5 Windsurfing legends

Windsurfing is a noble, self-sacrificing sport that requires a lot of effort and personal work, but it also depends on an external factor that cannot be controlled: the wind. This is why it is likely that windsurfing is not the most popular sport within nautical activities.

Windsurfing has legends that have marked a before and after in the history of the sport and that give face and image to this practice that extends throughout the planet.

Here are five windsurfers you should know if you like the sport and stories of overcoming yourself:

Robby Naish

Robby Naish was born in La Jolla, San Diego, California in 1963, but has spent his entire life in the surfing city of Hawaii. Naish started windsurfing when he was only 11 years old and little by little he became a true lover of the sea and the wind.

At the age of 13, he had already proclaimed himself windsurfing world champion, crowning himself as the youngest person to achieve a title of these characteristics in this sport. It should be noted that at that time windsurfing was not as popular as it is now and the young Naish did not have as much competition as he might have found today.

His life has been closely linked to windsurfing and his record consists of 24 world titles and more than 150 victories in his competitions, for which he has been named an ambassador of the sport and has also been included in the Salón de la Windsurfing Fame from the Professional Windsurfing Association (PWA-Hall of Fame of Windsurfing). In addition, his record is also credited with being the first windsurfer to ride gigantic waves and ride part of a tube, a maneuver that is normally the province of surfers.

Although Windsurfing is the first thing he did and is the sport most associated with this legend, he also has a Kitesurfing world champion title and has been one of the pioneers in the creation and development of SUP. The meaning of the acronym SUP is "Stand Up Paddle", and its practice consists mainly of standing up on a large board and rowing with an oar on it.

In addition to being an athlete, father and champion, Naish is an entrepreneur. In 1995 he created Naish Sails Hawaii, a business dedicated to the design and production of Windsurfing, Kitesurfing and SUP equipment.

At the end of the 90s Naish left the field of Windsurfing competition and decided to focus on Kitesurfing.

Daida Ruano

Daida Ruano, also called: “the queen of the well” was born in 1977 in the city of Pozo Izquierdo, in Gran Canaria. One of the most peculiar characteristics of this windsurfer is that she is always accompanied by her twin, Iballa Ruano, also a professional windsurfer. They are rivals in the water and sisters and friends out of it.

The Ruano twins began competing in 1995, at the age of 17, when a neighbor of theirs left them an initiation board. They began to practice completely self-taught, watching other windsurfers on the beach, reading magazines and doing trial and error. Still, two years later, they were already competing.

Today the sisters are considered among the best athletes both nationally and internationally.

Daida is an 18-time windsurfing and has been crowned the first woman in the history of windsurfing to participate in the World Cup in Gran Canaria. In addition, she is the windsurfer who has won the most times in the Well test, in the PWA world circuit, both in the women's and men's sections.

Effort and ambition have always marked the trajectory of the twins, but above all that of Daida, who returned to compete, to win, and to ride the toughest wave of her career after having faced cancer. A few months after beating her illness, she came second in the 2013 surfing world championships.

La Reina del Pozo also has a second passion: physiotherapy. She combines her career as a doctor and as a windsurfer in equal parts.

Bjorn Dunkerbeck

Björn Dunkerbeck is another of the windsurfers who has been crowned with the role of ambassador of windsurfing. He was born in 1969, in Denmark, but moved with his family to Gran Canaria when he was still little. Growing up in one of the places where most surfing is practiced was one of the causes of his growing and unstoppable passion for the sea that began when he was a child.

Björn is also the athlete with the most titles in history, as we find in his record that he has obtained the title of windsurfing world champion 42 times, in addition, King Juan Carlos awarded him the Gold Medal of Merit Sports. Another interesting fact about this windsurfer is that he hosts more than 105 PWA titles. On the other hand, he is also listed as the fastest athlete in the ocean, since he reached a speed of 82km/h in a competition.

After retiring from professional competition, Dunkerbec began training young windsurfers and became a distributor for the fashion label CAMP DAVID & SOCCX. In addition, he has a surf shop in the Canary Islands. He is an organizer of windsurfing and SUP events and spends a lot of time training his son Liam, who also shows promise as a professional windsurfer.

Eduardo Bellini

This Mallorcan windsurfer was born in Puerto Pollensa in 1966. His father was a great fan of water sports, so since he was a child, Bellini was surrounded by the sea and everything it had to offer.

At the age of 10 he already tried windsurfing, and at 17 he was already crowned runner-up in Europe. A year later, Bellini represented Spain at the Los Angeles Olympic Games. He finished in 11th position, but for the athlete to have reached the age of 18 it was an achievement for which to be eternally proud and grateful. In 1984 Eduardo decided to leave the Olympic competition and focus on sport understood in another way.

Throughout his professional career, he has obtained the title of Champion of Spain 34 times and participated on numerous occasions in the World Cup. He also stood out for his achievements in speed modalities, being crowned with a third world position in 1997 and a second position in 1999.

This athlete was also attracted to Kitesurfing, and was one of the greatest pioneers of its practice in Spain, and also a great influence for those who started Kitesurfing after seeing him. In addition to practicing this sport and combining it with the professional practice of Windsurfing, he focused it on the business field. In 2001 he opened the first store in Spain, Kitesurfing Pro-Center, in Tarifa, aimed at producing and distributing Kitesurfing material. In addition, Bellini has a surfshop, a Kitesurf school and a casual fashion clothing store.

Sarah Quita Offringa

The story of this freestyle world champion begins when she is 9 years old. Her parents raised her in the philosophy of sport as a way of life and Sarah practiced everything from dance to karate. At that time the family lived on the island of Aruba and she and her brother started windsurfing. At first, Quita put this sport aside because she did not feel comfortable carrying such heavy equipment in the water, but luck and destiny played her cards well and today she is recognized as the queen of windsurfing.

Despite moving to Utrecht for studies, the Aruban woman continued to travel in search of the sea, the wind and the waves, and in 2018 she won first place in the Fuerteventura Windsurfing and Kitesurfing Freestyle World Championship , an achievement that was repeated a year later in the same championship, thus consecrating 12 world titles under his name

These athletes have marked the trajectory of the windsurf and they continue to make history. We hope they have inspired you to break down barriers and achieve your goals, whether or not they are related to the sea.