been here before when I won the ONeill single elimination in 1995, but I damaged some ligaments in my knee while practising and waiting for the double to play out and ended up losing the finals of the double to Bjrn [Dunkerbeck] to make him the first European to win a Hawaiian wave event and this really annoyed me, I can tell you.A STRESSFUL AFFAIR So, imagine my mental stress during this time. I had not slept for three nights, which added to my mental state, it was light with big surf, so I launched on my 5.3m with my 71L wave board (which is strapped to my office roof) that was 201/4 inch wide, while Robby was on a 23 wide board. He rode straight out and got upwind to Middles and was riding wave after wave. It took me ages to get out during this 17-minute heat. I only got two waves, which is all we needed, but on my second and last wave I remember thinking this is all have to work with? I couldnt afford to take it easy. I needed to give it my all and if I went down, I decided I was at least going for it. I had a great wave and managed some great turns, so I was relatively happy. I got to the beach and Jason [Polakow] and Ant [Baker] said I had done enough, but with only two waves to my name, I was really unsure. After all, it was Robby Naish I was competing against in Maui at Hookipa, it doesnt get more surreal than that. There were seven judges and I won on six sheets, much to my amazement. Robby was a friend but also my hero and I had a funny feeling of guilt that I had beaten him. Fortunately, this passed and I dont think I have ever come down from that win lol.ODA BRDHOLT FIRST TIME PLANINGThere are so many amazing moments in windsurfing! But the best feeling ever was when I first got planing! I was a total beginner and the wind was pretty bad. After a light wind session I packed up ready to go home, maybe slightly disappointed with the conditions. Then suddenly a little storm came through! Out of nowhere it got windy! My friend ran to the beach with his gear and shouted out, dont go, rig again and lets sail.TO RE-RIG OR NOT? THAT IS THE QUESTIONAs I was a beginner, I was not a very fast rigger! I was contemplating if I should take the moment and rig up all over again after finally packing up. But watching my friend blasting on the water changed my mind fast. I also got surprised how fast I suddenly could rig when I was in a rush. It was not clear if the storm would pass quickly or not, so I had no time to lose. I did rig up again and boom that was my first time I ever got planing. That feeling of sailing fast on top of the water with limited control is a feeling I will never forget! I never ever felt so alive and free! My friend and I had a blast! It was just a special day. I am sure it was cloudy, stormy and rainy, but at that point my home spot felt like a total paradise! From that day I have been addicted to windsurfing and never looked back!UNLOCKING NEW MOVES AND PROGRESSIONLater as you progress in windsurfing, this feeling comes back, but in a different way. Landing a new move I have been training for a while is simply the best feeling ever. I think landing my first burner in Bonaire was a game changer for me! At that time, I had only seen Sarah-Quita Offringa landing them out of the women sailors so it was cool to be the second girl in the world landing the burner. From that moment I think we helped raised the womens level in freestyle with Maaike Huvermann. Sarah-Quita had raised the standards for years already with power moves and we did our best to help show that more girls can do it too!COMEBACK COMPLETEI also need to mention coming back from my foot injury last year and making it on the podium was super emotional and I felt so grateful for the process and being back sailing the way. It was then even better to go one place better this year [Womens PWA Freestyle Vice-World Champion]. Our mind is always stronger than we think especially when we really want something badly enough, so to complete my comeback from that injury was very satisfying.BLANCA ALABAUITS A KIND OF MAGICThe feeling of windsurfing is something special and magical. I come from a city far from the sea, but my passion for windsurfing helped my family to move to paradise! Tarifa was a new home for all of us and actually changed our way of living.A DIFFERENT WORLDIts a different world where the happiness for me is coming from the feeling of riding a big wave the adrenaline of entering the water in a new rocky spot and to go so fast down a wave is very exhilarating.BUTTERFLY EFFECT I am competing on the PWA because I love everything about the competitive side of the sport. The butterflies from the minute before the start, a tight gybe or the last 50 metres down to the finish line. Losing is a hard feeling also, but I feel a fire inside me which motivates me to work even harder! I actually learn from losing because it is pushing me to be a better athlete (and thats my goal). But winning is another dimension peace, freedom and happiness are the words that better describe these magical moments. Winning with my boyfriend [Matteo Iachino] was something that I still cant describe I felt faint when they told Matteo he was the 2023 PWA Slalom World Champion.I feel really gratefulevery single day to live this hard and stressful life that we are living because what the sport gives back are simply the best moments!MATTEO IACHINO GAME CHANGERWindsurfingis my life. It is Simply the Best because it is a sport that changes you and your life. Once you feel what windsurfing is you can never go back and you will see the ocean and the wind under a completely different perspective. For me windsurfing is a lifestyle and it is divided in two faces. The competition side of racing in slalom and the soul of the sport itself, which for me is wave sailing.UNFORGETTABLE In competition the best feeling I ever had was probably when I managed to win my first PWA World Cup event in 2015 in Spain. I felt an incredible emotion I will never forget. I can put that on the same level as winning the two world titles I won until now. Winning is a feeling that makes you addicted, and once you feel it once, you want it more and more and there is no way back.FUN & FREEDOMThe other part of windsurfing is just pure fun and freedom. Travelling to a remote part of the world to enjoy some nice conditions, maybe with good friends, is something that you cannot really experience in any other sport. I will always remember an incredible session we had in New Caledonia in December 2019. We took the boat with Alex [Rouiz], Marion [Mortefon] and Valerie Mouren, the photographer! We headed to an outer reef and the conditions were just unbelievable. Well over mast high, glassy waves with side offshore winds and there we were in the middle of the ocean enjoying the spot to ourselves. We scored the session of a lifetime and the feeling while riding those waves wasjust amazing. The feeling that stays in your memory after having a day like that is something hard to describe and I am really grateful to be able to experience many of those moments!The post SIMPLY THE BEST: WHAT DO THE PROS LOVE ABOUT WINDSURFING! appeared first on Windsurf Magazine.