He Windsurf It is a noble sport, demanding and requiring a lot of effort and personal work, but it also depends on an external factor that cannot be controlled: the wind. This is why windsurfing is probably not the most popular sport among nautical activities.
Windsurfing has legends that have marked a before and after in the history of the sport and who put a 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 difficulties:
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 just 11 years old and gradually became a true lover of the sea and the wind.
At the age of 13, he was already crowned world windsurfing champion, becoming the youngest person to achieve such a title in this sport. It should be noted that at that time windsurfing was not as popular as it is now and young Naish did not have as much competition as he might have encountered today.
His life has been closely linked to windsurfing and his record includes 24 world titles and more than 150 victories in his competitions, for which he has been named an ambassador for the sport and has also been included in the Windsurfing Hall of Fame of the Professional Windsurfing Association (PWA). In addition, he is also credited with being the first windsurfer to ride gigantic waves and to ride part of a tube, a manoeuvre normally performed by surfers.
Although Windsurfing was the first thing he did and is the sport that this legend is most associated with, he also holds a world Kitesurfing title and has been one of the pioneers in the creation and development of SUP. The acronym SUP stands for “Stand Up Paddle”, and its practice consists mainly of standing on a large board and paddling on it with a paddle.
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.
In the late 90s Naish left the field of competition Windsurf and decided to devote himself to Kitesurfing.
Daida Ruano
Daida Ruano, also known as “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 outside of it.
The Ruano twins began competing in 1995, at the age of 17, when a neighbour lent them a beginner's board. They began to practice completely self-taught, watching other windsurfers on the beach, reading magazines and doing trial and error. Yet, two years later, they were already competing.
Today the sisters are considered among the best athletes both nationally and internationally.
Daida has been world champion 18 times. windsurf and has become the first woman in the history of windsurfing to participate in the Gran Canaria World Cup.She is also the windsurfer who has won the Pozo event the most times on the PWA world circuit, both in the women's and men's sections.
Hard work and ambition have always marked the twins' careers, but especially that of Daida, who returned to compete, win, and ride the toughest wave of her career after having faced cancer. A few months after beating her illness, she finished second in the 2013 world surfing championship.
The Queen of the Well 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 windsurfHe was born in 1969 in Denmark, but moved with his family to Gran Canaria when he was still a child. 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 most successful athlete in history, having won the world windsurfing championship 42 times, and was awarded the Gold Medal of Sporting Merit by King Juan Carlos. Another interesting fact about this windsurfer is that he holds more than 105 PWA titles. He is also considered the fastest athlete in the ocean, having reached a speed of 82km/h in a competition.
After retiring from professional competition, Dunkerbec began to train young windsurfers and became a distributor for the fashion brand CAMP DAVID & SOCCX. He also has a surf shop in the Canary Islands. He organises windsurfing and SUP events and spends a lot of time training his son Liam, who is also a promising professional windsurfer.
Eduardo Bellini
This Majorcan 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 tried windsurfing, and at 17 he was crowned runner-up in Europe. A year later, Bellini represented Spain at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles. He finished 11th, but for an athlete aged 18 it was an achievement for which he was eternally proud and grateful. In 1984 Eduardo decided to leave Olympic competition and concentrate on sport in a different way.
Throughout his professional career, he has won the Spanish Championship 34 times and participated in the World Cup on numerous occasions. He also stood out for his achievements in speed events, winning a third place in the world championship in 1997 and a second place 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 on those who began to practice Kitesurfing after seeing him. In addition to practicing this sport and combining it with the professional practice of Windsurfing, he focused on the business field. In 2001 he opened the first store in Spain, Kitesurfing Pro-Center, in Tarifa, aimed at producing and distributing Kitesurfing equipment. In addition, Bellini has a surfshop, a Kitesurfing school and a casual fashion clothing store.
Sarah Quita Offringa
The story of this world freestyle 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 began to practice 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 their cards well and today she is recognized as the queen of windsurfing.
Despite moving to Utrecht for study reasons, the Aruban continued to travel in search of the sea, the wind and the waves, and in 2018 she took first place in the freestyle world championship of Windsurfing and Kitesurfing in Fuerteventura, an achievement that was repeated a year later in the same championship, thus consecrating 12 world titles under her name.
These athletes have marked the trajectory of 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.
