to my surprise when everyone answered, “I want to have a
house and a family” and they thought I was joking when I
answered, “I want to live on a remote island with palm
trees and windsurf.” I wasn’t!
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I can say I knew from a very young age the lifestyle I
wanted to live. Since I started competing around the world
when I was 14 ,I understood the opportunity to have goals,
fight for them, trying to do better every day, whilst I was
seeing amazing places and meeting extraordinary people…
it was making me who I am. I was receiving lessons and
values that a ‘normal’ life wasn’t going to experience. I was
feeling grateful and knew the direction I wanted to go. Best
of all, I could live this through windsurfing!
You started competing very early…
I only sailed during the summer up to the age of 11. Then I
joined a kid's school/team in the Andalusian Federation – it
was awesome! There so many kids sailing, training,
competing and travelling together every weekend – I learnt
so much during those years! I started in Aloha Class, then
Mistral and finally Olympic class. Not much later, when I
was 15, I was already part of the Olympic team, training
super hard and travelling and competing all over the world.
It was a great experience. Meanwhile, I used to also sail in
Formula Windsurfing. After stopping competing in Olympic
class I started to be more interested about wave sailing.
What are your best results in
competition?
In Olympic Class, I won a couple of Spanish
Championships and the National Cup, I also finished
second in the Raceboard World Championship when I was
only 15! I won the Formula Windsurfing Nationals seven
times and finished third in the Europeans.
In 2010 I had a very bad injury to my foot and the doctors
told me I should forget about any sport. After a long
recovery I started doing some cruising around, just straight
lines, I couldn’t even think of wave sailing again. The
feeling of gliding and speed was so unreal and I re-started
windsurfing with more motivation than ever! Since I
couldn’t wave sail, I started doing a lot of slalom and
freeriding. This took me a few months later to compete in
the nationals and to the beginning of six years of slalom
adventures around the world! In slalom I won the Nationals
five times and finished fourth overall in the PWA World Tour
of 2014 and second in the 2016 IFCA Slalom Worlds.
Windsurfing is a very complex and technique sport, which
can be extreme giving you an adrenaline rush! The
complexity of the sport is so limitless that you can windsurf
all your life and always keep learning – this is what makes
it so addictive. Being an outdoor sport where you see life
from a different perspective (the ocean) is another of its
qualities and on top of it, it is also beautiful and attractive
to watch! So yes, I knew that I wanted to make windsurf
my way of life.
How did you make it happen?
When I was competing in Olympic class it was easy and
organized with budgets from the federation or government
to cover the costs of the trips, etc.
When I moved away from Olympic windsurfing, it was
harder to find support. I was winning all the nationals in
formula, which helped me to get some boards (Starboard),
but that didn’t last long. Then Renato Morlotti offered me a
place in the Gun Sails team. I couldn’t believe it! After 11
years competing with their support, with the help of Wet
Tarifa I had the chance to move to Fanatic boards. That
changed everything. I am in the SUP and Windsurfing
Fanatic International teams and besides results in
competitions, they also like my articles about trips and
want me to do more – it is a dream come true – surfing
and creating travel articles! After another year, I also
moved to North Sails, now DUOTONE, the sponsor of my
brothers when I was a kid… I feel blessed to have the
chance to use the best gear and be part of such a great
team, I am super proud of all my team mates!
Despite what doctors said, my foot was feeling strong, so I
started wave sailing again! I had a great result in the PWA
Aloha Classic in Hawaii in 2014, finishing in sixth place, I
was so happy about that! The level of competition was very
high and all the local girls were there! In Peru, I also
finished second in the Pacasmayo Classic! During 2018, I
had my best wave sailing results so far, finishing fifth at the
PWA in Morocco, winning Chile and Baja IWT, fifth at the
Aloha Classic and finishing second overall at the IWT.
When did you decide to make it your
way of life?
When I was around 12 our school teacher ‘Pepi’ asked my
class what we wanted to be when we grow up. I remember
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